March 2012

Saudi Arabia’s record is no better than Iran’s when it comes to respect for human rights. Yet the international community always manages to overlook the Wahhabi monarchy. Could this be connected with Saudi Arabia’s status as top oil-producing country and trusted ally of the US? Saudi Arabia can intervene in Bahrain, crush democratic protests there, execute 76 people in 2011 (including a woman accused of “sorcery”), threaten to execute a blogger who posted an imaginary conversation with the (...)

The first steps have been taken in the US to make public the financial affiliations of economists submitting papers to academic journals. It’s a start. In France, such experts do not disclose their interests when they write or speak for the media. And the media asks no questions

Economic warfare against Iran won’t change its nuclear policy and will lead to severe worldwide repercussions. Overt war would be even more foolish and disastrous. There is a reasonable way out of all this and it is already on the table

Now that the US is substantially reducing its military spending and withdrawing from present wars, its future intentions, and those places it will seek to control, are becoming clear. The most important will be the Pacific and the South China Sea

When President Obama decided to acknowledge country music, and even recruit it to the Democratic side, he showed unexpected savvy

Croatia will become the 28th member of the European Union next year after its 67% approval vote in a referendum this January. However, the turnout was only 43%. European membership has lost its appeal for the Balkans

For the last quarter century, it has been difficult to find one’s bearings on the world map: the centres of trade and power have shifted, unexpected alliances have formed, the geopolitical jigsaw has been reorganised, forcing us to reconsider what we took as read. The latest edition of Le Monde diplomatique’s geopolitical atlas, published this March in French, takes up that challenge. The atlas combines expert analysis with an original approach to cartography, to try to shed light on these historic changes. To understand the world, we need to understand the vision people have of themselves and their place on the planet. Europe is a classic example: no one can define it, or even say where it starts or ends

One in five children in Mexico is taught through television lessons, even though some teleschools don’t even have electricity, let alone a television. The government has bold plans for privatised internet learning. But they aren’t getting through to classrooms

Funding for secular state education across Europe is getting harder to raise. In the UK and France, religious organisations willing to create and run schools attract state funding, even though the French constitution separates church and state

Neuroleptic drugs are prescribed on a massive scale in the US, even though results are poor compared with psychotherapy and alternative treatments like exercise, nutrition and socialisation

New technology is allowing businesses as well as government to read the contents of our internet exchanges. Internet service providers stand to gain from this access until there is legal control over the export of surveillance equipment

Immigrants bring benefits both to their home country and their new host country, producing substantial gains for the global economy

Though most things are now made in China, little of its crime fiction is translated. Which is a pity, because China has an ancient tradition of detective stories