Blätter
Eurozine
Blätter
2011-02-02
Summary Blätter 2/2011
Ulrich Beck
Cooperation or failure
The existential crisis of the European Union
The Euro crisis has revealed a deep crack in the European Union. As it becomes obvious, in case of emergency, it is not the European institutions that decide on common fate, but the German chancellor and the French president. Ulrich Beck, professor for sociology at the University of Munich, confronts the European Union with their national shams -- and makes an argument for a determined strengthening of the EU.
Ned Brown
Democrats without confidence
The United States and the dreadful state of the Left
The victory of the Republicans in the congressional elections has underlined how much the governing Democrats have lost ground due to the obstructionism of the Republicans. The historian and lawyer Ned Brown examines how Bush's conservative offensive has forced the American Left into a defensive position. To be able to break the right wing hegemony, the Left would have to overcome the shock of the Bush-years and to address once again with passion the people.
Markus Holzinger
The dismantling of law
Ten years war on terrorism
The attacks of 09/11date back almost a decade, but the war on terrorism led by the West is continuing. The sociologist Markus Holzinger analyses the dismantling which our legal system has suffered from as a result. His assumption is: by the insertion of special units in an "asymmetric" war, illegal operations of secret services, complete lack of rights in the prison camps and selective killings, "Zones of Uncertainty" (Agamben) are systematically generated.
Axel Troost
The casino remains open
The regulation of the financial markets and its outcomes
After the outbreak of the worldwide financial crisis the heads of government of the G20 announced the re-regulation of the financial markets. The economist Axel Troost analyses the outcomes of the announced propositions -- from the dehydration of the tax havens and secretly acting banks to the strengthening of financial supervision and rules for equity capital and finally the securitizations, bonus payments and rating agencies. Will the too-big-to-fail-tigers now be pulled their teeth?
Elmar Altvater
Solar, solidary, socialistic
An answer to Klaus Lederer's critique of the draft program of the German Left Party (Linkspartei)
While the Left Party and the German media are conducting a bizarre debate about communism, the dispute about the content the program of the party continues. The co-writer of the draft program Elmar Altvater gives an answer to Klaus Lederer's critique in the last edition of the "Blaetter": Is anti-capitalism obsolete today? And how does the "socialism of the twentyfirst century" look like?
Saskia Sassen
The power of new information and communication technologies:
The two sides of the internet
The triumph of the information and communication technologies unsettles our common understanding of knowledge. Saskia Sassen, professor at the New York Columbia University, discusses the usage of the technological changes by the stakeholders of the global financial markets -- and reveals how the same technologies are able establish a new "online-activism".
Alexandra Sefft
The competition of catastrophies
The psychological wall between Israelis and Palestinians
Oslo, Hebron, Wye River, Taba, Geneva Initiative, Camp David or the Roadmap -- none of the peace negotiations since 1991 were successful. The publicist Alexandra Senfft asks for the psychological circumstances as causes for the failure of the peace talks. Her thesis: There is a culture of mutual ignorance, which is on both sides is based on an over-evaluation of the own victimhood. Only when this lopsidedness in the cognition of suffering is overcome by empathy, peace will become possible.
Thomas Maettig
Oil or democracy?
Nigeria: Africa's unsteady giant
While in Ivory Coast the presumed loser of the presidential election, Laurent Gbagbo, tries to stay in power, there are also forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in the African country with the highest population in April. The political scientist Thomas Maettig analyses the backgrounds of the current situation in post-colonial Nigeria, whose richness in oil is more a curse than a blessing for its population.