CONTENTS

1. Jack Goody: How Ethnic is Ethnic Cleansing? How ethnic is ‘ethnic cleansing’? From Cyprus to Andalusia, Ireland to Bosnia, Pakistan to Palestine, Jack Goody finds religion—inherently threatened by apostasy or conversion—a stronger marker of communal conflict and mass expulsion than an ill-defined ethnicity.
2. Jorge Castaneda: Mexico: Permuting Power Mexico’s new Foreign Minister discusses his country’s prospects under Fox, and explains the thinking behind the ‘Buenos Aires Consensus’ programme for Latin America which will face its first major test there. What is in store for the country after eight decades of PRI rule?
3. Stefan Collini: Culture Talk Between the elite traditions of Kulturkritik and the populist enthusiasms of Cultural Studies, nominal antagonists, Francis Mulhern’s Culture/Metaculture discerns a covert bond—a common hostility to politics proper, as the antonym of culture. Stefan Collini queries his way of resolving the tension between these two.
4. Tom Nairn: Farewell Britannia: Break-Up or New Union? Has the Northern Ireland Agreement injected a fatal shot of constitutionalism into the archaic Ukanian state? Responding to Pocock and Mulhern, Tom Nairn looks forward to a rearrangement of islander relations, but warns that without its own reconstitution England could become a fatally regressive anomaly in the archipelago.
5. Timothy Brennan: Cosmopolitanism and Internationalism Cosmopolitan ideals have a pedigree that needs to be traced by cultural theory as well as political science. Can world government shake off its imperialist heritage, or does international solidarity still require the nation-state?
6. Michael Maar: In Bluebeard's Chamber: Guilt and Thomas Mann What deadly secrets (boys apart) did Thomas Mann have to hide? The Auguste Dupin of German letters follows a trail of bloody knives, howling dogs and unbidden confessions from Buddenbrooks and ‘Tonio Kröger’ to Doktor Faustus and Felix Krull.
7. Tony Wood: Time Unfrozen: The Films of Aleksei German Virtually unknown in the West, Aleksei German is regarded by Russians as their most radical and original film director. Tony Wood considers his techniques of disorientation, and the craft of induced paranoia in his latest movie about the Doctors’ Plot of 1953—its title taken from Beria’s triumphant shout to his chauffeur.
8. David Ladipo: The Rise of America's Prison-Industrial Complex Why look at the famous incarceration rates of the US only from the standpoint of the consumer—America’s two million prisoners? David Ladipo shows how practical and profitable they are for the producer—attracting investment and generating employment where small towns and impoverished counties need them most. What could be more rational than sentencing laws that keep the industry booming?
9. Robert Wade: Showdown at the World Bank ‘International financial institutions’ are more national than they seem. Robert Wade reveals how tightly the US Treasury monitors and controls the World Bank, and how quickly it will stamp out departures from its orthodoxy.
10. Gavan McCormack: Japan's Houdini Gavan McCormack on Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. A pathbreaking study of the life and times of the Showa Emperor, and of his American protectors.
11. Jacob Stevens: G. A. Cohen's Revolution in Morals Jacob Stevens on G. A. Cohen, If You’re an Egalitarian, How Come You’re So Rich? From Marx’s theory of history to lessons from Old Testament and New for today’s guidance.
12. Tom Mertes: Baffler in Boomtown Tom Mertes on Thomas Frank, One Market Under God. The Robin Hood of anti-Cultural Studies leads a merry chase against market populism.
13. Gopal Balakrishnan: The Politics of Piety Gopal Balakrishnan on Bhikhu Parekh, Rethinking Multiculturalism. How radical is the new discourse of concern with race and religion?