Articles by Open Democracy
We found 86 results.
Let’s Abolish the Colonial IMF on Its 80th Birthday
Arthur Larok | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Aug 2024
24 July 2024 – From Kenya to Pakistan, protesters want the International Monetary Fund to stop exploiting countries in debt crisis.
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Israel’s Latest Weapon Against Palestine Is Egypt’s Debt
Alfons Pérez and Nicola Scherer | Open Democracy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Dec 2023
18 Dec 2023 – Will Egypt agree to take in the Palestinian population expelled from Gaza in exchange for the cancellation of its external debt?
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Nation-States Are Destroying the World – Could ‘Bioregions’ Be the Answer?
Shrishtee Bajpai, Juan Manuel Crespo and Ashish Kothari | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Mar 2022
7 Mar 2022 – From the border regions of South Asia to the Amazon rainforest, people are seeking new ways to organise societies that respect humans and nature.
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Afghans Left to Pick up the Pieces of the West’s Failed War
Paul Rogers | Open Democracy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jul 2021
3 Jul 2021 – Military leaders in NATO, USA and Britain now accept that they have lost their war with the Taliban. As the Taliban rapidly expand in the shadow of their retreat, has anyone considered the impact on innocent civilians?
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The Bolsonaro Thing
Jean Wyllys | Open Democracy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Oct 2020
7 Oct 2020 – Historical facts do not repeat themselves, but they can rhyme, like a poem. The rise of the extreme right in Brazil in the wake of Operation Lava Jato rhymes quite nicely with the rise of the extreme right in Italy after Operation Mani Pulite, which under the “excuse” of eradicating corruption destroyed the political elite with the help of the media, paving the way for the corrupt, authoritarian, and immoral Silvio Berlusconi to become prime minister.
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Who’s Responsible for the Ecocide in the Amazon
Juan Manuel Crespo | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Sep 2019
9 Sep 2019 – There’s a cause for alarm as the world witnesses how the Amazon forests in Brazil, the Bolivian Chiquitanía and the Paraguayan swamps are being ravaged by uncontrolled fires. And it’s not just Bolsonaro, nor is it just Morales or Correa. There is more to it than meets the eye.
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July 1995 Srebrenica Genocide: A Mirror for All Europeans
Dunja Mijatović | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jul 2019
10 Jul 2019 – This happened with the complicity of a passive international community which knew what was happening but chose to look away. It took its final form in deliberate acts intended to destroy a group of people only because they were Muslims – before the unseeing eyes of those who did not feel concerned.
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We Already Know Who Will Win the War in Libya – Western Arms Dealers
Paul Rogers | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Apr 2019
18 Apr 2019 – They armed Gadaffi and the forces that ousted him alike – now they’re repeating that profitable trick. It is a hidden war that is very good indeed for business.
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Migrant Crisis in Europe? Look at Yemen
Helen Lackner | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Mar 2019
More desperate people crossed the Red Sea into Yemen in 2018 than crossed the Mediterranean heading for Europe. Yemen is in the midst of an internationalised civil war and suffering from the world’s worst humanitarian crisis according to the UN’s Secretary General. There has been no outcry about a ‘migrant invasion’ from the Yemeni Minister of the Interior, whether from the internationally recognised government or the Huthi movement that controls the capital Sana’a.
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Socialism or Barbarism in Brazil, According to Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Beverly Goldberg and Francesc Badia i Dalmases | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
17 Dec 2018 – What Francis Fukuyama called the ‘end of history’ after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the fight between the left and the right in the post-Cold War world, and the triumph of liberal democracy, lost its relevance thirty years later. One of the most influential modern thinkers that has positioned himself against this idea of the end of history is Portuguese sociologist, Boaventura de Sousa Santos.
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We Need to Talk about Racism in the Aid Sector
Tindyebwa Agaba and Anonymous | Shine A Light – Open Democracy,
10 Dec 2018
Casual racism, implicit bias and jobs offered over beer. Two humanitarian workers reveal the ugly side of the international aid sector.
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“Genocide Cards”: Rohingya Refugees on Why They Risked Their Lives to Refuse ID Cards
Natalie Brinham | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2018
21 Oct 2018 – Wary of the past, Rohingya have frustrated the UN’s attempts to provide them with documentation. “These cards make us into foreigners… We are already citizens of this country.”
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Good Bye, Gandhi!
L K Sharma | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2018
Writing on Gandhi in an India stricken by faux patriotism and jingoism causes gloom. A poem in Indian English provides an antidote.
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To Fix the Climate Crisis We Must Face Up to Our Imperial Past
Daniel Macmillen Voskoboynik | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2018
8 Oct 2018 – It’s time to join the dots between our overlapping crises of – and shared solutions to – environmental degradation, damaged health, racial oppression and gender injustice.
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It Is Liberalism That Has Helped Sow the Seeds of Illiberalism
Mike Wayne | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2018
Liberalism has lost its way because it has forgotten its own history, and the left seems similarly blindsided.
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Seven Ways to Build the Solidarity Economy
Emily Kawano – Open Democracy,
10 Sep 2018
4 Sep 2018 – Capitalism nurtures competitive, calculating, and self-interested values and behavior, but Elinor Ostrom (who won a Nobel prize for her work on the commons) and others have documented how community-managed resources like forests, fisheries, pasturelands and water can be managed more efficiently, sustainably and equitably than those in private hands, provided that there are rules and enforcement mechanisms to prevent anyone from taking unfair advantage.
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Forget about GDP: It’s Time for a Wellbeing Economy
Kate Pickett | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2018
“The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.” – Presidential candidate Sen. Robert Kennedy, 1968
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Israel and Palestine: A Story of Modern Colonialism
Daniel Avelar and Bianca Ferrari | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2018
The foundations of Israel are rooted in a colonial project that has modernized its face but continues to subject Palestinians to military occupation, land dispossession and unequal rights.
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Lula Da Silva as a Nightmare in Brazil
Jaime Amparo Alves – Open Democracy,
26 Feb 2018
5 Feb 2018 – The main threat to democracy in Brazil is posed by part of the judiciary; a dangerous, well-born, conservative class of mostly white men. And Lula da Silva is their worst nightmare.
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Is Oxford University Complicit in Aung San Suu Kyi’s Genocide Denial?
Maung Zarni | Open Democracy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Feb 2018
Just as Suu Kyi dismisses allegations of Myanmar’s international human rights crimes as designed to tarnish the image of Myanmar, the administration at Oxford University considers this a “public relations” issue.
→ read full articleWhen Is a Genocide a Genocide?
Amal de Chickera | Open Democracy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Sep 2017
(Or, why is the world allowing the Rohingya to be slaughtered?) There is a genocide happening before our eyes. If only we can bear to look. A humane, compassionate, professional, incisive, and brutally honest report of the state of the world, specifically the unending failures and complicity of the UN system of nation states in cases of genocides and other crimes of barbarity.
→ read full articleWomen as Wartime Rapists: A New Book Explores ‘The Impossible’
Lara Whyte – Open Democracy,
17 Jul 2017
Academic Laura Sjoberg argues that our gendered assumptions about sexual violence in conflict limit our understanding of these crimes.
→ read full articleHow NATO Is Becoming a Threat to Europe
Harry Blain | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2017
Sometimes, Europe marches to catastrophe; often, it stumbles there.
→ read full articleThe Ongoing Genocide in Myanmar
Ashraful Azad – Open Democracy,
9 Jan 2017
How the international community is failing to protect the Rohingya people. Of the five acts of genocide mentioned in the 1948 Convention on Genocide, four have been committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar since 1978.
→ read full articleThe Troubling Link between Economic and Political Inequality in Europe
Giulia Dotti Sani and Beatrice Magistro – Open Democracy,
22 Feb 2016
Trust in institutions is not equally distributed among populations. In general, people from higher social strata show most support for the political system, as they’re the ones who mostly benefit from it.
→ read full articleBrazil: Back to the Future
Lucia Nader, Manoela Miklos, and Ana Carolina Evangelista – Open Democracy,
28 Dec 2015
Even if mired in a deep crisis affecting the three brands of power, Brazil’s civil society still believes in democracy. Recent women and student’s mobilizations show the way into the future.
→ read full articleParis and Beirut: Journalism’s Selective Compassion
Des Freedman – Open Democracy,
23 Nov 2015
Is it editors, journalists or audiences to blame? “A life is a life” said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn reflecting on the disparity between blanket media coverage of the atrocities in Paris last Friday and what he perceived as a distinct lack of attention to the loss of life in other parts of the world.
→ read full articleDisaster Capitalism, And the Outsourcing of Violence in the UK
Antony Loewenstein – Open Democracy,
9 Nov 2015
Corporations bleed what profits they can from disaster. Democracy is replaced by a business plan.
→ read full articlePalestinians Must Not Fall into This Trap, Again!
Sam Bahour – Open Democracy,
19 Oct 2015
To cover up its crimes, Israel needs to feed all the western stereotypes of Palestinians as violent and subhuman rather than hungry for freedom and equal rights. «It happened only five minutes from my house. See the Israeli soldiers (disguised as Palestinian demonstrators) instigate violence to lure real Palestinians to clash, then capture them.» — Al Bireh, Palestine, 6 Oct 2015
→ read full articleThe ‘New Antisemitism’
Antony Lerman – Open Democracy,
5 Oct 2015
A succinct account of the use of the term ‘new anti-Semitism’ that replaces the ‘figure of the Jew’ with the state of Israel (collective Jewry) as the object of hate. Thus, anti-Zionism becomes the same as antisemitism giving Israel hegemony over checking both.
→ read full articleWould You Bulldoze Your Own Temple?
Shannon Biggs – Open Democracy,
14 Sep 2015
Today, Mauna Kea stands at the center of a fierce battle between the values of modern scientific discovery (backed by the political and financial might of the USA and other governments) and the values of Hawaii’s traditional and spiritual stewardship of this sacred place—backed by a growing international movement of ‘protectors’ and fueled by social media.
→ read full articleWhy Does the Algerian Regime Fear Rachad?
Lakhdar Ghettas – Open Democracy,
7 Sep 2015
In light of propaganda against the movement, media censorship, book banning and bogus Interpol arrest warrants against its founders, the regime clearly sees it as a threat. But why?
→ read full articlePowerful Nonviolent Resistance to Armed Conflict in Yemen
Stephen Zunes and Noor Al-Haidary – Open Democracy,
27 Apr 2015
As with the initial uprising against the Saleh regime four years ago, an unarmed civil society movement rises up to challenge the Huthi militia.
→ read full articleWhy We Occupy: Dutch Universities at the Crossroads
Nicholas Vrousalis, Robin Celikates, Johan Hartle, and Enzo Rossi – Open Democracy,
9 Mar 2015
The upshot is the bureaucratic equivalent of a sausage-factory: the production of the knowledge-sausage at minimum cost for the maximum number of consumers. The process by which one arrives at knowing thus becomes insignificant and secondary: means (degrees) and ends (the free pursuit of knowledge) are completely inverted.
→ read full articleWhy I Have Resigned from the Telegraph
Peter Oborne – Open Democracy,
23 Feb 2015
The coverage of HSBC in Britain’s Telegraph is a fraud on its readers. If major newspapers allow corporations to influence their content for fear of losing advertising revenue, democracy itself is in peril.
→ read full articleWhen Is Civil Society a Force for Social Transformation?
Michael Edwards – Open Democracy,
5 Jan 2015
There are more civil society organizations in the world today than at any other time in history, so why isn’t their impact growing?
→ read full articleImages of Gaza and the Erasure of History
Ludek Stavinoha – Open Democracy,
25 Aug 2014
What is lost is the Palestinian view of the war, a war that did not begin on July 8 [2014] but that has been going on for decades, not confined to the Gaza Strip but the entire Palestinian people, and that will continue to diminish their lives even when the bombs temporarily stop falling and news cameras rolling.
→ read full articleObjectivity vs. Neutrality on Gaza
Suhail H. Patel – Open Democracy,
11 Aug 2014
The Palestine-Israel conflict poses a moral dilemma for journalists. Being objective does not necessarily mean being neutral, and being fair does not mean refraining from making a judgement. While the two may be interlinked, when the facts are laid out in front of us, free of political spin and misleading narratives, the truth does not and should not allow us to remain impassive.
→ read full article(Türk) İsrailli insan hakları grupları, devam eden savaşta stratejik tercihler yapmak zorunda
Dahlia Scheindlin – Open Democracy,
11 Aug 2014
İsrail-Gazze savaşı devam ederken, Filistinlilerin haklarını ilerletmek ve savunmak için çalışan insan hakları örgütlerinin karşılaşacakları ikilemler neler? Daha önce olanlar yüzünden zarar görmüş olan güvenilirliklerini kaybetmeden bir etkileri ve hatta söz hakları olabilir mi? Kolay değil.
→ read full articleBoycotting Israel: The Situation Has Changed and I Have Changed My Mind Too
Martin Shaw – Open Democracy,
11 Aug 2014
Israel’s claim to self-defence is much too easily accepted by western governments and media. The present crisis arises following the murder of Israeli teenagers, which Israeli officials now admit was not carried out by Hamas. The killing is an almost routine police action as the Israeli euphemism “mowing the lawn” suggests. The recent escalation of rocket attacks was a response to these Israeli actions.
→ read full articleThe Marching Season: A Call for a New Vision in Northern Ireland
Mairead Maguire – Open Democracy,
14 Jul 2014
Ahead of the climax of the ‘marching season’ in Northern Ireland tomorrow [12 Jul 2014], Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire recalls how the cycle of violence was broken when the civil community united during the Troubles and called for an end all the violence. Today she calls upon politicians to listen to the voices of women and youth.
→ read full articleIraq Crisis: Divide-And-Rule in Defence of a Neoliberal Political Economy
Ali Al-Jaberi – Open Democracy,
7 Jul 2014
The roots of the most recent crisis in Iraq can be traced to the US-led invasion of 2003 and western meddling in Syria. At stake, is the neoliberal blueprint of post-invasion Iraq, now defended in an effort coordinated between the Baghdad government and its western backers.
→ read full articleChina’s Subversive Propaganda War against the Dalai Lama
Gerardo E. Martinez-Solanas – Open Democracy,
30 Jun 2014
The Chinese government is engaged in an intense propaganda war to disrupt or prevent the Dalai Lama’s visits to every country he travels to.
→ read full article“Let’s Not Talk about It”: How the Mass Surveillance Debate Was Silenced in Romania
Matei Vasile – Open Democracy,
2 Jun 2014
The active suppression of debate about mass surveillance, SIM card registration and data retention by Romanian politicians reveals a twisted sense of priorities and little respect for the rights and demands of citizens.
→ read full articleBy Misdiagnosing Israel-Palestine, Donor Aid Harms Palestinians
Jeremy Wildeman and Sandy Marshall – Open Democracy,
26 May 2014
The goal of political Zionism has always been to divorce the land of Palestine from its inhabitants, and to return it to its rightful inheritors, ‘God’s chosen people’. In this way, the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israel is a successful culmination of long-standing territorial strategy pre-dating the formation of the state of Israel itself.
→ read full articleHumor but Not Humiliation: Finding the Sweet Spot in Nonviolent Conflict Resolution
Michael Nagler and Karen Ridd – Open Democracy,
12 May 2014
Humor is a time-honored strategy in the repertoire of nonviolence, but we must learn to use it properly. Poke fun at the problem not the person.
→ read full articleBulgaria’s ‘Chilly Welcome’ to Syrian Refugees
Rayna Stamboliyska – Open Democracy,
10 Feb 2014
As the civil war in Syria continues, refugees are desperately seeking refuge. It seems that Bulgaria has consistently preferred to engage in exacerbating the situation. Bulgarians have built a wall and are allowing far-right xenophobic rhetoric to prevail.
→ read full articleCan Brazil Help Roll Back US Surveillance?
Robert Valencia – Open Democracy,
20 Jan 2014
Brazil has become a staunch and vocal critic of US espionage, asking Google and Facebook to install local servers. But will this really work? The US eavesdropped on Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. The former wrote letters of protest, but in Sep. 2013, President Dilma Rousseff took the issue up with the UN General Assembly.
→ read full articleFrom a Rolling Stone to Moving Mountains: The Process of Democratic Change in Bulgaria
Nikolay Nikolov – Open Democracy,
20 Jan 2014
Democracy has solidified into a brittle façade of the actual political system in Bulgaria; the future has become a laughing matter; access to truth is contested and politics has become the dirtiest word of all.
→ read full articleMandela and Cuba: Another Memory Hole
Alex Doherty – Open Democracy,
30 Dec 2013
The media’s careful avoidance of the contrasting Cold War roles of the United States and Cuba regarding South Africa is not of mere academic consequence. As George Orwell understood, control of historical narratives gives elites a powerful grip over public perceptions of present realities and grants those elites greater latitude in their future action.
→ read full articleThe Roots of the European Court of Human Rights and Democracy
Ersan Sen and Mahmut Can Senyurt – Open Democracy,
11 Nov 2013
Marco Duranti claims that the aims of the founders of the European Court of Human Rights were not democratic ones, and that the ECHR was in fact designed to secure the concept of “property rights” instead of social rights such as “the right to labour and social security” or “the right to health” as set forth under European Convention on Human Rights.
→ read full articleRuthless Regimes Not Impervious to Civil Resistance: A Reply to Maged Mandour
Stephen Zunes and Jack DuVall – Open Democracy,
11 Nov 2013
Maged Mandour’s article on openDemocracy, “Beyond Civil Resistance: The Case of Syria”, argues that civil resistance has been marginalized in the Syrian insurrection because it doesn’t work against “ruthless” regimes. But history doesn’t support that conclusion.
→ read full articleStasi or NSA?
Goran Fejic – Open Democracy,
4 Nov 2013
[Tragicomedy is becoming a big joke] – Which spy agency would you choose to monitor your life?
→ read full articleHow Europe Failed Azerbaijan
Aslan Amani – Open Democracy,
28 Oct 2013
Since Azerbaijan joined the Council of Europe in 2001, the country’s grim human rights record has only become worse. The Council’s and EU’s ambiguous reactions to the October 9 presidential election raise new questions about Europe’s role in Azerbaijan’s transition to democracy.
→ read full articleThe Obedient Media
Jean-Philippe Tremblay – Open Democracy,
7 Oct 2013
“The media conglomerates are not the only ‘industry’ whose owners have become monopolistic in the American economy. But media products are unique in one vital respect. They do not manufacture nuts and bolts: they manufacture a social and political world”.
→ read full articleThoughts on R2P from the Arab Region
Fateh Azzam – Open Democracy,
30 Sep 2013
Opinions in the Arab region are divided regarding the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), although marked by a deep skepticism based in the perceived double standards of the great powers, especially the United States. Only a more democratic UN will ensure morality trumps politics in applying R2P.
→ read full articleUK: How Politicians and the Media Made Us Hate Immigrants
Chitra Nagarajan – Open Democracy,
30 Sep 2013
Politicians and the press are locked in a cycle of increasing anti-immigrant rhetoric, presented as ‘uncomfortable truth’. Yet the problem is not immigration but socio-economic inequality. Poverty and exclusion are faced by working class people of all backgrounds.
→ read full articleThe Chancellor of Europe, Re-Elected
Steffen Vogel – Open Democracy,
30 Sep 2013
Strengthened by a clear victory in the ballots, Angela Merkel is unlikely to change her austerity course. In the absence of a strong domestic opposition, it is up to the citizens of Europe to challenge her policies.
→ read full articleThe Surveillance Marketplace
Jillian C. York – Open Democracy,
30 Sep 2013
Behind Google and Verizon lies a much more complex landscape of American companies ready to do global business selling surveillance technologies – and stay apathetic to the consequences.
→ read full articleLondon to Host One of the World’s Biggest Arms Fairs and Why It Shouldn’t Happen
Kaye Stearman – Open Democracy,
2 Sep 2013
After being home to several Olympic competitions this summer, London’s ExCel Centre is to host one of the world’s most important arms fairs in 2013. But the event’s past affiliations with autocratic regimes and the nature of the exhibitors and buyers involved should be enough to forbid it from happening.
→ read full articleA Hundred Years of Toxic Humanitarianism
Anna Feigenbaum – Open Democracy,
5 Aug 2013
As reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights and the Omega Research Foundation pile up, perhaps it is time to realize that the problem is tear gas itself. Alongside these organisations, and international campaigns like facing tear gas, it is time to insist on new terms of debate; terms that refuse the corporate rhetoric of non-lethality.
→ read full articleThe Battle between Countries and Companies
Dick Pountain – Open Democracy,
15 Jul 2013
The wild profits and net worths that the internet has enabled have created a massive power shift, leaving the corporations to overbear the countries they inhabit. In light of this, what are the consequences for both parties?
→ read full articleStatehood and the Problem of Flux: A Case for Interculturalism
Ted Cantle – Open Democracy,
22 Apr 2013
While states attempt to assert their relevance in a global age through both multiculturalism and top-down nationalism, new models of identity and strategies of participation need to be developed to deal with the co-existing phenomena of national experience and cosmopolitanism.
→ read full articleCreating Subjects in Lavasa: The Private City
Persis Taraporevala – Open Democracy,
22 Apr 2013
Through a process of devolution to private enterprises, a number of private cities are emerging across the Indian landscape. While private cities have been lauded by some as symbolic of a modern, global India, their impact on the nature of democracy and citizenship in the emerging city remains a contentious issue.
→ read full articleDealing in Death: The Battle against the UK Arms Trade
Barnaby Pace – Open Democracy,
30 Apr 2012
The UK is a centre of the international arms trade. Despite moral and legal outcry, Cameron’s recent visit to Indonesia demonstrates the continuing political commitment to the industry. Means of resisting the Government’s close ties with the international companies that profit from war.
→ read full articleReconciliation Is Not Happening In Sri Lanka, and the Problem Isn’t a Question of Time
Sivakami Rajamanoharan – Open Democracy,
26 Mar 2012
The Tamil call for independent statehood stemmed from a very basic need for security against genocide. For many, including the next generation of Tamil youth activists, the events of 2009 consolidated this need.
→ read full articleLibya’s Revolution: Tribe, Nation, Politics
Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
The Libyan war is often portrayed through a “tribal” lens that fails to explain how the country’s tribes coexist with a sense of nationhood.
→ read full articleA Human Right to Resist
Maciej Bartkowski and Annyssa Bellal – Open Democracy,
9 May 2011
Civil resistance – popular nonviolent struggle waged by ordinary people against dictatorship, foreign intervention, colonial occupation, corruption, or injustice with the use of diverse methods of nonviolent action – is by no means a new phenomenon. It has been practiced in a strategic manner for at least two centuries…
→ read full articleUpsurge in Repression Challenges Nonviolent Resistance in Western Sahara
Stephen Zunes – Open Democracy,
29 Nov 2010
Sahrawis have engaged in protests, strikes, cultural celebrations, and other forms of civil resistance focused on such issues as educational policy, human rights, the release of political prisoners, and the right to self-determination. They have also raised the cost of occupation for the Moroccan government and increased the visibility of the Sahrawi cause.
→ read full articleSudan: Prospect and Lesson
Richard Cockett – Open Democracy,
20 Sep 2010
The forthcoming referendum on independence in south Sudan could lead to the break-up of Africa’s biggest country. But if Sudan has failed as a unitary state its end carries dangers.
→ read full articleHamas Marginalisation from the Israel-Palestine ‘Peace Process’
Corinna Mullin – Open Democracy,
20 Sep 2010
In addition to the argument for including a democratically elected party in a process initiated by states and institutions claiming to support democratic development in the region, the recent violence is another argument for talking to Hamas.
→ read full articleFractured Justice: The UN Secretary-General’s Gaza Flotilla Enquiry
Bob Rigg – Open Democracy,
13 Sep 2010
The UN Secretary General has promised to investigate the Gaza flotilla incident in a manner which is “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent” and “conforming to international standards”. But it looks as if politics is triumphing over justice.
→ read full articleBrazil: Democracy vs. Poverty
Arthur Ituassu – Open Democracy,
2 Aug 2010
In half a generation, a period that straddles two presidencies, politics has lifted millions of Brazilians from misery. Arthur Ituassu explains how it was done.
→ read full articleIceland’s Economic Downturn Is a ”Freedom of Speech” Upturn
Kim Andersen – Open Democracy,
21 Jun 2010
Iceland approves bill that turns the recession-plagued island into a “new media heaven”.
→ read full articleNPT: Challenging the Nuclear Powers’ Fiefdom
Rebecca Johnson – Open Democracy,
21 Jun 2010
The NPT Review provided a bridge between the partial non-proliferation approach of the NPT and the comprehensive abolition objectives of a nuclear weapons convention. It will no longer be possible for governments to dismiss calls for a comprehensive nuclear abolition treaty.
→ read full articleChildren in Prison
Mary McAuley – Open Democracy,
7 Jun 2010
The approach to juvenile lawbreakers in Russia and in England & Wales is more punitive than in other European countries. Why do we put young offenders behind bars? In this article Mary McAuley highlights some of the questions she has addressed in her new book ‘Children in Custody’.
→ read full articleThe Nuclear-Weapons Risk
Paul Rogers – Open Democracy,
19 Apr 2010
The Washington-hosted summit on nuclear security heard Barack Obama warn of the fearful prospect of a non-state group using a nuclear weapon. How realistic is it, and how to prevent it?
→ read full articleSRI LANKA’S FORGOTTEN TAMILS
Melanie Gouby – Open Democracy,
17 Mar 2010
Rejected by the rest of the Tamil population and ignored by the Sinhalese authorities, tea workers who migrated from Tamil Nadu centuries ago are exploited in the plantations of the Sri Lankan highlands Her hands are cut and swollen from years of hard labour on the steep slopes of the tea plantation. She smiles, but […]
→ read full articleWHY WE NEED A UN PARLIAMENT
Andreas Bummel – Open Democracy,
29 Jan 2010
It isn’t less democracy that will allow for more effective global governance. More democracy is urgently needed.The United Nations is the main hub for global multilateralism. With 192 member states, its membership is almost universal. Under its roof, major global issues are negotiated that concern the future of humanity. The international response to the global […]
→ read full articleWHY SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IS NOT A JOB FOR THE MARKET
Michael Edwards – Open Democracy,
26 Jan 2010
In 2007, I experienced one of those fork-in-the-road moments that seem to occur when you least expect them. It was another day at the office, sifting through e-mails in the Ford Foundation’s glass palace in Manhattan, where I worked as one of the organization’s six directors. As usual, half of my inbox was filled by […]
→ read full articleA BRAVE NEW WORLD?
Andy Yee - Open Democracy,
8 Jan 2010
Is there a good response to China’s ‘resilient capitalist authoritarianism’? The world is heading towards the second scenario envisaged by Francis Fukuyama in his afterword to The End of History and the Last Man: a combination of capitalism and authoritarianism, driven by China’s brand of ‘resilient authoritarianism’. Conducted in a spirit of ‘if you can’t […]
→ read full articleLIVING IN A WORLD OF MAKE-BELIEVE: THE MYTHMAKERS OF THE GLOBALISING AGE
Gerry Hassan – Open Democracy,
8 Jan 2010
Despite the failings of the neo-liberal model, the media still uses its advocates in City institutions, financial bodies and agencies associated with them to explain and analyse the crisis.Thirty years ago in another economic and political age the Glasgow University Media Group analysed the biases of current TV news in a series of seminal reports […]
→ read full articleBEYOND STALEMATE: REPLACING THE VICIOUS WITH THE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE
Diana Francis - Open Democracy,
22 Dec 2009
What is conflict transformation? How do you begin to approach the mutual hurt of conflict embedded in systems and culture? There are many strands to a challenging and delicate process. Here are some of them.Stefanie Kappler’s challenging article, along with Paula Green’s passionate support, brings our debate alive, for which I am delighted and grateful. […]
→ read full articleTHE CHALLENGE OF MOVING FROM WAR TO PEACE
Bridget Walker - Open Democracy,
22 Dec 2009
One of the challenges in this set of unseen and unsung practices is how to make it visible and strengthen its advocacy without destroying its impact. Conflict transformation work not only deserves but needs a wider audience.There is substantial documentation on war and a body of theory about its causes and conduct, while, as is […]
→ read full articleBRAZIL’S “SOUTHERN EFFECT” IN FRAGILE COUNTRIES
Robert Muggah and lona Szabó de Carvalho - Open Democracy,
20 Nov 2009
Global preoccupation with fragile environments is on the rise. Can south-south and triangular co-operation help? Brazil thinks so. A reply to Oliver Richmond.Rebuilding "fragile" and "failing" states is a declared priority of most western governments. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has issued a rash of policy statements and guidelines to help donor […]
→ read full articleBRAZIL’S NEW POLITICAL IDENTITY
Arthur Ituassu - Open Democracy,
4 Nov 2009
Brazil’s social and economic achievements during President Lula’s period in office is the foundation of its rising international status. But to ensure its future Brazil needs to pass two major tests.A number of events has projected Brazil into the headlines of international news, besides the traditional stories about violence, natural catastrophes or environmental issues. Behind […]
→ read full article