Enclave with open borders

Just before the first local elections in Kosovo since the declaration of independence in February 2008, Frederik Steiner visited two out of the three communities in Kosovo with a Serbian majority. [more]

Whose war and whose honour?

Soldiers from the British and French colonies made a vital contribution to the Allied victory in the Second World War. So why, asks Charlotte Wiedemann, has the price they paid not been acknowledged? [more]

Pensions must pay off

As trust in stock markets falters, private pension insurance companies invest in the state. Money is moved from one pocket of the tax payer to another -- and the only ones to profit are the insurers. [more]

Sherwood Forest is everywhere

Defending what belongs to all of us

The management of common property is a social process with a different set of standards to that of the buyer-seller relationship. Yet both have one idea in common: the necessity of trust. [more]

Saturation, or Two limits of growth

The return of state capitalism under the name of "Keynsianism" is a con, writes Karl Georg Zinn. So-called "stimulus packages" can't do much about the permanent economic weakness and accompanying mass unemployment that Keynes predicted. [more]

Myths of migration

Although the EU cannot keep people from sticking to their West African traditions of mobility, EU member-states apply every possible means to achieve their aim: to prevent Africans from entering the EU, writes Charlotte Wiedemann. [more]

The motorway of national corruption

An Albanian journey from Pristina to Tirana

The Albanian half of a new motorway that will run from Pristina to Tirana is almost complete. Great for relations between Albania and Kosovo, yet the financing of the motorway is controversial. [more]

Killing and other talents

What remains of Darwin

"Evolution is a process without aim, sense or end". Bruno Preisendörfer on the fatal consequences of our need to find images and metaphors for scientific theories. [more]

Workplace border

Smuggling, the informal sector

In parts of Poland, smuggling is taking the place of the non-existent social benefits, Mathias Wagner writes, and tells the story of his smuggling trip across the Polish-Russian border. [more]

The small change of participation

Being a citizen in Africa

African democracies are usually based on local elites, who are estranged from the people and their living conditions. Practised democracy cannot be found in governments and parliaments, but in communities. [more]

The sick man of Europe

Greece will be affected by the financial crisis more heavily than most other EU countries, writes Niels Kadritzke. Among the reasons are an enormous budget deficit and a major crisis of confidence between state and society. [more]

The red carpet

Communication and drug terrorism in Mexico

Drug trafficking, corruption, lack of freedom of expression, and excessive violence characterize Mexico today, writes Juan Villoro. "Eight years after the democratic shift of government, it is a land of blood and lead." [more]

The crisis, money, and us

The debate about managerial bonuses obscures the real problem: that income levels are fixed to debt and not to performance. There must be a return to the regulated capitalism of the old European variety, argues Heiner Ganssmann. [more]

The children of the strawberry pickers

Romanian migrant workers hope to give their children the chance of a better life. Yet their absence from home is having a negative psychological effect on those in whose interests they are acting. [more]

Art for hedgefunds

The rules according to which art and finance functioned used to differ. Today, they have become indistinguishable to an outsider. However, a limit resides in the rules of art itself, writes Sighard Neckel. [more]

Cyprus - Kypros or Kibris or both?

Greek and Turkish Cyprus are to re-open negotiations on 3 September. But in spite of their declared aim to agree a bi-zonal federation by spring 2009, the political crisis in Turkey may undermine their efforts to reunify their common homeland. [more]

We, the President

A report from Slovenia after six months of EU presidency

As EU president, Slovenia has done a decent job as mediator between the Balkans and the West over the Kosovo question, finds Boris Cizej. "All in all, politics doesn't happen only under the spotlight of a global audience. It's more a steady disentangling of problems." [more]

From pacifism to violence and back again

The failure of the German extra-parliamentary opposition to reflect upon its gradual slide towards violence led to the leftwing terrorism of the 1970s, argues Christian Semler. It was only with the ecological movement that pacifism returned to the agenda. [more]

No maths and no water in Stolipinovo

The jobs boom in Bulgaria has left the Roma behind

Roma in southeastern Europe are caught in the vicious cycle of discrimination and exclusion. While there is general agreement that socio-economic integration of Roma is desirable, neither the EU commission nor national governments appear willing to implement the necessary strategies. [more]

Captain America died last year

The long-serving American comic superhero was killed off last year in a bloody civil war. It's typical of a new introspection in US pop culture that's leaving fans throughout the rest of the world wondering what to think, writes novelist Dietmar Dath. [more]

A slice of the pie for everyone

On the recent wave of strikes in Poland

The recent miners' strike in Budryk, Poland, suggested that the wave of industrial actions that began during the Kaczynski regime will not spare Donald Tusk either. Despite a negative media response, Polish strikers are receiving broad public support, writes Dariusz Zalega. [more]

Scars on my memory

On Algeria's literary ancestors and the choice of language

"Thanks to the narrative art that my sisters learned to preserve over generations, I found my way back to an inner unity, so that the original note began stir at the centre of the French language in which I was writing. Thus reconciled to myself, I could swim completely freely." [more]

Headscarves, generals, and Turkish democracy

The Turkish government's move to lift the ban on headscarves in universities is part of an ongoing discussion on a new constitution that has the potential to decide the country's future. It could dramatically increase Turkey's chances of becoming a member of the EU. [more]

Independence for Kosovo: The domino effect

An end to Balkan nation states

Whether Kosovo's newly declared independence will set a precedent depends on national minorities in the region seeing it as such. If they do, a domino effect may have been set in motion that the international community will be powerless to halt. [more]

Persons of no consequence

The return of class consciousness as prejudice

The collapse of the welfare state shows that the working class has disappeared but not the people who once counted to it. All face various degrees of class-based disadvantage, from concealed discrimination to open stigmatization. [more]

How to pay for a free press

In a media world with one eye on the bottom line and the other on the official line, it's getting harder to publish or broadcast anything that doesn't promise huge sales and attendant profits, and that doesn't say or show what is approved. But it's still possible. [more]

The sun sets early on the American Century

The "American Century" only began 60 years ago. But it seems already to be over, with the disaster of Iraq forcing some of the United States' ruling elites to realize that its hegemony has been severely weakened. [more]

Venezuela: the symbolic and the real revolution

Achievements, shortcomings, challenges

The Venezuelan government has not achieved the change of economic paradigm it promised. Measures against poverty do not affect structural income inequality, while improvements in political participation operate within the logic of an authoritarian political system. [more]

High finance - a game of risk

The current financial crisis, originating from US credit markets, is just the latest in the bad track record of economic liberalization, which never seems to learn from constantly recurring disasters. [more]

Scotophobia

Even before Gordon Brown became UK prime minister, London-based media had been trumpeting a rise of Scotophobia, a waning sense of Britishness, and the imminent emancipation of the Scots. Although these are misconceptions, Neal Ascherson explains what it would take to break up the 300-year union. [more]

Georgia: Too little change

In Georgia, an elite of Rose Revolutionaries is working to impose social engineering on the rest of society. Just how democratic are Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili's "top-down" social transformations? [more]

The long wait in Morocco

For migrants waiting in Morocco to enter Europe, the situation is bleak. It will take more than asylum status and the Geneva Convention to solve Africa's human rights problems, writes Sophie Boukhari. [more]

Was 1967 a victory too far for Israel?

The Six Day War transformed Israel from relative poverty into a regional military superpower. It also began an occupation which has been slowly destroying the country’s meaning and identity -- and may yet dissolve its existence. [more]

1967: a war of miscalculation and misjudgment

Few foresaw the 1967 war and none guessed that it would create a profound upheaval across the Middle East. The defeat of Egypt's Nasser and of Arab nationalism led to the emergence of political Islam and encouraged Palestinian resistance. [more]

Global with mop and broom

Why our demand for cosmobile household help is a political matter

Domestic workers have become globally networked and are in transit worldwide. So should we have a guilty conscience if we employ a cleaning lady? Personal guilt is not the point, says Maria S. Rerrich. [more]

Marseille: Upgrades and degradation

Gentrification has charmed its way into European cities for the past 35 years and more, promising rehabilitation of buildings and cityscapes, new cultural venues, shops and restaurants, and of course big profits for developers. But what happened to the real citizens? [more]

Can we say what we want?

The action brought by Islamic groups against the French satirical paper "Charlie-Hebdo", after it reprinted the notorious Danish cartoons, recently fell through. Is free speech really in danger worldwide? [more]

France elects its monarch

When France goes to the polls, it will be the rare exception in Europe that a head of state with such powers is elected directly. But criticism of the institutions of the Fifth Republic is growing. Is it time to call up a constituent national assembly? [more]

The end of Chinese patience

Protests are becoming increasingly frequent and courageous in China. At the same time, leaders in Beijing are reacting more flexibly – as long as the Communist Party's monopoly on power is not threatened. [more]

Letter from India

Living the good life in booming India, one can almost forget social inequality, the conflict with Pakistan, and fundamentalist violence, reports Rupa Gulab. [more]

Before the walls of parliament

George Bush's volte-face on carbon emissions is just one sign that social protest movements have succeeded. So where does oppositional politics go now? [more]

Stalemate in Mexico

On a divided country and its discontented Left

In December 2006, Felipe Calderón was sworn in as Mexico's new conservative president. But with accusations of electoral fraud hanging over him, Calderón is the least-supported president in Mexico's history. [Hungarian version added] [more]

On the wrong track

At the end of 2006, relations between France and Rwanda went from bad to worse. France's attempts to connect members of Rwanda's current government with the 1994 genocide are off track, writes Colette Braeckman. [more]

Letter from Ljubljana

The editor of the Slovenian edition of "Le Monde diplomatique" finds that no news is not necessarily good news in a country afflicted by "lethargic hedonism". [more]

The London mouthpiece of the Saudis

In crisis situations the opinion of a few lead articles from newspapers under Saudi-American control is again and again marketed as the opinion of the majority of the Arab world. In this way an "imaginary Arab world" emerges, writes political scientist Mojammed El Oifi. [more]

No places left on the last flight

The middle class in the vulnerability zone

The job market is becoming ever more unstable for the middle class, who are finding that there's no place for them on the "last flight" out of the rising economic crisis. [more]

IKEA for the world

Things are going well for IKEA. Sales are better than ever and the furniture giant has found a booming market in China and Russia. But are its workers in places like India and Bulgaria benefiting from this success? [more]

Late awakening in hothouse China

China's economic boom is contributing significantly to global warming, which at its current rate will lead to severe problems for the region. Worried, Beijing is at last taking part in the Kyoto Agreement's "clean development mechanism". [more]

Corresponding crises in autumn 1956

In Budapest, the USSR insisted on Soviet ascendance -- in the Suez Crisis, the US established itself as postcolonial regulatory power. [more]

The necessary relation between here and there

"The border is an invitation to enjoy difference: it makes a pleasure of variety. When necessity and misery force people to violate borders, then that's just as scandalous as the reasons for their misery." [more]

Proud of the concrete

Rap romanticism's dream of escaping the suburbs goes hand in hand with "pride in the concrete". Youthful energy provokes institutional opression and sets in motion an inevitable mechanism of hate. [more]

Poland's populists

In Poland, like in Austria and the Netherlands, the coalition government includes far-right parties. The entry into parliament of small interest groups and the departure of freelancers and intellectuals has both weakened parliament and made it more representative. [more]

Silesia exports coal and brains

The Polish government is phasing out the traditional coal-mining industry in Silesia, adding to the mass unemployment caused by commercial transformation. Almost half of all students to graduate from higher education in Katowice and the surrounding area seek work elsewhere in the EU. [more]

The will to undemocratic power

Even before the events of 11 September 2001, the heads of state in the United States and Britain concentrated and consolidated executive power and tried to constrain judicial autonomy. Democracy in the West may now be more formal than real. [more]

The last immigrant

A fable

Following the mass deportation of North African Arabs, words start mysteriously disappearing from the French language, turning France into a nation of stutterers... [more]

Imported workers on the Internet

Workers providing services outsourced by Internet agencies are mostly from poor countries and being paid a pittance. Welcome to "webshoring", the newest form of imported labour. [more]

Powerlessness and escalation

Israel's attacks in Lebanon and Gaza are breaking international law and producing a new generation of enemies. [more]

Israel's ugly little empire

The recent Israeli incursions into the Gaza Strip could be the first indications of a plan to annex the large Jewish settlements in Palestine territory. That would prolong the war yet further, says Amos Elon. [more]

Serbian phantom pains

Macedonian independence will not be the last time the former Yugoslavia is re-ordered. Decisions on Kosovo and the Republika Srpska are still to come. If it is not to descend into crude nationalism, Serbia needs a European perspective. [more]

Dustbins emptied according to confession

The social divides in Northern Ireland between Catholics and Protestants are becoming increasingly entrenched. This doesn't bode well for the new joint government due to be elected soon. [more]

Visa for a journey to paradise

A Syrian Mujahid talks to journalist Maria A. Kalbazyk about his government-backed journey to Iraq to defend Arab soil against US invasion. And how he returned as the only survivor. [more]

Palestine: Hamas besieged

Israel’s incursion into Gaza, the arrest of Hamas ministers and legislators, and the financial embargo on the Palestinians show that Israel, with the United States, mean to provoke the collapse of the Hamas-led government. [more]

Africa says a quiet adieu to France

Africa is increasingly turning away from France. Why? The young, internationally educated African elite is interested in establishing a clear-cut relationship rather than seeing France hide its economic interests behind paternalist rhetoric. [more]

From a land of wonders to a state under construction

For Kurds in Turkey and in Iraq, US investment in Kurdistan is both a blessing and a burden, writes Ece Temelkuran. [more]

The emergence of the modern world

Europe's dominance in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, argues historian Christopher Alan Bayly, was based not only on industrialization and the development of nation-states with imperial scopes, but also, more importantly, on a combination of economic and political factors that did not coincide anywhere else at the time. [more]

Africa: Joining here with elsewhere

Africa's history is one of movement. It is connected with an "Afropolitanism" that has transcended rigid African nationalism through curiosity for the foreign and openness to hybridity. [more]

How can we remember what we do not know?

France's history wars

France's non-commemoration last year of the bicentennial of Napoleon's great victory at Austerlitz was a sign of national uncertainty about the role of history and its relationship to the state. [more]

Unwanted effects

The genetically engineered plants called upon most often by advocates of genetic engineering as justification for the contentious practice do not exist, say biologists Jacques Testart and Arnaud Apoteker. [more]

Pride and prejudice

Religions tend to suffer from humourlessness -- but that doesn't disentitle them to respect, says Tahar Ben Jelloun. [more]

How Belarus elects Lukashenko

Everyone knew that the presidential elections would be manipulated. However, many Belarusians hope that the last dictatorship in Europe will end soon. [more]

The nation as side effect of opposition

Belarusian national idenitity and the language question

The Russophile Lukashenko regime could be an historical opportunity for Belarus to develop a national identity in opposition. [more]

Division on the inside, pressure from the outside

Ukraine one year after the Orange Revolution

The outcome of the Ukrainian election on 26 March was decisive not only for the orientation of Ukraine, but also for Europe as a whole, says Philipp Ther. [more]

What is the European Left's stance on Hugo Chávez?

Although there is much for the European Left to approve of in the politics of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, it must avoid the socialist rituals of former international solidarity movements and recognize his most important achievement: allowing a diversity of grass-roots movements to develop unchecked. [more]

London is not Paris

The British model: Practical, durable, but by far not ideal

The British multicultural model could lead French republicanism out of its impasse, demonstrated by the rioting in November 2005. [more]

Neighbours under protection

Ten years after the Dayton Peace Accords, the EU is searching for a concept for the former Yugoslavian states. [more]

After Dayton

Bosnia is neither united nor stable

Bosnia-Herzegovina was declared a potential candidate country for EU accession on 25 November 2005. But which state does the EU want to negotiate with? [more]

On West-East mysticism and sadness caused by a higher power

Ernst Tugendhat's acceptance speech upon winning the Meister Eckhart Prize

A look at the anthropological roots of mysticism and religion: "What intrinsic part of human life underlies the need for religion; and what leads people time and again to mysticism?" [more]

Vacation from history

Ethnic cleansing as the Club Med experience

A golden beach, picturesque ruins, and no crowds: In Club Arziv in Israel you can "feel so far away, yet be so near". People who used to live here feel the same. [more]

At the margins of Europe

Russia and Turkey

November 2005 saw the opening of the monumental Blue Stream pipeline, which pumps natural gas from Russia across the Black Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean coast. Is a new Eurasian alliance forming at the margins of Europe? [more]

Aftermath of the Algerian War of Independence

Winners' and losers' asynchronous memories

On perceptions of the war in France and Algeria: "What we need today is a better understanding of our past -- but the power of old myths and new interests must not be underestimated." [more]

Subsidies against Africa

Although Africa has the qualitative ability to compete in the world cotton market, subsidies in America and Europe make it impossible for Africans to keep their prices low while still making a profit. [more]

Must we respect religiosity?

On questions of faith and the pride of the secular society

Secular society's "supermarket of faiths" principle appears from a religious standpoint to be indifferent and mistaken. On the basis for the respect between believer and non-believer that can prevent this tension becoming intolerance. [more]

Shadow-state Gasprom

Since 2001, rising oil prices have lent the Kremlin ever increasing confidence. Today, Russian oil concern Gasprom is the real Russian state, using its pipelines as an instrument of control over neighbouring countries. [more]

On Arab women who build ports

The old arts of navigation as guidance in the digital chaos

Many Arab intellectuals have lamented the absence of a clear vision for the future and blame this on the political indifference of the younger generation. Enter the new Arab woman: digitally clued up and financially astute. [more]

The will to control the bombs

Sixty years ago, the first atom bomb was dropped. Despite efforts to prevent the spread of these "weapons of mass destruction", today there are nine states that possess atomic weapons. [more]

Everyone is failing the victims

Aids and sexual violence in South Africa

The biggest human, social, and economic problem in South Africa today is the extremely high rate of Aids-related illnesses. This catastrophe is caused by men and made a social taboo, especially when sexual liberality is understood as a licence to rape women. [more]

The Arab Israelis and their inferior rights

Because Israel defines itself as a Jewish state, life for the large Palestinian minority is precarious. People of Arab origin have inferior rights and fewer economic chances. Only the 165 000 Bedouin are worse off. [more]

Democrats, clans, and apparatchiks

The revolt in Kyrgyzstan in March 2005 and the massacre in Andijan in Uzbekistan have led to very different developments. In Kyrgyzstan, it looks as though a civil society could develop from the chaos. In Uzbekistan, the old despotic regime could use the brutal suppression of insurgency to tighten its stranglehold. [more]

Mugabe's iron hand

Zimbabwe's government fights homelessness by tearing down houses

"Operation cleanup", begun in Zimbabwe in April 2005, is forcing hut-dwellers to dismantle their homes; the UN estimates around 2.4 million people have been affected so far. The pretext is urban renewal, but the real reasons are likely to be political: land will be re-allocated to Mugabe supporters in order to pre-empt a popular revolt. [more]

The reform is not taking place

US ambassador Bolton's amendments to the UN reform draft completely removed the millennium development goals. Now, other nations are withdrawing their support for the document. An overview. [more]

The years thereafter

The Left beyond Schröder, Fischer, and Lafontaine

The general election in Germany will decide the future of a fractious Left. A review of the last twenty-five years of German Social Democracy, and the prospects of a "Grand European Left". [more]

Everyone under control

On the cultivation of fear

"Under the pretext of an unpredictable danger, a worldwide security armada has formed, whose rapid growth arouses the suspicion that a new form of capitalism is evolving: the capitalism of fear." On the rise of the biometrics industry. [more]

Withdrawal from Gaza

Sharon's calculus and the settlers' protest

If a refusenik movement spreads among national-religious elements in the Israeli army, it will become difficult for the government to deploy troops for the evacuation of further settlements. Time will tell if Israel is facing its own Algeria. [more]

A black hole

On civil rights in the Arabian world

On the possibilites, or lack thereof, for improving civil rights in the Middle East as a result of recent events. [more]

Learning from Washington for once

The EU fails, but the monetary union doesn't take note

The European Union will not be able to survive its political and economic crisis as long as it remains conservative, dogmatic, and anti-democratic, writes Grahl. [more]

Wars over memories

The impossible: A common history of Kosovo

Albanian and Serbian nationalists alike assert an exclusive claim to Kosovo. A short history of the ongoing conflict from the Battle of Kosovo to the current Albanian independence movement. [more]

Turks at the gates of Brussels

Europe, Sèvres, and Kemalism

The eventual accession of Turkey to the European Union will depend a lot on how far the historical interdependence of Europe and Turkey is recognized. [more]

Every pensioner is their own next of kin

The neo-conservative plans of the Bush government

On the plans of President Bush to make the future pension accounts a component of his project of an "ownership society". [more]

Lebanon's democracy without democrats

Little remains of the revolutionary mood of the "cedar revolution" that followed the murder of Rafik Hariri in March. Meanwhile, fears grow that sectarianism is just what US foreign policy desires. [more]

Water as tradable asset

Private interests are over-represented in associations for global water management, which are effectively lobby groups for the construction and water industries. [more]

White elephants in the grey zone

China's unscrupulous affairs in Africa

On relations between China and Africa since the conference in Bandung. [more]

"Bow your head no longer, my brother"

The Asia-Africa conference in Bandung, 1955

The first conference between Asia and Africa occurred in 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia. No one there believed independence and the end of exploitation to be possible. This conference in April 1955 is now seen as the marker of the end of colonialism. [more]

Lebanon: a new playing field for agitators

On the current insecurities and tensions in Lebanon. [more]

The Iraqi insurgency: active and blind

David Baran and Mathieu Guidère uncover the effects of politics and the media on the armed insurgents in Iraq. [more]

Pipelines in permafrost

Russia delivers oil and gas. China, Japan, and Korea want as much of it as possible

A look at Putin's policies and the supply and demand of oil in the Far East. [more]

Poison with a bit of honey

The withdrawal from Gaza and the logic behind it

The death of Yasser Arafat and the re-election of President Bush have made peace in the Middle East imaginable, but has Ariel Sharon's decision to withdraw from Gaza helped in this peace process or hindered it? [more]

Follow us into space

Mars: Nasa invites conspiracy theories

Nasa and ESA have very different styles of publicizing their missions: Nasa brings the viewer with them into space, but ESA only shares its mission with the public after the fact. So why are there more conspiracy theories about Nasa than about ESA? [more]

Questions for Turkey

The Armenians, 1915

During World War I, over one million Armenians were killed in the Ottoman empire. Now demands are being made on the Turkish government to officially recognize the horror of these crimes. [more]

Outsourcing, the Iraq-experiment

From November-dossier mercenaries and private police. [more]

Changing perceptions

Arab women in the media

Digital television, not a liberal political revolution has improved the status of women in Arab television. [more]

The janjaweed militia in Sudan

The historical roots of the Darfur conflict. [more]

Anarchist outrages

The business of terror

Fear of terrorism has existed throughout the ages. [more]

Fighters for animal rights

Militant protestors' "Reign of Terror" [more]

Guerrillas of the resistance

The Spaniards who liberated Paris

France still keeps quiet about the role of foreign resistance during the liberation of Paris in 1944. [more]

The controversy about looted art

What would happen if the British Museum returned the Elgin Marbles? [more]

Syria surrounded

Syria is looking for ways out of the isolation. [more]

John Kerry, the enlightened hawk

Democratic defence policy for the United States

The pillars of John Kerry's foreign policy and the rise of the "New Democrats". [more]

When food grows faster

The GM debate is not only about the health risks -or benefits- of GM food but touches upon inequalities and trade distortions between the rich north and the developing world. [more]

The talk about sustainable development

Growth and development are not mutually dependent. [more]

Pakistan: a double game

How much longer can President Musharraf balance the US and the Islamists? [more]

Qatar: buying into a different future

Why it is more important for Qatar to be recognised by the Olympic committee than the UN.

[more]

Cyprus: saying no to the future

Greek chauvinism has put off any plans for reunification of the island once again. [more]

Iraq: a licence to loot the land

High-risk eldorado for US corporations

How new business and accounting regulations allow US companies to make a handsome profit in Iraq. [more]

New Europe and America

The American dream of Europe

Eastern Bloc countries clung to the illusion they could become full allies with the US. [more]

Calculation and madness

What differentiates mass murder from genocide? [more]

How Israel built the bomb

A special relationship

The release of Mordechai Vanunu has reignited questions surrounding Isreal's nuclear programme. [more]

The first Europeans of Tbilisi

Georgia after the revolution

Georgia is looking westwards. [more]

Shanghai privatized

Real estate speculations in Shanghai

Shanghai, China’s first global metropolis, is at the vanguard of social and economic transformation. But this hybrid of communism and capitalism has a major problem: it is demolishing districts in its rush skywards, displacing 2.5 million citizens in the process since 1990. The economic freedoms of the middle classes, who remain subservient to the political leadership, are feeding a culture of isolated individualism. [more]

An assessment of the UN-weapons inspections in Iraq

[more]

Algeria: A long and dirty war

Looking back at the extent of a nightmare. [more]

Russia and the church

How does the post-Jelzin Russia handle the separation between state and church? [more]

No money, no victory, no charisma

The Senegalese government gets caught up in its own contradictions. [more]

To the west and back

The Caucasus after the vote in Georgia

The problems for the new Georgian president are yet to come. [more]

Without rights in Guantanamo bay

A visit to the Guantanamo bay camp. [more]

The emir of southwest Afghanistan

Where reality clashes with timetables

In Afghanistan's far-flung regions, the "strong men" still rule. [more]

Security in Iraq

Can America pull out of Iraq by next year? [more]

Putin, Yukos and the elections in Russia

Patriots and oligarchs

What is behind the international community's outrage over the Yukos affair? [more]

What does it take to be a populist?

A political phenomenon

Does populism really simplify in order to seduce? [more]

Old and new Europe

Six months before the accession

In the wake of the Iraq war, attitudes towards Europe have changed in the old and the new member states. [more]

Facility 1391

Israel's Guantanamo

Away from the public eye, Israel maintains a secret prison. [more]

What the euro lacks

Could the euro eventually replace the dollar? [more]

Khrushchev, the Stalinist

The latest findings from the Russian archives. [more]

Between hammer and anvil

Georgia, Abchasia and the Russian Federation

Will Russia be able to strengthen its sphere of influence in the Caucasus? [more]

Cotton slump in Africa

Vital resource worthless in a glutted world

How to make African cotton more competitive for the world market. [more]

Egypt's air-conditioned Islam

Chat shows, Nashid groups and lite preaching.

How economic prosperity changes the parameters of religious life in Egypt. [more]

War of attrition between Palestinian factions

Dead end for the Palestinian resistance

After the failure of the second Intifada, which way forward? [more]

Once they come to love us, we will hate them

Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwean tragedy

In an article written just after the eviction of white Zimbabwean farmers from their land in 2003, Nobel Prize laureate Doris Lessing vividly describes how Robert Mugabe has driven his country into ruin. [more]

How Europe tells its own history

Notes from a journey through the old continent. [more]

Minority groups and the young Balkan states

The ethnic mix of the small nations in the young Balkan states remains precarious. [more]

Wars without legal boundaries

The International Criminal Court - a European project

How the EU should further the project of the International Criminal Court. [more]

The strong man of the Chaparé

Bolivia: Rise and Disorientation of a movement [more]

Freedom at a dear price

What do Iraqis think of having their country sold out to American and international investors? [more]

Europe's last wall is coming down

Before the accession: Cyprus

Cyprus' entry into the European Union is no utopia anymore. [more]

The thing about the oil

Are American oil companies really going to profit from the war in Iraq? [more]

The right time for Iraqologists

How well-founded is the knowledge amongst journalists and intelligence agents on Iraq? [more]

Israeli history lessons

Where did it all go wrong?

A closer look at Israel's occupation tactics and how settlers influence policymaking. [more]

The last days of Saddam Hussein

Report from Baghdad

With the war just on its way, how do the people in Iraq prepare for the time after? [more]

Vilnius between Ignalina and Potemkin

Countries about to join the European Union: Lithuania

How does Lithuania - one of the prime candidates of the EU-applicants - deal with the transformations that a membership will bring about? [more]

Kurdish Landscapes before the War

Hopes for autonomy in Iraq, Iran and Turkey

Will an US-attack against Iraq lead to an autonomous state for the Kurdes? [more]

Private security, colonial wars

Israeli security firms are turning their services into a lucrative export-business. [more]

Slightly Unreal

The Incredible Success Story of the Indian Novel

The Indian novel has become the newest literary vogue to grip the West. Pierre Lepape looks at just what makes these writers so intriguing. [more]

Italy one Year after Genoa

The Formation of the New European Left in Italy

The events of Genoa have sent shockwaves through Italy. One year on however, a newly formed left is back in force. [more]

Shopping and Prayer

After September 11th, not everything is different in the US

Andrea Böhm on America's new reality and the contradictory politics and public reactions in the aftermath of September 11th. [more]

The Bells of Justice

Address at the Porto Allegre Closing Ceremony

Four hundred years ago, a peasant in the area around Florence tolled the bells to declare the death of justice. José Saramago sees a parallel between that action and the growing movement for a different kind of globalisation. [more]

The Drug Trail

The opium war on Iran's borders

The opium trail from the Afghan poppy fields to the European heroin market runs through Iran - the country is fighting a doomed war against the smugglers on its Afghan border and international help is needed. [more]

Remember!

History and collective memory

Knowing our history can be a vital tool in understanding our presence - a tool, however, that can also be put to other, political or ideological uses. [more]

Power and religion

Political Islam

To avoid a "clash of civilizations", the Western perception of the "Islamic world" needs to differentiate between religion and each separate country with individual social and economic issues. [more]

Democracy at the Barricades

Genoa and Violence

Genoa marked an escalation of the attempts to criminalise the opponents of neo-liberal globalisation. Susan George says that the decisions made in Genoa clearly show that the hopes and demands of the demonstrators will not be recognised. [more]

The Mystery of van Gogh

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The optical illusion of progress

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Yizo Yizo

A disputed soap opera in South Africa

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The Copts: A question for Egypt

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The marketing of Liberty

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The battle for pills and patents

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Employment without Borders

Migration and State Sovereignity

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'Bloody' Gold versus 'Green' Gold in French-Guyana

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Middle East: The Faultline

Palestinian hopes in tatters

Processes towards a peace in the Middle East have repeatedly come to sharp ends in resurgent violence. Éric Rouleau looks at the point where the Oslo accord failed and the second intifada began. [more]

Muslim Brotherhood Divided

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War without Blood?

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Middle East holds its Breath

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South Africa After Mandela

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The Looters Internationale, Department Russia

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Mutants in the aquarium

Fish from the genlaboratory

Gentechnology turns playful. [more]

Die Wahrheit hinter der Steckdose

Strom aus Deutschland wird teurer. [more]

Frühling im Untergrund

Die sechste Generation des chinesischen Kinos

Die Untergrundszene von Filmemachern und ihre Porträts über soziale Randgruppen in China. [more]

Pjöngjang liegt nicht am Tigris

Nordkorea und USA im atomaren Gleichgewicht

Kann die Krise um Nordkorea auf dem Verhandlungswege beigelegt werden? [more]

Tütenwald und Fahrradhuhn

Von Marokko nach Ghana-Ein Afrikanisches Reisetagebuch

Afrika - Immer wieder faszinierend. Ein Reisetagebuch. [more]

Brain-Drain auf dem Gesundheitsmarkt

Fachkräfte verlassen die Entwicklungsländer

Frommel outlines the causes and worldwide implications of the brain drain in the health sector from developing countries to the first world. [more]