We Can Work with Hamas

Just as the Arab Spring blossomed, the al‐Qaeda‐led era of terrorism came to an end with the killing of Osama Bin Laden in his Pakistani lair by American special forces. We asked two of the most contentious experts on all things Islamic—Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Tariq Ramadan—to assess the meaning of these historic moments on the future. Amr Moussa, the leading candidate for Egypt's presidency, and Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister, also offer their views. Two top former intelligence agents from MI6 and the CIA look at the next turn of events—the Saudi counter‐revolution.     

阿巴斯能否续写巴以和平

今年3月,巴勒斯坦民族权力机 构首次在阿拉法特主席之下设立了总理职务,并任命马哈茂德·阿巴斯担当这一要职。在巴以和平长期处于僵局的情况下,巴勒斯坦的这一举措引起了国际社会的广泛关注。     

非洲经济能否实现起飞?

随着时代的发展,近年来,一向被认为是世界最贫穷落后的非洲,经济也呈现出较为喜人的发展势头,GDP增速、通货膨胀、财政赤字等宏观经济指标大多呈相对健康发展之势,基础设施和社会事业有所改善,人民生活水平有所提高,各方对近中期内的发展前景也普遍较为乐观.     

Only Full Integration Can Save Europe

The sovereign debt problem in Europe, ignited by Greece, has morphed into an economic crisis challenging the solvency of major banks and countries as well as a generalized crisis of governance. Lacking the legitimacy of public support, the leaders of the European Union's fledgling institutions have been indecisive and unable to contain the looming danger of financial contagion. Along with the economic slowdown in the United States, instability and volatility in Europe threaten to derail the fragile global recovery. In this section, several former European leaders as well as political figures from the emerging economies offer their ideas on how to fix Europe and stem the global threat.     

Why Political Competition Can Increase Patronage

Patronage is important in developing countries, but its relationship to political competition has received little attention. Major literatures generate opposing predictions. In the good governance and democracy literatures, robust political competition is the antidote to patronage. But for scholars studying the process of democratization, competitive politics is associated with heightened social tensions and instability. Using data from an original survey covering 88% of local governments in Ghana, I show that political competition can increase patronage: where local elections are closely fought by the two main parties, local governments provide significantly more public sector jobs. I use qualitative data from 9 months of fieldwork to show the causal channel. I find a bottom-up phenomenon in which pressures for patronage come from parties’ own volunteers. Volunteers actively use their parties’ vulnerability in competitive elections to extract rewards. I locate the root of volunteers’ power in the nature of the party system, and I demonstrate that for 19 African countries, variation in party system strength is linked to certain forms of clientelism. These findings challenge assumptions that competitive politics will reduce patronage, as well as assumptions that a decline in one form of clientelism means a decline in all forms of clientelism.     

Economic Crisis Can Deepen Global Links

As the global financial crisis emanating from the United States shuts down world markets, can globalization survive? Will the resurgent intrusion of the state—and thus politics—into the market lead to protectionism and collapse, as was the case in the early 20th century? Or will the new interconnectivity of climate change and mutual economic dependence—especially between China and the US—deepen global links? The former mayor of Shanghai, legendary Nobel economist Paul Samuelson and Third Way guru Anthony Giddens ponder those questions in this section.     

Literature Can Close the Fear Gap

Post-national literature is a new genre of writing for a new era beyond boundaries. In this section, we present interviews and comments adapted from conversations with authors from India, Iran, Lebanon, Turkey, Argentina, China and Austria—all but one of whom now live outside their countries, often writing in a language not their own.
Most of the conversations and interviews were conducted by Michael Skafidas, the former editor of Greek NPQ , in New York at the time of the PEN Festival of International Literature, organized by Salman Rushdie. Ha Jin was interviewed by Jehangir Pocha. Gao Xingjian's contribution is adapted from his lecture upon winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.     

美国能否改造伊拉克?

美国能否把伊拉克改造成为一个“民主”国家?国际和国内对此问题的看法和判断是多方面的。我个人的意见是,存在一些对美国有利的因素,当然也存在着一些困难。 就有利因素而言,首先,美国具有改变他国政治制度的多种手段和丰富经验。强大的军事力量是实现其目的重要依靠,在第二次世界大战以后,几乎所有重要的政治制度变化事件都与美国有关。大致说来,美国在改变或改造他国政治制度上分以下几个阶段:第一个阶段(40～50年代),军事占领日本和德国并把这两个国家的法西斯政体改造为代议制民主政体;第二个阶段(50～60年代),以暗杀、物资援助等手段扶植亲     

"会说话"的非洲鼓

若是像有人形容的那样,非洲人是跳着舞来到这个世界,跳着舞生活劳作,又跳着舞离开人世的话,那么,也可以说非洲人从出生到死亡一刻也离不开鼓,因为有舞便有鼓.非洲人与鼓的关系极为密切,每逢节日、婚丧、祭祀,人们总是击鼓,同时载歌载舞.丰富多彩的鼓类乐器,和非洲人民结下了不解之缘.不论男女老幼,几乎人人都会击鼓.鼓已经成为非洲人生活和文化的重要组成部分.     

Massive Change: Now Everyone Can Design Solutions

Civilizations are mortal. Some rise to meet their challenges, others collapse and disappear into history. Why do some posses the capacity to change, and others not? Jared Diamond warns that the Anthropocentric Age, in which the human species for the first time is the dominant influence on the planet, could end up like the extinct Maya, terminating our civilization's accomplishments if we don't squarely face our ecological challenges. Bruce Mau, like Alvin Toffler, sees hope in the “distributed power” enabled by new technologies. Jared Cohen and Eric Schmidt examine the paradoxes of the digital age which has transformed how we live our lives in every respect.