Iran and Realpolitik
In the West people generally think of the Islamic world as very ideological, and indeed it is, but the world is complex and realpolitik plays a dominant role in the Muslim sphere just as it does everywhere else.
Syria, Goodbye to Diversity
Authoritarian but relatively secularist regimes in the Middle East have often been protectors of diversity. If they are destroyed, where will the region’s minorities go?
Rich Folks’ Politics
As Wasps and similar types decline as a percentage of the US population, things don’t look great for the Republican party. But its creation of safe seats through gerrymandering has facilitated a takeover by extremists, against whom the traditional ‘country club’ moderates seem to be helpless.
Beyond Belief
Gabriel García Márquez emerged explosively as a new international name in the 1960s with a novel stuffed with the baroque and the fantastic, which sought to translate the scope of America.
Neighbours
Germany and Russia have had a relationship over the centuries that has more often been businesslike than hostile. The business being conducted, however, and the deals that have been struck, have seldom much benefited the countries in between.
Keeping It Together
Belgium was saved from disintegration in the immediate postwar period by the pragmatism and farsightedness of its centrist political parties and their leaders. Do its politicians still retain those qualities?
Understanding the Serbs
David Ralph’s recent essay on the war in Bosnia merely added to the mountain of incomprehension that British journalists raised about the region’s war.
FIGHTING CORRUPTION
Developed Western states have a multitude of interests in Africa and the Middle East and balancing human rights concerns with other economic, ecological and political interests will never be easy.
SYRIA’S UPRISING
Concord between various ethnic groups in Syria appeared evident until acts of obscene violence began to be carried out by both the regime and anti-regime forces. But few people in the future will want to live alongside those they suspect of destroying their homes and families.
LETTER FROM PHILADELPHIA
The Republicans are an alliance of the super-rich and degree-less whites, topped with an upper crust of hypercapitalists, a misalliance cemented by pan-Protestant evangelism.