The “war on terror” launched in response to the crime of 9/11 signalled the decline of American and western power and marked the emergence of a multipolar global landscape. The challenge now is to work out a politics of mutual recognition that meets the permanent reality of intertwined human fate,
The evidence of Nelson Mandela’s membership of the South African Communist Party in the early 1960s is clear. But what needs to be reassessed in light of it? A study of the precise chronology of Mandela’s activism and thinking at the time suggests an answer, says Tom Lodge, author of “Mandela: A C
There is intense rethinking in the Pentagon about the “war on terror”. The outcome of the Libyan conflict will reinforce its principal trends.
The student movement convulsing Chile is aiming for social inclusion and reform of the model that improved the lives of millions in the 1990s. It should be seen in its own terms and not as a mere outpost of a global trend, says Patricio Navia.
Underlining a sea change in their relationship, India and Bangladesh foster ties during prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka. Turkey-Israel relations reach a new low as Ankara suspends defence industry relations. US and Pakistan praise arrest of al-Qaeda operatives in Quetta while Tuareg
A decade’s war and a election drowned by violence are a tough legacy. Côte d’Ivoire’s president must be generous to overcome it, says Rinaldo Depagne.
The fate of Egypt across the centuries is indissolubly linked to the river which gives it life. Today, a range of problems - environmental, political, economic - threaten the provision and the quality of the Nile waters. They present another challenge for the young post-Mubarak order, says Vicken
The international response to the food crisis of 2011 is less energetic and coherent than during the last emergency, in 2008. Both economic understanding and political impetus need to be improved, says Simon Maxwell.
What are the principal lessons of the ten years of war since the 11 September 2001 attacks? Paul Rogers, whose first openDemocracy column was published a few days after 9/11, responds to three questions.
The intense Polish empathy with America of the days after 11 September 2001 drew on an enduring connection. But there are signs of change, says Adam Szostkiewicz.
All too often, states disproportionately apply the death penalty to the 'small fish' in drug trafficking organisations. That these people usually poor, often young and occasionally ignorant of the contents of their cargo does nothing to elicit mercy
The reaction to the attacks of 11 September 2001 included an instinctive veneration of their chief architect. Its deeper foundation is a regressive and widespread ethno-religious view of the world, says Sami Zubaida.
