The recent financial crisis marked the fourth systemic transformation of the global capitalist system, comparable to the upheavals that followed the great inflation of the 1970s, the great depression of the 1930s and the period of geopolitical turmoil that culminated with Wellington’s victory over Napoleon in 1815. The new politico-economic system emerging from the crisis can therefore be described as the fourth distinctive version of capitalism: Capitalism 4.0.
The political thought of John Gray offers an unflinching vision of the world, a world divided by refractory ways of life, stressed by the looming conflicts over natural resources and scorched by irreversible patterns of global warming. Gray’s vision of the world is none too cheerful, and prescribed throughout his numerous analyses of today’s most pressing problems is a sobering dose of realism. Gray has repeatedly emphasized that many of our greatest problems are incurable and that the best we can hope to achieve is to minimise their symptoms
In his seminal article The Tragedy of the Commons, Garret Hardin described a dilemma whereby individuals, acting independently and in rational pursuit of their own self-interest, will ultimately destroy shared, limited resources, even when it is accepted that this is not in anyone’s long-term interests. Today, climate campaigners see this unfolding before their eyes. But what does it mean for the study of advocacy politics?
During the apparent peak of the so-called Global Financial Crisis in 2009, a flurry of descriptions of the crisis as a ‘mancession’ emerged. To ignore or trivialise gender in the global economy is to fail to appreciate the power of a basic and fundamental system of identification through which we understand the world; a system that organises how we respond to our environments, our abilities to survive, our goals in life, and how we approach our relationships.
Despite growth, women continue to constitute only 19% of all parliamentarians worldwide. Quotas are a diverse set of measures that can reach the political agenda for both feminist and non-feminist reasons, leading to diverse effects on the election and empowerment of women. Whilst necessary, more systematic research is needed in order to determine their impact on women as a group.
The political disturbances in Thailand over recent weeks ended with a military crackdown in the third week of May. At least 89 people, including two foreign journalists, died in the clashes, and over 1800 were injured. More than thirty buildings in central Bangkok were set on fire. An election may or may not be called before the end of 2010. Attempts at reconciliation have so far come to nothing, and unless injustices and inequalities are addressed by policies of the national government, further unrest is unavoidable.
What is multiculturalism? Is it a concept that is often uncritically used in the contemporary ‘civic’ and academic discourse, whereby those who employ it rarely feel the need to define it? Is it the state of affairs in some countries, the fact that several cultures coexist there, or perhaps some ideal that is still to be reached, something that implies political and social changes in a society? What if three cultures on the same territory promote cultural dogmas which are mutually irreconcilable?
Greece is tiny, its economy only 3 per cent of the EU. But just as the world appeared to be clawing its way out of financial turmoil and recession, Greece reminded the markets that countries, as well as banks, can go bust. The EU has changed its poorer members less than its founders imagined. Perhaps this crisis—the most serious in the EU since its creation, according to Angela Merkel—will finally persuade Greece, and the other weaker economies, to make the reforms they have ducked since joining the euro.
China’s mild response to the March 2010 sinking of South Korean navy warship Cheonan has frustrated many people. It has not joined the United States, Japan, and South Korea in openly condemning Pyongyang and threatening punitive measures. What explains China’s fence-sitting on this issue? What is China interest on the Korean peninsula?
To the extent that The Wire has had anything to say about the events of 9/11, which it implicitly comments upon during its five seasons, it is the message of continuity that stands out. Too much has been made about how the world changed on 9/11. And while it would be altogether fraught to claim that nothing has changed, it is also true that the world which existed before 9/11 continues to exist today.
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