CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

REZA ASLAN is the author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam (William Heinemann)

BOB BISCHOF is vice chairman of the German-British Forum

RICHARD BOURKE lectures in history at Queen Mary, University of London

PAUL BROKS is the author of Into the Silent Land (Atlantic Books)

BARTLE BULL is an author and journalist

NICK CLEGG is Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Hallam

LINDA COLLEY is professor of history at Princeton University

DAVID FLEMING is author of the forthcoming book The Lean Economy

DAVID HERMAN is a television producer and writer

CHARLES JENCKS is the author of The Iconic Building (Frances Lincoln)

DANIEL JOHNSON is writing a book about chess and the cold war

TIM KING is a writer living in France

BEN LEWIS ’s film about Wim Delvoye will appear in the series Art Safari on BBC4 later this year

MAGNUS LINKLATER is a columnist for the Times and Scotland on Sunday

DAVID LIPSEY is chair of the electoral reform group Make Votes Count

JOHN LLOYD edits the FT magazine

ALEX MCBRIDE is a criminal barrister living in London

BILL MCGUIRE is director of the Benfield hazard research centre at UCL and author of Surviving Armageddon (OUP)

MICHAEL MOORCOCK is the author of Mother London (Scribner)

FINTAN O’TOOLE is a columnist for the Irish Times

BOB ROWTHORN is a professor of economics at Cambridge University

KAMILA SHAMSIE ’s most recent novel is Broken Verses (Bloomsbury)

IAN STEWART is a professor of mathematics at Warwick University

DEYAN SUDJIC is the author of The Edifice Complex (Allen Lane)

NATASHA WALTER edited On the Move: Feminism for a New Generation (Virago)

PATRICK WEST is author of The Poverty of Multiculturalism (Civitas, forthcoming)

4PROSPECT June 2005

contents Issue one hundred and eleven June 2005

COVER STORY

22Can we still believe in iconic buildings?

CHARLES JENCKS VS

DEYAN SUDJIC

Norman Foster’s “gherkin” in London, Frank Gehry’s Bilbao Guggenheim—is this the age of the iconic building?Or are they just expressions of political and architectural vanity?Two leading critics debate.

Jencks & Sudjic will also debate at the

Hay festival. See page 58 for details

OPINIONS 12Democracy ofbelievers

REZA ASLAN For a model that combines democracy and belief Iraq should look to Israel.

14No more uranium

DAVID FLEMING There is not enough uranium on the planet for a global nuclear industry.

15Locusts out

BOB BISCHOF Germany is rightly worried that its model is being hollowed out.

16The blind voter

DAVID LIPSEY The case for electoral reform is stronger than ever.

17A bitter consensus

RICHARD BOURKE Because the violence is over Northern Irish voters are free to back hardliners.

ESSAYS 28Cold war chess

DANIEL JOHNSON The rise and fall of chess in the 20th century was intimately linked with the cold war. Deprived of the menace that characterised that era, chess is no longer the force it once was.

34Prejudice & evolution

NATASHA WALTER If the forward march of women has slowed, it is partly because of new scientific claims that remaining sex inequality is grounded in human nature. Most of the theories do not bear close examination.

40Catastrophe watch

BILL McGUIRE Mega-tsunamis, super-eruptions and cosmic winters—such events are not just science fiction. The tsunami has helped focus minds on the potential dangers. We must act now.