In the magazine this month
June 2011
European hand-wringing over the death of the arch-terrorist vindicates Americans who despair of the Atlantic alliance
"On major strategic and international questions today, Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus. They agree on little and understand one another less and less." So wrote Robert Kagan in his masterpiece Paradise and Power.If anyone doubted the truth of Kagan's statement when it was first published in 2003, the weeks since the death of Osama bin Laden must have made them think again. After President Obama had announced the death of the most prominent mass-murderer of Americans in recent history, crowds came onto the streets of Washington and New York: sometimes in vigil for the lost lives of September 11, 2001, sometimes more raucously, but all grateful that the most prominent foe of their country was dead.
JUSTIN MAROZZI
Benghazi is bust. The UK government is needlessly witholding funds from the Libyan rebels as they battle Gaddafi's forces. It must free the money now
ALEV SCOTT
The Turkish government's Orwellian attempt to ban all sexual content on the internet has led to the proscription of toy and takeaway websites. "Hot" dinners anyone?
DAVID BARRETT
The judge who resigned over the Man Booker International Prize being awarded to Philip Roth wilfully ignored the author's enduring brilliance
IRWIN STELZER
After success on May 5, Cameron and Osborne can confidently pursue austerity. But first they must abandon the politics of incoherence
JEREMY JENNINGS
After four frustrating years, the French President is unpopular. But as his Socialist rival, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, falters, Sarkozy may yet hang on
CONRAD BLACK
The darling of progressive intellectuals, Michael Ignatieff has just led his party to a shattering and possibly terminal election defeat
KATHARINE BIRBALSINGH
The teaching unions don’t care about teachers or children. They care only about themselves. The result is a broken education system
JULIE BINDEL
In order to encourage Muslim countries to send more women athletes to the Games, the IOC is allowing them to wear the hijab
DANIEL JOHNSON EMANUELE OTTOLENGHI TIM CONGDON JOSHUA ROZENBERG LIONEL SHRIVER MARA DELIUS CHRISTOPHER FILDES DOMINIC LAWSON R. W. JOHNSON SAINTSBURY |
AMITY SHLAES
S.J.D. GREEN
DANIEL JOHNSON
NORMAN LEBRECHT
ROBIN HARRIS
DAVID BARRETT
JONATHAN NEUMANN
ALEV SCOTT
CLIVE JAMES
GREY GOWRIE
- Conduct Unbecoming: The Classical Commentaries of Norman Lebrecht in Standpoint
- Propaganda Shouldn’t Pay
- The US Can Still Help Save Syria — and Iraq
- A Putrid Pact between Devils
- Strangers in their own Holy Land
- The Taboo of the Tombola
- Putin has his Useful Idiots on the Left and the Right
- Russian Resurgence has Blindsided Nato