Contents over story 36 What are we fighting for?

A Prospect panel in conversation with Britain’s top soldier David Richards on the future of warfare.

regulars 6 Prospect recommends he pick of the month’s events. 10 Diary Bye bye Belgium, plus tom chatfield on censorship, nigel warburton on holiday reading & stephen nickell on the deficit. 16 Letters plus stephen collins’s cartoon strip.

opinions 18 How to live with the bomb

America could benefit from a nuclear Iran. david patrikarakos 20 Don’t blame the hedgies

Hedge funds didn’t cause the crisis. jonathan ford 21 Life after Griffin he future is still bright for the far right. matthew goodwin 21 Murdoch is right

If you value good journalism, then pay for it. joy lo dico 22 Make them work longer ublic-sector workers should retire later. tim leunig correspondents 24 Washington watch he Republican sisterhood. renegade 25 Brussels diary

Ashdown’s job search. manneken pis 26 China café

Bending the rules. mark kitto 27 Letter from Dublin

Zombie hotels. colin murphy 28 Letter from Chemnitz

Karl Marx’s city. william cook eatures 31 Who are the Liberal Democrats?

he party needs to reconcile its ideological tensions says james crabtree, plus dick leonard on Lib-Con coalitions in history. 42 Germany’s withdrawal symptoms he euro crisis has exposed the country’s trend toward solipsism and nationalism. hans kundnani 46 Losing our minds to the web

A new American book claims that the internet is damaging our ability to think. But the web’s real dangers lurk elsewhere. evgeny morozov 50 Growing pains

Allotments were once the preserve of the working class. But now the middle class is encroaching on its territory. katharine quarmby & tom green science & technology 54 Sea change

Microalgae could be the world’s new source of energy. philip hunter 56 Lab report philip ball 57 How the beat goes on hedding light on the mysterious art of keeping time. philip ball 58 Giving people what they want

Want to know which treatments work best? Try asking patients. sophie petit-zeman 58 The month ahead anjana ahuja columnIStS 5 If I ruled the world

We should tax mirrors. james hawes 8 Political notes he alternative vote isn’t worth it. anne mcelvoy 14 Crisis watch till too big to fail. simon johnson 59 Sporting life he FA’s troubles. david goldblatt 88 Dear Wilhemina Should I expose a literary cheat?

arts & books 61 Loving the lost and monstrous

French film director Claire Denis talks to hermione eyre. 62 Writers without borders er Wästberg on chairing the Nobel prize for literature. tom chatfield 64 Cultural notebook

BT is sapping our privacy. sam leith 65 Go figure!

A passionate, witty new book—about mathematics. ian stewart 66 A man for all seasons

A fine biography of Montaigne should win him new admirers. ac grayling 68 Smallscreen atch up with TV. peter bazalgette 69 As clear as mud

Does our ability to see colours depend on language? jonathan r�e 72 Stage directions pen-air theatre. michael coveney 74 Words that think for us iberal. edward skidelsky 74 The way we were

Diary extracts on duels. ian irvine 75 Performance notes

Glyndebourne. martin kettle 76 FiveBooks ecommended reading from xinran

FICTION 78 Save as Many as You Ruin

A new story by simon van booy and finally 85 Enigmas & puzzles ian stewart 86 The generalist didymus 87 The Prospect list july 2010 · prospect · 3