Imitation Democracy: Post-Communist States

Perry Anderson, 27 August 2015

The fall​ of Gorbachev brought Dmitri Furman’s work as Russia’s foremost student of religious systems to a reluctant end. Clear-sighted about what was coming under Yeltsin, Furman...

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‘We’ and ‘You’: Suburban Jihadis

Owen Bennett-Jones, 27 August 2015

The fact that more British Muslims are fighting for Islamic State than for the British army demands an explanation.

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Rule-Breaking: The Problems of the Eurozone

Jan-Werner Müller, 27 August 2015

We can expect more Greek drama before too long: the real struggle over the Eurozone – and the EU more broadly – is just beginning.

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Short Cuts: The Corbyn Surge

David Runciman, 27 August 2015

It’s​ easy to confuse democracy with democracy. Having a party’s members elect its leader is clearly more democratic than leaving the decision up to MPs or union bosses. But that...

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Diary: In Athens

Tariq Ali, 30 July 2015

For Greeks of virtually all political persuasions the EU was once seen as a family to which one must belong.

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Had things​ been different, last year’s obituaries might have read like this. Although known for his charm, wit and talent as mimic and raconteur, Jeremy Thorpe will be chiefly remembered...

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The Long Con: Techno-Austerity

Jackson Lears, 16 July 2015

‘Why is there​ no socialism in the United States?’ the German sociologist Werner Sombart asked himself in 1906 – it was also the title of his most famous book. The question...

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American intelligence saw Islamic State coming and was not only relaxed about the prospect but, it appears, positively interested in it.

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In Holloway prison​, in March 1909, Constance Lytton decided to carve the words ‘Votes for Women’ across her chest. She had been locked up for taking part in suffragette protests...

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Sinicisation: Sinicisation

Slavoj Žižek, 16 July 2015

Everyone can be a socialist today, even Bill Gates: it suffices to profess the need for some kind of harmonious social unity, for a common good and for the care of the poor and downtrodden.

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Why join Islamic State?

Patrick Cockburn, 2 July 2015

The fall of Tal Abyad is the latest Kurdish victory in the ‘war within a war’ being waged between Islamic State fighters and the military wing of the PYD.

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Harold Koh​ is the former dean of Yale Law School and an expert in human rights law. As the State Department’s senior lawyer between 2009 and 2013, he provided the Obama administration...

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Diary: Massacre in Andijan

Anna Neistat, 2 July 2015

In May​ 2005, in the city of Andijan in eastern Uzbekistan, 23 local businessmen were on trial, accused of being Islamic extremists. There had been a peaceful protest outside the court building...

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‘We ain’t found shit’

Scott Ritter, 2 July 2015

The intelligence about the ‘possible military dimensions’ of Iran’s nuclear programme is of questionable provenance and most of it is more than a dozen years old.

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Short Cuts: Declared un-British

Sadakat Kadri, 18 June 2015

The removal​ of citizenship has been used as a penalty for disloyalty only rarely in Britain. A handful of spies with dual nationality were denaturalised during the Cold War, but the last case...

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Of the dozen or so people who have declared themselves Republican candidates, or are thought likely to declare, every one can be described as a full-blown adult failure.

Read more about The Candidates: Scott, Rick, Ted, Marco and Jeb

Dark Markets

Donald MacKenzie, 4 June 2015

‘Dark pools’​ are private, electronic share-trading venues in which a participant can bid to buy shares or offer to sell them without those bids or offers being visible to the...

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Labour dies again

Ross McKibbin, 4 June 2015

As the pollsters retire​ to their attics to discover what went wrong, we can reflect on this historic election. The share of the total vote won by the two major parties changed only slightly,...

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