ISSUE 149 AUGUST 2008

Contributors to this issue

ANDREW ADONIS is minister for schools

PHILIP BALL ’s novel The Sun and Moon Corrupted is published by Portobello

TONY BARNETT is co-author of AIDS in the Twenty-First Century (Palgrave)

PETER BAZALGETTE was an independent television producer for 20 years

PAUL BROKS is a neuropsychologist and author of Into the Silent Land (Atlantic)

STEPHEN CHAN is a professor of international relations at Soas

EDWARD CHANCELLOR is a financial journalist and author

MARK COUSINS ’s collected Prospect columns are forthcoming from Wallflower Press

PHILIP COWLEY is professor of government at Nottingham University

STEPHEN EALES is a professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University

MARY FITZGERALD is assistant editor of Prospect

DAVID GOLDBLATT is the author of The Ball is Round (Penguin)

AC GRAYLING is a philosopher

PETER GRIFFITHS is an economist

TESSA HADLEY ’s Sunstroke and Other Stories is published by Jonathan Cape

ANDREW KEEN is the author of The Cult of the Amateur (Nicholas Brealey)

TIM KING is a writer living in France

MARK KITTO runs a caféé near Shanghai

BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari

ANATOL LIEVEN is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation

EDWARD LUTTWAK ’s book The Middle of Nowhere (Atlantic) is forthcoming

ALEX MCBRIDE is a criminal barrister

ANSHUMAN A MONDAL is a senior lecturer in English at Brunel University

JO-ANN MORT writes frequently about Israeli and Palestinian issues

KAMRAN NAZEER is a civil servant and a contributing editor to Prospect

ALASDAIR PALMER is the public policy editor of the Sunday Telegraph

DAVID PERRY is a TV and radio producer and author of Jazz Greats (Phaidon)

RICHARD REEVES is director of Demos

ALEX RENTON is writing a book about the rise of the food industry

SIOBHAN ROBERTS is the author of King of Infinite Space (Profile)

IAN STEWART is a mathematician

contents

Coverstory 22A Truman for our times The received wisdom is that President Bush has been a foreign policy disaster,and that America is threatened by the economic growth of Asia.Both claims are wrong,says Edward Luttwak—Bush has successfully rolled back jihadism,and the US will benefit from Asian growth

Opinions

12Fighting John McCain McCain’s hot temper and patriotism are part of his Scots-Irish heritage. Where might they lead him? ANATOL LIEVEN

13Fair trade isn’t fair Fair trade distorts the market and benefits a few at the expense of the many. PETER GRIFFITHS

14The resilient moderates Election wipeout for Labour won’t leave the party as a socialist rump. PHILIP COWLEY

15Barghouti’s hour A jailed Fatah leader may be the man to broker middle east peace. JO-ANN MORT

16Bearing up Shares have been in a bear market for years. We just didn’t notice it until now. EDWARD CHANCELLOR

17Blackboard idealism Top graduates are once again returning to teaching. ANDREW ADONIS

17Tuscan carbuncles Tuscany and Umbria are being ruined by architecturally illiterate developers. ALASDAIR PALMER

Essays

28A question of character The idea of “good character”sounds oldfashioned and patronising, but it may be the key to entrenched social problems. Politicians across the spectrum are starting to realise this. RICHARD REEVES

34A Muslim middle way? Ed Husain, founder of the Quilliam Foundation, lumps together divergent forms of political Islam. If the foundation is to help steer British Muslims away from extremism, it will need to adopt a more nuanced approach to politics. ANSHUMAN A MONDAL

The guide

39The Beijing Olympics 2008 The 2008 Beijing Olympics will be the most expensive games ever and loaded with more symbolic ambition than any since Berlin 1936. Prospect ’s guide takes you through the political and cultural landscape of this gargantuan global sporting festival. DAVID GOLDBLATT

Portrait

50Arianna Huffington The Greek-born socialite has shaken up American political media with her website the Huffington Post . But by revolutionising news, might she also be in danger of destroying it? ANDREW KEEN

Witness

54The tragedy of Tsvangirai Robert Mugabe stole the Zimbabwean election with violence and intimidation. But Morgan Tsvangirai unwittingly helped him. How did the opposition leader come to lose his bearings? STEPHEN CHAN

2 Prospect AUGUST2008 Special report

58What next for cosmology In recent decades, new technologies have revolutionised our understanding of the universe. The big remaining questions— on dark matter and the universe’s accelerating expansion—are turning cosmology into Big Science. STEPHEN EALES

Columns

10Out of mind That’s disgusting. PAUL BROKS

19Washington watch Can Obama win the south? TUMBLER

20Matters of taste Noodle soup for breakfast. ALEX RENTON

33China café é Tourist crap—literally. MARK KITTO

38Lab report Don’t forget about bird flu. PHILIP BALL

48France profonde The plan for the banlieues . TIM KING

62Brussels diary Barroso lovebombs Sarkozy. MANNEKEN PIS

88Common law My first jury trial. Yikes. ALEX McBRIDE

Regulars

4Letters 6News & curiosities 8Grayling’s question AC GRAYLING 8Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 81Classifieds 86The generalist 87The list

Forthcoming

PHILIP DELVES BROUGHTON on what’s wrong with Harvard Business School

GWYNETH LEWIS reviews Janna Levin

KEVIN JACKSON plays Guy Debord’s situationist board game The next issue of Prospect will be published on 28th August

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Archives Every article from every issue of Prospect .

64Married love Lottie is nineteen, a musician, and has fallen in love with a great man. What could be simpler? TESSA HADLEY

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Reviews

70Summer books Which books should you pack for your summer holiday and which should you leave behind? IAN RANKIN & OTHERS

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ShopProspect ’s new Politico’s bookshop. Plus, buy binders and back issues.

74Migration fiction moves on The last half century has seen migration shift from an exceptional to a normal aspect of global life. As Eva Hoffman’s latest novel shows, it remains an impetus for enduring art. KAMRAN NAZEER

76Smaller is beautiful Grand opera is a heritage industry in decline. Yet a new wave of “mini”operas are setting out to woo fresh audiences. SIOBHAN ROBERTS

77The fallacy of the condom Helen Epstein’s book is a vital exposition of the need to rescue the debate on HIV prevention in Africa from ideology. TONY BARNETT

79A Bosnian chimera Aleksandar Hemon’s new novel deftly blends two contrasting tales of exile in America. MARY FITZGERALD

Arts columns

72Private view Vilhelm Hammershøi painted the void.

BEN LEWIS

73Musical notes Saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch.

DAVID PERRY

80Widescreen Iraq needs filmmaking. MARK COUSINS

85Smallscreen I love Doctor Who . PETER BAZALGETTE

Web exclusives

DAVID GOLDBLATT ’s Olympic guide continues online with the best Olympic books, films and websites ROBERT MCFARLAND on police reform

CHRISTIAN TYLER interviews Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng

Online archive Revisit our past coverage of some of the topics covered in this issue.

US foreign policy

RADEK SIKORSKI interviews Paul Wolfowitz

MICHAEL LIND looks ahead to the world after Bush

JOSHUA KURLANTZICK on what the Dems should do in foreign policy

Cosmology

MICHIO KAKU ’s plan to escape the universe before it ends

JOHN MADDOX vs LEE SMOLIN on the theory of everything

STEPHEN HAWKING ’s even briefer history of time

MARTIN REES maps the cosmos

British Islam

SHIV MALIK traces the life of Mohammad Sidique Khan

AATISH TASEER interviews British jihadist Hassan Butt

EHSAN MASOOD on modernising British Islam

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