Politics
ECOLOGY
Environmentalism is a Humanism by Niccoló Milanese 
One of the most significant changes in behaviour associated with environmental
consciousness is the now pervasive regard for the provenance and
mode of production of the goods that we buy. With every product,
we are at least capable of asking where, how, under what conditions
and with what consequences was it produced, and take the answers
to those questions seriously. [subscribe]
FUTURE OF FEMINISM
Instead of fighting for equality on their own terms, women have been
forced into adapting themselves to a wombless, male world. Feminists have
also capitulated to the values of the libertarian playboy, which view women
as sexual objects to be used and discarded. It is no coincidence that the
Playboy Foundation has been one of the biggest financers of the ‘pro-choice’ movement. [more]
Portrait of a Heroine as a Young Woman by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The biggest obstacle that hinders Muslim women from leading dignified,
free lives is violence – physical, mental, and sexual – committed
by their close families. [subscribe]
AID & TRADE
The failure of the Doha trade round signifies a serious failure for developing
countries. Although their leverage was limited even at Doha, the middle-income
and least developed countries will have even less of a voice as WTO negotiations
are replaced by regional and bilateral trade deals. This comes at a time
when developing countries are increasingly looking at trade as a route out
of poverty. [more]
POLITICS
Orange & Yellow: Bookends in Time by Paul Marshall
Everyone loves a good political biography, but far fewer have the appetite
for works of political economy. They are for political anoraks, and
so require good branding and marketing – ‘Orange’ books and ‘Yellow’
books, even ‘Little Red’ books. The Yellow Book and Orange
Book are
two constrasting offerings of political economy from within the liberal
tradition, separated by 75 years, and offering very different policy
prescriptions. [subscribe]
COLUMNS
Is Gordon Brown far to the left of Tony Blair? Will Brown, an unrepentant
socialist, abandon the ‘New Labour’ project? Will the Blair-Brown
transfer of power signify a return to the miserable days of Old Labour?
With the Blair government in its death-throes, these are the questions
that will dominate British politics in the year ahead. [more]
THE MIDDLE EAST
As the dust settles...Israel by Daphna Baram
For many Israelis, the 1973 Yom Kippur War was a major shock and the
cause of great disillusionment: the fact that Israel was attacked
by surprise, that the performance of the army was embarassingly
poor, and that the political and miliary leaders embarked on a campaign
of mutual recrimination, left a nation feeling orphaned. [subscribe]
As the dust settles...Lebanon by John Thorne
In the spring of 2005, shortly after the Cedar Revolution, I sat with
a close friend, Ramy, on his balcony overlooking Beirut. The city
lay serene before us, as if resting from the exertion. “We are
free”, Ramy explained, “and we are responsible: now we have
to build the Lebanon we dream of”. [subscribe]
