From Open Democracy, Saskia Sassen on globalisation, the state and the democratic deficit. Does the UN still matter? Joseph S. Nye investigates. An article on the power of NGOs: They're big, but how big? A review of Vaccinated: One Man’s Quest to Defeat the World’s Deadliest Diseases by Paul A. Offit. Norman Borlaug on Continuing the Green Revolution: Agricultural biotech has greatly improved human life. But we've still got a long way to go. Gregg Easterbrook on Norman Borlaug, the Greatest Living American—ignored, while he only saved a billion people. William Easterly reviews The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS by Helen Epstein (and more and an interview).
A review of The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Falling Behind and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier (and more). Wrong Number: Is it cost effective to treat the world's poor? Martin Wolf reviews How Rich Countries Got Rich...and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor by Erik S. Reinert and Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World by Ha-Joon Chang. Globalisation backlash in rich nations: A popular backlash against globalisation and the leaders of the world’s largest companies is sweeping all rich countries, an FT/Harris poll shows.
From Dissent, Mosque and State: An interview with Seyla Benhabib on Turkey's recent election, the AK Party, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Turkey's election has produced a clear win for the ruling party. But the country remains in the grip of a crisis involving two competing definitions of its very identity. Linguistic follies: An article on the economic consequences of the rise of English. Masochism, madness and murky waters: A review of Surf Nation: In Search of the Fast Lefts and Hollow Rights of Britain and Ireland by Alex Wade. Don't think so much: France is the country that produced the Enlightenment, Descartes's one-liner, "I think, therefore I am," and the solemn pontifications of Jean-Paul Sartre and other celebrity philosophers. But in the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, thinking has lost its cachet. Flirting and fornicating: In the country of romance, a website is making sex and adultery as easy as buying a croissant.
The girly tapes of the 2008 election make Hillary Rodham Clinton look like Margaret Thatcher, reminding all that America has never been more in need of grown-up women in high places. Too Much Information: While the absence of policy detail in the Republican presidential campaign is remarkable, Democrats go too far in the other direction. The Actor: Fred Thompson bills himself as a true southern conservative and a plain-ol’-folks regular guy. But is he just playing a part? Why the US Military Loves Ron Paul: The anti-war Texas Republican is pulling more campaign contributions from the military than John McCain. That says a lot about the mindset of the troops.
