archive

War and violence, the Middle East, and Europe

From Asia Times, arm thy neighbor: A review of Militia Redux by Desmond Ball and David Scott Mathieson. Tales of a Fourth Grade Suicide Bomber: Brooke Goldstein's exploration of child martyrs. The New Face of Warfare: A review of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier; Children at War by P.W. Singer; and Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War. An interview with Mark Bixler, author of The Lost Boys of Sudan: An American Refugee Experience. Intellectual imperialism as a fashion-shoot cum missionary visit: Bernard-Henri Lévy's report from Darfur shows that liberal lust for Western intervention survived Iraq.

From NYRB, Rory Stewart on Iraq: The Question. A small war guaranteed to damage a superpower: Patrick Cockburn on what the Bush Administration has wrought in Iraq. Although pleased to see Saddam toppled, some women look back on the prosperity and social liberation of the Ba’athist years with nostalgia. The meaning of freedom: In every corner of the Muslim world, female attire is stirring strong emotions. An excerpt from Iran: The Essential Guide to a Country on the Brink by Stephen Kinzer.

Nationalists march as the army threatens: A look at Turkey torn between God and state. Eight years after the Kosovo war, the UN is preparing to make a final decision on the province's final status. Can independence work? From Eurozine, as recent events around the statue of the Soviet soldier in Tallinn have strikingly shown, Russia remains a major factor in the national narratives of the post-Soviet space. But memory politics is less about the communist past than about the future political and economic hegemony on the European continent. A look at why Putin loves World War II. Russia's six deadly sins: Philip Longworth reviews How Russia Really Works: The informal practices that shaped post-Soviet politics and business.

Adam Michnik on The Other Poland: The second phase of the Polish revolution must not be permitted to consume either the will to freedom, or the democratic state. One Polish legislator has announced plans for a bill that would ban miniskirts and other "enticements", with the goal of reducing street prostitution. But the move is also part of a wider culture war.

From Edinburgh Review, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, journalists would jump into taxis and ask to be taken to the fighting. Now it's political tourists eager for the scenes of past battles. But are taxi drivers qualified to be their guides? How Spain thrives on immigration: The open-border policy under Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero is driving a Spanish economic and social revival. And the Schweizer Réduit: One of the most famous quotes about Switzerland – probably annoying the hell out of the natives by now – is the closing line of the film "The Third Man"