CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

MICHAEL AXWORTHY ’s book on 18thcentury Iran is forthcoming

RAYMOND CARVER is the author of Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (Vintage)

MARK COUSINS is the author of The Story of Film (Pavilion Books)

STEPHEN EVERSON is writing a book on metaphysics and the mind

CARLO GÉBLER ’s books include The Siege of Derry: A History (Little, Brown)

DAVID GOODHART is editor of Prospect

MICHAEL GRUBB is with the faculty of economics, Cambridge University, and edits the journal Climate Policy

JONATHAN HEAWOOD is editor of the Fabian Review

PARAG KHANNA is the global governance fellow at the Brookings Institution, Washington DC

MAREK KOHN ’s book A Reason for Everything is published by Faber

BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari

ALEXANDER LINKLATER is deputy editor of Prospect

ALEX MCBRIDE is a criminal barrister.

GEOFF MULGAN is director of the Young Foundation and a visiting professor at UCL and LSE

JAN-WERNER MÜLLER teaches politics at Princeton University

BHIKHU PAREKH is a professor at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster

LISA RANDALL is author of Warped Passages (Allen Lane) and a professor of physics at Harvard University

ALASDAIR ROBERTS is the author of Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age , published in December by Cambridge University Press

HELEN SIMPSON ’s short story collection Constitutional is forthcoming from Jonathan Cape

ROGER SMITH is the director of Justice, a human rights organisation

IAN STEWART ’s collection of enigmas and puzzles, The Mayor of Uglyville’s Dilemma (Atlantic Books), will be published in November

ERIK TARLOFF is a novelist and writer

GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT is the author of The Strange Death of Tory England (Allen Lane)

MICHAEL WILLIAMS is director of Asia in the UN department of political affairs

4PROSPECT September 2005

contents Issue one hundred and fourteen September 2005

COVER STORY

24Reclaiming the story

ALEXANDER LINKLATER Prospect is launching a major new annual award designed to honour Britain’s finest story writers and to reestablish the importance of the short story as a central literary form. The National Short Story prize will be the largest award in the world for a single story.

ESSAY 26Principles ofa story

RAYMOND CARVER From Chekhov to James Joyce, the short story has defined modern fiction.

OPINIONS 12Cook ofthe Balkans

MICHAEL WILLIAMS Robin Cook’s finest hours on the political stage came in the Balkans.

12The loss offaith

MICHAEL AXWORTHY Our commitment to the values on which our society is based has been hollowed out.

14Stick to the target

MICHAEL GRUBB The most recent attempt to undermine Kyoto does not make sense.

DEBATE 18Can the Human Rights Act undermine national security?

DAVID GOODHART VSROGER SMITH The Human Rights Act is a welcome constraint on government. But can it threaten our ability to fight terrorism?

ESSAYS 30Cricket’s final over

GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT Despite the interest generated by a thrilling Ashes series, English cricket is dying and will soon cease to be a national sport. Was this inevitable?Or have the authorities hastened its end?

36British commitments

BHIKHU PAREKH Becoming a British citizen involves more than just rights and duties. Immigrants to Britain must develop a moral and emotional commitment to this country.

INTERVIEW 42Charles Tilly

GEOFF MULGAN America’s most prolific and interesting sociologist is unknown in Britain, which shows how far the discipline has faded here. www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

BRIEFING NOTES 46Smashing open the universe

LISA RANDALL In 2007, a high-energy collider near Geneva could start to unlock some of the mysteries of the universe. It may also throw up some extra dimensions.

WITNESS 50Plane to Pakistan

PARAG KHANNA My father fled Lahore as a child. I returned with him to find Indo-Pak rapprochement in full swing, but Pakistan’s internal politics messy.

MY STORY 57Looking for Des

CARLO GÉBLER A writer friend of mine disappeared many years ago. After a sighting of him, I try to track him down. Why?

COLUMNS 10True stories

ALEX MCBRIDE Don’t mess with my motor.

15Washington watch

TUMBLER Hillary Clinton vs Evan Bayh.

23Mini interview

DAVID GOODHART Abdul Wahid of Hizb ut-Tahrir.

29Letter from California

ERIK TARLOFF Decline of the Gubernator.

REGULARS 6Letters 8News & Curiosities plus Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 13 Numbers game THE CRUNCHER 17Chairman’s corner 78The generalist DIDYMUS 79The list

arts&books

70Status anxieties

MAREK KOHN We tend to assume that inequality in affluent societies is a sign of vigour. But actually it kills us.

FICTION 60The door

HELEN SIMPSON Out of grief comes a sudden burst of reassurance.

REVIEWS 66Race and loneliness

JONATHAN HEAWOOD Caryl Phillips’s new novel explores race in American music-halls. But what really interests him is loneliness.

67The lesson ofDeep Throat

ALASDAIR ROBERTS The myth of Watergate encouraged an adversarial media and a distrust of government. But was it for the best?

68Joschka’s journey

JAN-WERNER MÜLLER Joschka Fischer, Germany’s ‘68er foreign minister, is surprisingly sympathetic to neoconservative ideas for transforming the middle east.

COLUMNS 64Private view

BEN LEWIS The “Big Bang”at the Pompidou.

72Cultural tourist The Booker goes corporate. Plus “Under the radar”

77Musical notes

STEPHEN EVERSON The Kirov’s unspeakable naffness.

80Widescreen

MARK COUSINS Hollywood’s third-act problem.

FORTHCOMING

In our tenth anniversary issue

Stella Tillyard interviews Alan Hollinghurst

Michael Lind on mandarin democracy

Peter Watson on university presses

Richard Jenkyns on Philip Pullman

THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROSPECT IS PUBLISHED ON 22ND SEPTEMBER

POLITICAL PUBLICATION OF THE YEAR

Political Studies Association

PROSPECT September 2005 5