Capitalism's reality and beyond
NEOLIBERALISM: Capitalist realism is a term for the late capitalist world, where it is not possible to imagine a different and better world – it is what it is. Did neoliberal capital take the form of a wall-to-wall ideology and constitute an affective regime? And was the 'end of history' nothing more than a class project?
It is not possible to wipe out Hamas
HAMAS: Leila Seurat provides a good basis for understanding what went terribly wrong on October 7, when Hamas made a drastic change of course. The purpose of it all was to get the Palestinian cause back on the global agenda, and it has largely succeeded.
Death – more or less real
THE REALITY: We perceive reality very differently. Let me therefore suggest three areas where reality is real, strong and direct for all of us. But also what a new translated book by Pier Paolo Pasolini says about the film's contact with reality.
Political biology
DESIRE: About the intersex subject and revolutionary impatience. A resistance made possible by the 'potentia gaudendi', the reserve of unrestrained 'pleasure potency' which constitutes the basic assumption of the philosophy of desire from Reich to Deleuze and Guattari. 'Polemical non-fiction'? Paul B. Preciado takes up Engels' confrontation with the norms of "the family, the state and private property".
Anti-racism as a totalitarian ideology
IDENTITY: Instead of placing each other in identity-political booths and categories and inflicting shame on each other, we should rather develop a greater degree of forgiveness and generosity.
He was blown up – no one was held responsible
MAFIA: This is a collection of anecdotal testimonies about a self-destructive social machinery with the mafia as its cornerstone. It deals with the mafia in Sicily, but also the war in Vietnam, Palestinian rights, environmental protection, class society, legal abortion and women's liberation.
The world's best Catholics?
CANADA: With the discovery of children's graves in Canada, the Canadians are arguably making the Irish rank as "the world's best Catholics". Children from First Nations were outright stolen, imprisoned in isolation, forced into a foreign culture, a foreign language, subjected to sexual abuse and general neglect.
A woman's struggle with reality
WOMEN OF EUROPE: In our interview series with European women, Sweden's former Foreign and Vice Prime Minister Margot Wallström is the latest. She believes that we are currently living in a world of autocrats, where Nordic welfare values have poor conditions.
To be a stranger in one's own town
IRAQ: The Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has written an excellent book that dispels the typical view of a sectarian and divided society as the main cause of Iraq's long and continuing tragedy.
Good value for money?
There is intense debate in France and France-speaking Africa about the use of the CFA monetary unit.
Security for sale
The security agents in Africa contribute to the security of some, in certain areas and sometimes, but also mix roles.
The hangover of colonialism
AFRICA: What is civilization, what is belonging, how much can a human being endure, and who are the wild, the heartless?
Which African intellectuals…
Intellectuals: Inspired both by Bakhtin and Foucault, Stephen Chan presents Achille Mbembe's analyzes of the African state in an understandable way. But let's mention what the book leaves out.
Russia's Africa policy
AFRICA: Russia has been very keen on the principle of non-interference and has allowed authoritarian regimes to pursue their own policies without making any political demands for their trade or aid. But they gave debt relief to a number of African countries at the same time as signing several military-technical agreements.
An Italian photo cavalcade
PHOTO: It would be almost fifty years before Paolo di Paolo's daughter found the pictures his father had taken, and confronted him with his hitherto unknown past as a (Italian) celebrity photographer.
French warriors and Norwegian soldiers in the Sahel
THEY HAD: No one in the Norwegian government can have read Nathaniel Powell's new book France's War in Chad: Military Intervention and Decolonization in Africa. Had they done so, they would never have sent Norwegian soldiers to the French military force Takuba in Mali.
The military-industrial complex
MODERN TIMES CONVERSATIONS: From someone who should know the intricacies of foreign policy and geopolitics: Thorbjørn Jagland on military rearmament and enemy images – when it comes to the USA, Russia, China, Turkey and Libya.
Elite liberalism + mass nationalism = true
For political scientist Jean François Bayart, globalization and the development of national identity are complementary processes.
Nuclear war?
GHOST? With the renewed threat of nuclear war, MODERN TIMES shines a spotlight on an earlier book. Are nuclear weapons suitable for blackmailing other countries – coercive diplomacy? No, according to these authors.
Camille, Hannah, Lisa, Pauline and Flora
WOMEN: Art done by men is simply given more attention: in collections, in exhibition programs, in art literature, in the art market. But what about the large number of female artists over the past 500 years?
The military ambitions of the oil states
ARMS: There are a number of developments in the three oil states of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, which Jean-Loup Samaan researches in his latest book. These are the three oil states that account for 17 percent of all arms purchases worldwide. Saudi Arabia's desire to become a nuclear power in order to stand up to Iran.
What tricks does the Catholic Right have to resort to in order to define itself…
THE WEST: European culture is "characterized by a melancholy feeling due to its alienation or inferiority to a source that evokes a nostalgic feeling". Really?
The end of the story – and the beginning
FREEDOM: 'University' was a code word for prison, completing the exam meant serving a prison sentence. Albania's transformation was thorny. On the altar of freedom, factories went bankrupt, jobs disappeared, thousands fled to Italy on overcrowded ships.
ChatGPT – an impersonal paradigm shift?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Is it only now that individualism, the cultivation of individuals, with new technology such as ChatGPT, is about to change?
Nuanced about Boko Haram
Over the past three years, Hilary Matfess has interviewed a number of women who have been liberated from Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria. She challenges the reader to nuance her image of the group.