September 2008

The question of responsibility for the hostilities in the Caucasus shouldn’t worry us too much. Less than a week after Georgia’s invasion, two well-known French commentators said it was old stuff. An influential neo-conservative from the United States backed that view: knowing who started things “is not very important”, wrote Robert Kagan. “This war did not begin because of a miscalculation by Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. It is a war that Moscow has been attempting to provoke for some (...)

Georgia’s decision to attack Tskinvali, the capital of secessionist South Ossetia, on 8 August was a miscalculation both of the support it might receive from the US and of Russia’s response. Russian troops on Georgian soil, followed by Moscow’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as sovereign states, have put an old conflict on a dangerous new footing

Five hundred years ago the obvious contender for dominance of the world’s oceans was the Chinese imperial exploration fleet, which was technologically centuries ahead of all its rivals. But the emperor decided to turn the nation’s back on the sea. The Chinese will not make the same mistake twice

Tom Engelhardt was born in the US in 1944. He didn’t expect to make it to 2008. He expected even less the way that history has worked out for his nation

The US economy has pulled itself out of previous recessions because of access to easy credit. That won’t be possible in the present circumstances – and whoever is the incoming president will only be able to make marginal changes

Syria never quite intended to absorb so many fleeing from fighting and insecurity in its neighbouring country, Iraq. Even so, it willingly let in perhaps a million and a half people – there are no proper statistics. But what will happen to them in the long term?

An Israeli historian suggests the diaspora was the consequence, not of the expulsion of the Hebrews from Palestine, but of proselytising across north Africa, southern Europe and the Middle East

The young can’t be bothered to vote in elections, the old are destitute and only the professional politicians with profitable business connections are a going concern in Bosnia. There’s peace, but not much life for most citizens

The fall of communism and the break-up of the former Yugoslavia have left the Roma people, long settled throughout the Balkans and forming a strong part of the region’s identity, with few protectors. Many fled persecution and unemployment as refugees; others remain, underprivileged and under threat

Traditional media are shedding staff and those that remain, or are recruited, are expected to be multimedia performers, online 24/7 to titillate and amuse websurfers. What happened to journalism?

Suddenly the energy bill of a highrise building matters. Governments and companies can no longer ignore profligate consumption – not when a single public building can use more power than a whole energy-efficient city

The irony-free Mr Starck believes he is contributing to the greenness and happiness of the world — just an old hippy having a sexy time designing. That’s not the way many of the rest of us view him