Form Cafe Babel, three decades after the "Movida Madrileña", Spain remembers how post-Franco society was transformed by ten years of punk rebellion in Madrid. In Spain, where public drinking is banned in many areas, police spark a violent riot by attempting to clear a Madrid square of drinkers on the country's May 2 holiday. When the earth moves: One of the most ambitious town-relocation exercises in history will see the capital of Swedish Lapland, Kiruna, move 4km.
Farewell to the cargo cult: The current stand-off in the Ukraine is a result of "incomplete revolution". The failure to establish democratic structures has allowed the mechanisms of authoritarianism back into Ukrainian politics; the Orange Revolution, a fairy tale that wasn't. Now the evil prince has bounced back and his chances don't look bad. The people are learning that there's no such thing as good princes and princesses. A review of The Litvinenko File: the True Story of a Death Foretold (and more). A review of The New Cold War: Revolutions, Rigged Elections and Pipeline Politics in the Former Soviet Union. A review of The Gun That Changed the World by Mikhail Kalashnikov.
A review of The Khyber Pass: A history of Empire and invasion. From NPQ, an article on the Turkish crisis: The limits of democracy, or the seizure of the state from within. The leaders of Saudi Arabia are caught between a desire to compete globally and a demand that they guard tradition. Israel's 1967 attack on Egypt lasted only six days, but the repercussions have been bloodier and far longer reaching than anyone could have imagined. A review of Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. For a quarter-century, Lebanon has been the graveyard of Israeli politicians reckless enough to venture there.
A review of Buda’s Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb by Mike Davis. The illiberal hour: A review of The Big Lie: On Terror, Antisemitism, and Identity by David Solway. An article on the rise of low-tech terrorism, and war costs money. Why can't politicians say so?
A review of Rumsfeld: An American Disaster and Washington's War: From Independence to Iraq. John J. DiIulio Jr on Spiritualpolitique: Religion matters more than ever in global affairs. But don't count on the experts to know that. The author examines history, philosophy and politics, but sides with biology as the motivation for human attainment by force: A review of War in Human Civilization by Azar Gat. A review of Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America by Cullen Murphy. And the long view of civilization: A review of The Americanist by Daniel Aaron
