The political transformation and social drama of the 1989 revolutions in east-central Europe promised a decisive rupture with the past. But the perspective of two decades and of a global frame offers a more complex picture of this historic moment, says George Lawson.
The United States in the early 21st century is caught in the gap between a potent domestic sense of manifest destiny and a shifting global political reality. President Barack Obama embodies the ensuing dilemma, says Godfrey Hodgson.
The rise of the populist Tea Party movement is dominating the United States's mid-term election campaign. Yet its significance escapes the country's political and media class, says Godfrey Hodgson.
The much-recycled image of a region inhospitable to peace, human dignity and freedom has damaging effects in practice, say Foulath Hadid & Mishana Hosseinioun.
The rise of the Tea Party movement in the United States in the first twenty months of Barack Obama’s presidency is shaking the political establishment, an effect reinforced by the victories of its candidates in Republican Party primaries. But where has the movement come from, and what is its inner
Pakistan’s immense problems can begin to be solved only when powerful interests in Islamabad and Washington end their commitment to armed solutions, says Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed.
The result of the mid-term elections in the United States will reflect less the political calculations of many voters than their profound sense of disinheritance, says Godfrey Hodgson.
The entrenchment of inequality in the United States damages the economy, degrades politics and corrodes the American dream. A new reality is also an epic challenge of leadership, says Godfrey Hodgson.
A decade of wars has produced a strategic shift very different from what Washington and its allies intended - less towards unipolar order than the complexities of multipolar disorder. This poses a challenge to policy-makers and analysts alike, says Arshin Adib-Moghaddam.
Barack Obama’s appointment of David H Petraeus to lead the war against the Taliban highlights enduring tensions in the United States over the role of the military in its political life, says Godfrey Hodgson.
A number of different visions of China’s future as a leading world power are competing for public attention and influence. Among them are populist ideas that challenge Beijing’s official rhetoric about “building a harmonious world”, says William A Callahan.
The new chill between once close middle-eastern neighbours reflects both Ankara’s desire to chart a new course and structural changes in the region’s geopolitics. The outcome of both shifts remains open, says Kerem Oktem. (This article was first published on 10 December 2009)
