From Foreign Affairs, James Surowiecki reviews The Improving State of the World: Why We're Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet by Indur M. Goklany. Frank Furedi takes on the twenty-first century Malthusians who think everything from poverty to terrorism is a product of too much dirty breeding. A review of Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global by Paul Mason. How the other half live and die: A review of Planet of Slums by Mike Davis. A look at the Millennium development goals: Are we on track? Universal pensions of just $1 a day in developing countries would significantly reduce old age poverty, a United Nations report finds. Does the United Nations have a future? Suzanne Nossel wants to know.
From America, a review of The Challenge of Human Rights By Jack Mahoney. From Human Rights & Human Welfare, a review of Guantánamo: The War on Human Rights by David Rose; a review of The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross by David P. Forsythe; a review of Truth Commissions and Procedural Fairness by Mark Freeman; a review of Understanding Poverty; a review of Human Security and the UN: A Critical History by S. Neil MacFarlane and Yuen Foong Khong; a review of The Economic Life of Refugees by Karen Jacobsen; a review of Spatial Disparities in Human Development: Perspectives from Asia; and a review of Challenges to Peacebuilding: Managing Spoilers During Conflict Resolution. The Numbers Guy on ranking the world’s most peaceful nations.
Victor Kattan (BIICL): The Use and Abuse of Self-Defence in International Law: The Israel-Hezbollah Conflict as a Case Study. Could this be the way the Middle East conflict ends, not with a mushroom cloud or a peace deal but with the slow disappearance of the Jewish state? Peter Hitchens wants to know. A review of Preliminaries, S. Yizhar's landmark novel about coming of age in Israel. Girls with guns: In any western country, Maxim's pictures of female soldiers in their smalls wouldn't raise an eyebrow. They shouldn't shock us in Israel either.
From TAP, recent violence in the Palestinian territories means that the goal of a truly independent Palestinian state has became more remote than at any time since the second intifada. The Enemy of My Enemy: Gaza shows that Islamists are as pragmatic as any of us. Suicide bombers are not mentally ill or unhinged, but acting rationally in pursuit of the benefits they perceive from being part of a strict and close-knit religious enterprise. Efraim Halevy on why the Bush administration needs a backup plan for dealing with Hamas. When Democracy Disappoints: Does promoting peace in the Middle East mean defying the will of the people?
