Featured articles
IDEES Magazine Featured Articles is a selection of some of the most interesting articles that have been published in IDEES since its creation in 1999. All the special issues edited until 2018 will be available soon.
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Globalisation and democratic citizenry
According to Chantal Mouffe, currently prevailing political theory is incapable of conceiving a form of democratic politics appropriate for this post-Cold War age of globalisation. For this reason, she believes we must develop and define the basic principles of a new model called “agnostic pluralism”. In the final part of the article, the author presents some reflections on the type of progressive politics she considers most capable of strengthening democratic citizenship in the current age of globalisation. This article forms part of issue 37 of the IDEES magazine, “Democracy is deciding”, published in print format in the January/April 2013 edition.…
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Memory, history and forgetting
In this article, Paul Ricoeur carries out a critical re-reading of his last book, a re-reading that stems from a new viewpoint: in agreement with the lexical definition of history as historiography, he uses writing as a central pillar for historical analysis before moving on to a hermeneutical analysis of reading or, from a broader perspective, the reception of literary accounts of history, both public and private. This article forms part of issue 28-29 of the IDEES magazine, “Memory, history and identity”, published in print format between January and June 2006. The PDF article is available to download in Catalan…
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The ethical wealth of nations
In this article, Tom Donaldson examines the prospect of the ethical advantage of nations, and in particular, of a set of advantages that extend far beyond the simple dimension of trust so often discussed. He considers, further, how such a range of ethical features would be structured, and what the implications of those features would be. The article reached three conclusions: 1) morality may create economic advantages for nations in ways that extend beyond the notion of an idealised market; 2) in order for ethics to drive economic advantage, ethical concepts must rise to the status of intrinsic value; and…
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Interview with Fred Halliday “The main challenge for the twenty-first century is the nature of change in the Islamic world and its relationship with the West”
Between 2004 and 2005, Fred Halliday, Head of International Relations at the London School of Economics, was a visiting professor at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB). Taking advantage of his stay in the city, IDEES arranged for Professor Cesáreo Rodríguez-Aguilera de Prat to interview him. During the interview, Halliday describes identities as a series of symbols and senses, as an understanding of history and language, fluid and changeable from one generation to the next. It seems, therefore, that Huntington’s vision of Islam is thoroughly monolithic and simplistic, and his axiomatic assumption of the inevitability of conflict is mistaken.…
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The real clash of civilisations
Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris claim that Samuel Huntington was only partially right. The cultural fault line dividing the western world from the Islamic world is not democracy but gender. According to a recent study, Muslims and their western counterparts both want democracy, but their views on divorce, abortion, gender equality and the rights of homosexuals are worlds apart; a situation that does not bode well for the future of democracy in the Middle East. This article forms part of issue 23-24 of the IDEES magazine, “Reviewing Huntington and the clash of civilisations”, published in print format in the July/December…
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A war of civilisations?
The power of religion –rather than civilisation– as a central element of many contemporary conflicts (as predicted by British historian Arnold Toynbee); and the challenge of a possible global code of ethics, a minimum of shared values, measures and attitudes, binding for all humankind, are the two cornerstones of an article which synthetically summarises some of the most important contributions of Hans Küng, one of the most internationally recognised Catholic theologians. This article forms part of issue 23-24 of the IDEES magazine, “Reviewing Huntington and the clash of civilisations”, published in print format between July and December 2004. The PDF…
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The emergence of the post-modern state
Robert Cooper advances the argument that by 1989, the international political systems that dominated the last three centuries, balance of power and imperial ambition, met their end in Europe. The year marked not only the end of the Cold War but also and more significantly, the end of the state system in Europe, which had been in effect since the Thirty Years War. The 11th of September 2001 revealed the implications of this change. This article forms part of issue 22 of the IDEES magazine, “Immigration and social cohesion”, published in print format between April and June 2004. The PDF…
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International law in the transition to a postnational constellation
Jürgen Habermas warns that two competing juxtaposed views for a new world order emerged after the first Iraq war. The dispute no longer ranges between Kantian idealists and Schmittan realists, nor does it centre on whether “justice among nations” is possible at all, but whether the law or a dominant unilateral political order is the best medium for realising that kind of justice. Both sides agree on the objectives (securing international peace and stability, democracy and human rights), but not on the best way to achieve them. This article forms part of issue 22 of the IDEES magazine, “The immigration…
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Interview with George Steiner: Legacies and the presence of European spirit
George Steiner embodies, better than any preamble to a constitution, the founding values of Europe. Even more so when he states that dissent is the founding act of creation, or that one must detach himself from what one is, to work on what one might be, when, even in language, he measures the eclipse of messianism and the infiltration of barbarism, or when he underlines the need for society to redefine its culture in order to safeguard its memory and the desire to transmit it. Steiner questions and reassures simultaneously: he challenges with questions both private and shared; he reassures…
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The future of the political left in Europe
This article covers the lecture on The future of left politics in Europe given by Anthony Giddens in Barcelona on the 24th of February 2003. The author reviews the successes and failures of the Third Way and suggests the centre-left position must be reconstructed if it is to win the ideological, tactical and strategic battles necessary for the adaptation and application of its policies in a changing society. This article forms part of issue 19 of the IDEES magazine, “The sources of republicanism”, published in print format between July and September 2003. The PDF article is available to download in…