In the January 13, 2011 issue
The Grim Threat to British Universities
Simon Head
The British universities, Oxford and
Cambridge included, are under siege from a system of state control that
is undermining the one thing upon which their worldwide reputation
depends: the caliber of their scholarship.
Where Do We Go from Here?
Paul Krugman and Robin Wells
Despite what optimists within the White
House may believe, the odds are not good for a repeat of 1996, when Bill
Clinton made a startling political comeback after suffering a drubbing
in the previous midterm elections. Clinton, after all, presided over a
booming economy; in contrast, Obama presides over an economy that has
suffered a severe financial crisis.
The Great Adventure of Sergei Diaghilev
Arlene Croce
Diaghilev's misogyny was probably
exacerbated by lovers who repeatedly left him for women. His response to
Massine's affair with the dancer Vera Savina was to get her drunk,
force her to strip, and throw her bodily into bed with Massine,
shouting, "Behold your beau ideal!"
Curveballs
Joseph Lelyveld
On Decision Points by George W. Bush.
China: From Famine to Oslo
Perry Link
Today's "rising China," which from the
outside can seem to exude strength and confidence, inwardly lives with
an unsure view of itself. People sense, even if they do not want to talk
about it, that their country's current system is grounded partly in
fraud, cannot be relied upon to treat people fairly, and might not hold
up.
- Ian Johnson: Finding the Facts About Mao's Victims
The Beleaguered Cambodians
Margo Picken
More than thirty years after an estimated
two million people died at the hands of Pol Pot's regime, trials of
senior Khmer Rouge leaders and those most responsible for the deaths are
at last taking place in Cambodia.
- Stéphanie Giry: Cambodia's Perfect War Criminal
Bring Back the Rails!
Tony Judt
If we lose the railways we shall not just
have lost a valuable practical asset whose replacement or recovery would
be intolerably expensive. We shall have acknowledged that we have
forgotten how to live collectively.
The Way Out of Afghanistan
Ahmed Rashid
Here is a possible ten-step approach,
involving all the players, that is intended to build trust and
confidence in the region so that ultimately negotiations with the
Taliban can take place.
The Concealed Battle to Run Russia
Amy Knight
Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, and his
prime minister, Vladimir Putin, apparently cannot agree on one
question—which of them will be running for the Russian presidency in
March 2012.
Why WikiLeaks Changes Everything
Christian Caryl
We can act as if the old standards of journalism still apply to the Internet, but WikiLeaks shows why this is wishful thinking.
Plus: Mary Beard on Cleopatra,
Adam Michnik on Andrei Sakharov, Michael Kimmelman on Leo Castelli, Sue
Halpern on Oliver Sacks, poems by John Ashbery and Charles Simic, Peter
Brooks on the hidden Paris underground, and more.
