The 17th century Catholic thinker Blaise Pascal suggested that we imagine believing in God as a wager: Let us weigh up the gain and loss involved in calling heads that God exists. Let us assess the two cases: if you… Continue Reading
Through a fog of parliamentary manoeuvres, the British state is shambling towards a no-deal Brexit, crashing out of the European Union without any transitional arrangements agreed on. Maybe this will be averted thanks to Theresa May’s last-minute approach to Jeremy… Continue Reading
The British political elite, grappling with the process of leaving the European Union, face two fundamental contradictions. The first arises from the balance of power between the remaining EU-27 and Britain. Since British capitalism is so heavily dependent on access… Continue Reading
With the election at the end of October 2018 of Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil, the advance of the far right went global. His astonishing victory followed three years of political crisis that saw the last elected president Dilma… Continue Reading
Few in Ireland would have imagined, even a couple of years ago, that a vote to liberalise abortion would be so decisively won. The referendum on 25 May that repealed the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution which made abortion… Continue Reading
The tenth anniversary of the collapse of the Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2018 has attracted enormous coverage.1 The focus has less been on the actual event itself—indeed Albert Edwards of Société Générale argues that its… Continue Reading
Recent months have been full of ominous signs of deepening conflict between the major players in what Alex Callinicos calls the “multi-level chess game” of Middle Eastern geopolitics.1 In March 2018, Turkish forces entered Syria, forcing tens of thousands to… Continue Reading
Internationally the neoliberal order continues to implode. Donald Trump seems intent on pursuing trade wars with both the United States’ strategic rival China and allies such as the European Union and Canada, while he embraces détente with North Korea, once… Continue Reading
The peace process between the Turkish state and the Kurdish movement reached what everyone thought was its peak in January 2015. It was to die a painful death within two months. At the time the peace negotiations had been going… Continue Reading
For much of Donald Trump’s presidency, a lot of the smart money has been on it being, despite the histrionics in the West Wing, a more erratic version of the standard pro-business right-wing Republican administration à la Ronald Reagan or… Continue Reading