Can Islam Accommodate Democracy Or Democracy Accommodate Islam?

ResetDOC, by Benjamin R. Barber - It is not Islam per se, but religion tout court that stands in some tension with secularism and with democracy – a tension that is healthy rather than unhealthy in a free society. Like Christianity and other religions, Islam is a religion practiced in many cultures and [...]

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Fair play for the CIA

Times - The Cold War was fought on many fronts, but most of us think of it taking place on the battleground of covert action and espionage. There, the Soviet Union had home-field advantage: war was in the air in 1948, and many felt it might be lost almost before it began.

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A Vision in Concrete

Atlantic , by Benjamin Schwarz - Today, Brasilia is quite correctly regarded as a colossally wrong turn in urban planning—but the city, paradoxically, contains some of the most graceful modernist government buildings ever produced. All were designed by Oscar Niemeyer (now 100 years old and still working), who helped select Costa’s master plan [...]

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Months of Intelligence Work Led to Betancourt’s Rescue

Spiegel - Months of careful intelligence work led to the dramatic rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages held by Colombian guerrillas. The Colombian government’s triumph is a blow to FARC rebels, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy.

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Crusading is not the answer, but nor is pulling up the drawbridge

Guardian, by Timothy G. Ash - The prospect seems to me more gloomy than 10 or 20 years ago. Presumably, it looks brighter to a communist leader in Beijing, a drug-lord in Afghanistan or an oligarch in Moscow. So much depends on where you sit and what you want. I want my children [...]

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Balancing Act: The Other Wilsonianism

World Affairs, by Peter Beinart - Against Social Darwinists who celebrated competition because it hardened the strong and culled the weak, Wilson insisted that selfishness was neither natural nor good. In a nation bitterly divided between rich and poor, urban and rural, immigrant and native born, he saw unregulated self-interest as leading [...]

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How to solve a crisis of democratic legitimacy

Independent - Yet it would be quite wrong for France, or any EU government, to ignore the fact that Europe is going through a crisis of democratic legitimacy at the moment, symbolised by Ireland’s rejection of the treaty. The question is how to respond.

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