PARIS: The central paradox of French politics was confirmed once again on March 27. In a nationwide vote to select local authorities (the so called Conseiller Général), the far-right National Front gained 11 percent of the votes cast, but secured (...)
SEOUL: In mid-November, all eyes will shift to Seoul, when G-20 leaders convene for the first time in the South Korean capital. The choice is long overdue, as South Korea is a remarkable success story: in one generation, the South Koreans, formerly (...)
PARIS: It is usually easier to see the beginning of something than the end of it. Born in 1945 in post-war Britain, the welfare state met its end in Britain this week, when British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne repudiated the concept of (...)
PARIS: All over the world, internet users entertain romantic delusions about cyberspace. To most of us web surfers, the Internet provides a false sense of complete freedom, power, and anonymity.
Every once in a while, of course, unsolicited (...)
PARIS: In the Western part of Europe — the part that former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld maliciously labeled “Old Europe” — almost every government is in deep political trouble. The United Kingdom's new coalition government may be the (...)
PARIS: It is almost taken for granted nowadays that this is to be the "Asian Century, marking an irreversible political/economic shift in global power from West to East. China has replaced Germany as the world's leading exporter, while South Korea's (...)
PARIS: In democracies, justice is supposed to be independent. Some prosecutors and investigating magistrates, however, conveniently forget this. Indeed many among them are deeply enmeshed in politics, pursuing agendas - and vendettas - of their (...)
PARIS: No tumbrils have appeared in Paris's Place de la Concorde, but a revolution may be underway in France nonetheless. Recent weeks have seen the trial of former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and the conviction of former Defense Minister (...)
PARIS: Hollywood history is often nonsensical, but filmmakers usually have the good sense not to whitewash killers and sadists. Steven Soderbergh's new film about Che Guevara, however, does that, and more.
Che the revolutionary romantic, as (...)
PARIS: The riots that have rampaged across Greece may have many causes, but one that is rarely mentioned is the fracturing of the Greek left into George Papandreou's traditional socialist party, PASOK, and an increasingly radicalized faction that (...)
Everyone everywhere has by now heard about the "clash of civilizations. This Samuel Huntington concept has become universal. In the 1950's, the French economist, Alfred Sauvy had a comparable success with the expression "third world. One reason (...)
Ever since their reinvention by Pierre de Coubertin, the Olympic Games have always been politicized. The first took place in 1896 in Athens in order to embarrass the Turks still occupying Northern Greece. The Berlin Games in 1936 celebrated the (...)