NLR 11

articles
Jurgen HabermasWhy Europe Needs a Constitution

Germany’s leading philosopher argues that further development of the European Union requires both a mobilizing political project—positively differentiating the Old World from the New—and a formal Constitution, submitted to a popular referendum.

Edward SaidThe Desertions of Arafat

As pressures mount upon the Palestinians and Israel continues its drive to put down the second Intifada, what kind of leadership does the PNA provide? Excoriating its irresponsibility and corruption, Edward Said issues a call for Arafat’s departure.

Kevin PaskLate Nationalism: The Case of Quebec

The developed world has its own national movements, encased within Spain, the UK and Canada, which have set out to gain the classical objective of independence. How far is their timing likely to affect their trajectory? Kevin Pask considers the example of a postmodern Quebec.

W. J. F. JennerRace and History in China

The official ideology of the PRC has been changing rapidly. Do new definitions of the ‘nation’ imply a greater racial tinge? The author of The Tyranny of History looks at the long sweep of Chinese civilization, and asks whether the current period is seeing a shift away from the general tenor of that past.

Peter GowanNeoliberal Cosmopolitanism

A reigning doctrine of international relations proclaims that, despite everything, the world is entering a new epoch of hopeful cosmopolitanism—narrow state sovereignty being overcome by the common and, where necessary, armed resolve of a ‘Pacific Union’ of democratic nations. What then of the asymmetric hegemony of the United States?

Malcolm BullBetween the Cultures of Capital

T. J. Clark’s landmark study, Farewell to an Idea, takes the art of modernism to be a convulsive attempt to imagine modernity in forms other than the triumph of capitalism. Malcolm Bull suggests it might be better conceived as a fold in the overlap between two contrasting cultures of capitalism, classical and commodity, of which only one is left today.

Leo Chanjen ChenThe Frustrated Architect: The Cinema of Edward Yang

The Taiwanese New Wave has been described by Fredric Jameson as offering the finest cycle of any national cinema since the French. Leo Chanjen Chen explores the achievement of Edward Yang, one of its two greatest masters.

interview
Edward YangTaiwan Stories

An interview with the director, in which he recounts his beginnings in the movies, and talks of the economic and political conditions of film production in Taiwan.

reviews
Mystifications of Paris

Peter Hallward on Dominique Lecourt, The Mediocracy: French Philosophy since the mid-1970s. Doleful tales of the ‘New Philosophers’ in France, and better news beyond them.

Dispatching Lumumba

Linda Melvern on Ludo De Witte, The Assassination of Lumumba. Archival revelations of the way the Belgian government organized the murder of the Congo’s first Prime Minister.

Putin’s Colonial War

Tony Wood on Anna Politkovskaya, A Dirty War. Putin’s campaign of colonial repression in Chechnya, and the contradictions of a courageous journalist’s response.