Halfway to a half of heaven

Four decades of the new women's movement

In 1968, feminists broke onto the male-dominated German Left with a well-aimed tomato and demands for anti-authoritarian day-care centres. Forty years on, Stefanie Ehmsen reviews German feminism's march through the institutions. [more]

From '68 to '89

What is the meaning of '68 almost twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall? In an East-West dialogue placing '68 in a European and global perspective, leading protagonists of events in eastern Europe converse with their western counterparts. [English version added] [more]

The global chessboard

The new cold war of Obama's adviser Zbigniew Brezinski

Barack Obama's main geostrategic adviser, the Cold Warrior Zbigniew Brzezinski, believes that if America is to remain a superpower, it must expand its influence in Eurasia and confront both Russia and China. [more]

Right of Berlusconi

Italy's fascists, hooligans, and radical Catholics

With Silvio Berlusconi's election victory, the Italian far-Right is once again in a position to influence parliamentary politics. Karin Priester surveys the ideological background of the far-right spectrum in Italy and the careers of its leading figures. [more]

The next bubble

Priming the markets for tomorrow's big crash

Former venture capitalist Eric Janszen analyzes the causes, dynamics, and consequences of speculative bubbles in historical perspective. After the crash of the New Economy and the so-called subprime crisis, which bubble will burst next? [more]

The dialectic of secularization

The opposition between "multiculturalism" and "Enlightenment fundamentalism" is misconceived, argues Jürgen Habermas. "The universalist claim of the political Enlightenment does not contradict the particularist sensibilities of a correctly understood multiculturalism." [Italian version added] [more]

Financial crisis and European ignorance

The global financial system is in deep crisis as recession dawns upon the US. Heiner Flassbeck, chief economist of UNCTAD, analyzes the dangers for Europe -- and the ignorance of European economists and politicians. [more]

The Putin regime

The managed transition from Putin to Medvedev conceals a necessary insight: that the principles of the Putin regime are fundamentally unsustainable, since they combine a nostalgic view of the past with purely cyclical economic successes. [more]

Legend of legality

From the Reichstag fire to the Nazi regime

After 75 years, the death sentence of the Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe has been officially abrogated. Dieter Deiseroth discusses the continuing significance of the theory of a "single perpetrator" with respect to the "legend of legality" it gave to the Nazi takeover of the German state. [more]

The Google empire

Internet users increasingly reveal private data on social networking platforms. Yet a great deal of information is also gathered for commercial purposes without users' consent. Google is at the forefront of the data-tracking business, writes Daniel Leisegang. [more]