03 August 2009
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From the Editor…
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
Features
Pleading for peace, again
King Hussein and my father, Yitzhak Rabin, ended war between Jordan and Israel in 1994. Why can’t today’s leaders show similar courage?
Too little, too late
Even as the government has lost all confidence, its policies have grown bold. But is anybody listening now?
Obama’s empire
The 44th president of the United States was elected amid hopes that he would roll back his country’s global dominance. Today, he is commander-in-chief of an unprecedented network of military bases that is still expanding.
Two cheers for the US empire!
What is historically distinct about US power is that it has quite remarkably enabled the spread of human liberty and representative government, through time and across cultures.
Coming soon to Obama’s backyard . . .
Obama is continuing the history of US interventionism in Latin America with plans for a series of military bases in Colombia
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
Let this be the fifth – and final – inquiry into the Iraq catastrophe
The Chilcot inquiry must lead a revolution in honesty and tell us how Britain and the US came to collaborate on the most spectacular foreign policy catastrophe in living memory.
First Thoughts
Brown’s Churchill moment
. . . on affordable debt, the dangers of exercise, and cricketing legends
The Politics Column
Jewish leaders turn on Tories
Europe's Jewish leaders express concern over the Tories' links with Polish MEP Michal Kaminski
World Citizen
A tale of two depressions
Come the next catastrophe, we will rue governments’ cowardice in failing to reform the banks
Down & Out in London
Down and out in London
The children have come to love the Hovel. They look on it as a combination of pirate’s lair and funhouse
Culture
Beyond belief
The comedy scene has become the latest arena for the God debate. A new wave of irreverent, atheist stand-ups are taking on the rise of religion.
Festival and Fringe: Our critics pick the best of Edinburgh
The best art, theatre, comedy, music and dance at this year's festival
Film
Kambakkht Ishq (12A)
There’s no need for Bollywood to appeal to Middle England – it’s a success already
Television
The Scandalous Adventures of Lord Byron
Are we really only capable of viewing history through the prism of “celebrity”
Books
Perfecting Sound Forever: the Story of Recorded Music
The tale of the tape
Try Me
High on her own hype
We Are All Made of Glue
Human, all too human
