What do Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning and the Steubenville hacker have in...
Expose injustice and pay the price.Bad things happen to whistleblowers right now. Last year, two high-school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, raped an unconscious sixteen-year-old girl over...
View ArticleWhy does the left find it so difficult to take a position on Syria?
It is now the responsibility of the left to support the Syrian people, but be critical friends, remaining true to their principles.The left in the West are confused and split over Syria. Some on the...
View ArticleFrom G8 to G20 to G-Zero: Why no one wants to take charge in the new global...
There are three big unfolding geopolitical stories: China’s rise, Middle East turmoil and the redesign of Europe. The three countries with most to lose from these trends are Britain, Japan and Israel....
View ArticleEgypt–Ethiopia crisis: “No Nile, No Egypt”
Long years of deadlock and bitter recrimination are now coming to a head as the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam threatens Egypt's water security.The long-running dispute between...
View Article"A direct blow to democracy": the switch-off of Greece's state broadcaster
After the closure of ERT, the country's political future hangs in the balance, writes Yiannis Baboulias.In a move that left the country speechless, the Greek government announced the closing of the...
View ArticleCan the Iranian regime survive yet more political cannibalism?
The upcoming elections in Iran will be neither free nor fair, says Trita Parsi, but people are still willing to consider voting to challenge the establishment.After the fraudulent “re-election” of...
View ArticleThe Democracy Project by David Graeber: The textual life of Occupy lives on
A lot of bad books have been written about Occupy, too, and what saves this from being one of them is its perspective.The Democracy Project: a History, a Crisis, a Movement David GraeberAllen Lane,...
View ArticleJulia Gillard "on the menu": Three cheers for a bit of in-your-face,...
The party fundraiser menu that offered to "serve up" parts of Australian PM Julia Gillard was offensive, no doubt about it. But it's refreshing to see some honest, in-your-face sexism for a change,...
View ArticleSmall island
As anti-Islamist violence erupted across Turkey, another threat to the ambitions of Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the rising tension between Christians and majority Muslims. The problem stands out on Halki,...
View ArticleAnswers to war
We have been fighting the war on drugs for 40 years at great cost. Yet sometimes we all feel that we have been aimlessly pedalling a stationary bicycle. You look to your right, you look to your left,...
View ArticleOn wiretaps and drone strikes, it’s time for liberals to accept that Obama is...
On questions of “US national security”, from wiretaps to Gitmo to drone strikes, Barack Obama has shown his thinking is even less unenlightened than that of the junior Bush. And liberals everywhere...
View ArticleLeader: No one wants to take charge in the “G-Zero” world
The need for global leadership has never been greater but ever fewer are prepared or in a position to provide it. After a decade of war, the United States is in retreat, preoccupied with domestic...
View ArticleThe Swedish riots: What really happened?
Inequality, not immigration, was what sparked the unrest.On the evening of Monday 13 May, police were called to an address in Husby, a suburb in north-west Stockholm, on accounts that a male occupant...
View ArticleInvestment in Blood by Frank Ledwidge: A devastating indictment of the utter,...
Frank Ledwidge, once a “justice adviser” in Britain’s para-colonial administration in Helmand, has produced a devastating indictment of Britain’s military intervention in southern Afghanistan. If those...
View ArticleThe women of Gezi Park are protesters, not pin-up girls
Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan wants to cast women as mothers, sisters and wives, and those who oppose him should be careful that their imagery doesn’t do the same. On 31 May in Taksim Square, a...
View ArticleThe Unwinding by George Packer: How America became like Walmart
An impressive piece of work – but not a happy one.The Unwinding: an Inner History of the New America George PackerFaber & Faber, 320pp, £20George Packer’s vivid account of the American invasion of...
View ArticleIsrael’s dilemma as the war intensifies
If Assad is removed, who will succeed him? Even if there is a viable successor, it is likely that the bloodshed will continue, with infighting between rebel groups and lots of scoresettling.The turmoil...
View ArticleWet, broke and ill in New York – but it’s good to see my old pal Razors
Nicholas Lezard's "Down and Out" column.So, here I am in New York, shivering and sweating with a lurgy in my old pal Razors’ apartment, digesting the news that, thanks to the reluctance of an accounts...
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Where did the colonial empires go to trade?
A stunning new infographic reveals the trade patterns of the great naval empires.Click to enlargeThere’s a jingoistic song that remains a faintly guilty pleasure for millions of Brits – "Rule...
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On Solid Ground: Photographing the displaced
A new exhibition captures the trauma of those forced to flee to survive. Rachel stands, hands at her waist, in front of her home – a makeshift shelter built of stones and straw and grey tarpaulin. She...
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