CONTENTS
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Jurgen Habermas: Why Europe Needs a Constitution
Germany’s leading philosopher argues that further development of the European Union requires both a mobilizing political project—positively differentiating the Old World from the New—and a formal Constitution, submitted to a popular referendum.
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Edward Said: The Desertions of Arafat
As pressures mount upon the Palestinians and Israel continues its drive to put down the second Intifada, what kind of leadership does the PNA provide? Excoriating its irresponsibility and corruption, Edward Said issues a call for Arafat’s departure.
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Kevin Pask: Late Nationalism: The Case of Quebec
The developed world has its own national movements, encased within Spain, the UK and Canada, which have set out to gain the classical objective of independence. How far is their timing likely to affect their trajectory? Kevin Pask considers the example of a postmodern Quebec.
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W. J. F. Jenner: Race and History in China
The official ideology of the PRC has been changing rapidly. Do new definitions of the ‘nation’ imply a greater racial tinge? The author of The Tyranny of History looks at the long sweep of Chinese civilization, and asks whether the current period is seeing a shift away from the general tenor of that past.
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Peter Gowan: Neoliberal Cosmopolitanism
A reigning doctrine of international relations proclaims that, despite everything, the world is entering a new epoch of hopeful cosmopolitanism—narrow state sovereignty being overcome by the common and, where necessary, armed resolve of a ‘Pacific Union’ of democratic nations. What then of the asymmetric hegemony of the United States?
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Malcolm Bull: Between the Cultures of Capital
T. J. Clark’s landmark study, Farewell to an Idea, takes the art of modernism to be a convulsive attempt to imagine modernity in forms other than the triumph of capitalism. Malcolm Bull suggests it might be better conceived as a fold in the overlap between two contrasting cultures of capitalism, classical and commodity, of which only one is left today.
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Leo Chanjen Chen: The Frustrated Architect: The Cinema of Edward Yang
The Taiwanese New Wave has been described by Fredric Jameson as offering the finest cycle of any national cinema since the French. Leo Chanjen Chen explores the achievement of Edward Yang, one of its two greatest masters.
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Edward Yang: Taiwan Stories
An interview with the director, in which he recounts his beginnings in the movies, and talks of the economic and political conditions of film production in Taiwan.
BOOK REVIEWS
- Peter Hallward on Dominique Lecourt, The Mediocracy: French Philosophy since the mid-1970s. Doleful tales of the ‘New Philosophers’ in France, and better news beyond them.
- Linda Melvern on Ludo De Witte, The Assassination of Lumumba. Archival revelations of the way the Belgian government organized the murder of the Congo’s first Prime Minister.
- Tony Wood on Anna Politkovskaya, A Dirty War. Putin’s campaign of colonial repression in Chechnya, and the contradictions of a courageous journalist’s response.
Articles:
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Jurgen Habermas,
‘Why Europe Needs a Constitution’
Germany’s leading philosopher argues that further development of the European Union requires both a mobilizing political project—positively differentiating the Old World from the New—and a formal Constitution, submitted to a popular referendum.
-
Edward Said,
‘The Desertions of Arafat’
As pressures mount upon the Palestinians and Israel continues its drive to put down the second Intifada, what kind of leadership does the PNA provide? Excoriating its irresponsibility and corruption, Edward Said issues a call for Arafat’s departure.
-
Kevin Pask,
‘Late Nationalism: The Case of Quebec’
The developed world has its own national movements, encased within Spain, the UK and Canada, which have set out to gain the classical objective of independence. How far is their timing likely to affect their trajectory? Kevin Pask considers the example of a postmodern Quebec.
-
W. J. F. Jenner,
‘Race and History in China’
The official ideology of the PRC has been changing rapidly. Do new definitions of the ‘nation’ imply a greater racial tinge? The author of The Tyranny of History looks at the long sweep of Chinese civilization, and asks whether the current period is seeing a shift away from the general tenor of that past.
Articles:
-
Peter Gowan,
‘Neoliberal Cosmopolitanism’
A reigning doctrine of international relations proclaims that, despite everything, the world is entering a new epoch of hopeful cosmopolitanism—narrow state sovereignty being overcome by the common and, where necessary, armed resolve of a ‘Pacific Union’ of democratic nations. What then of the asymmetric hegemony of the United States?
-
Malcolm Bull,
‘Between the Cultures of Capital’
T. J. Clark’s landmark study, Farewell to an Idea, takes the art of modernism to be a convulsive attempt to imagine modernity in forms other than the triumph of capitalism. Malcolm Bull suggests it might be better conceived as a fold in the overlap between two contrasting cultures of capitalism, classical and commodity, of which only one is left today.
-
Leo Chanjen Chen,
‘The Frustrated Architect: The Cinema of Edward Yang’
The Taiwanese New Wave has been described by Fredric Jameson as offering the finest cycle of any national cinema since the French. Leo Chanjen Chen explores the achievement of Edward Yang, one of its two greatest masters.
-
Edward Yang,
‘Taiwan Stories’
An interview with the director, in which he recounts his beginnings in the movies, and talks of the economic and political conditions of film production in Taiwan.
