Guest Thinkers

The head of the UN Environmental Programme’s Green Economy Initiative, Pavan Sukhdev, sits down for tea with The Economist to discuss how to assign an economic value to nature.

A lengthy investigation by the Washington Post reveals the resurgence of the military-industrial complex since 9/11 and how expensive and unaccountable private contractors fill our ranks.

Leonardo da Vinci didn’t invent the sfumato technique, which produced the “smoky” effects of masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, but he may have perfected it. For centuries, art experts […]

Paris doesn’t pause. The New York Times cover story today on a scandal consuming the city noted that “this being France, a film will be made, and comparisons to the […]

Racial animosity is racial animosity, whatever flavor it comes in – southern redneck scorn, poorly disguised northern liberal contempt, conservative country club hatred, or the calculated disdain of minority elites […]

Last week, the NAACP passed a resolution at its annual convention asking Tea Party leaders to condemn the racists in their ranks. The NAACP was right on the money. Regardless […]

“The most underrepresented groups on elite campuses often aren’t racial minorities; they’re working-class whites (and white Christians in particular) from conservative states and regions.”

“Us ranchers on the Great Plains are used to adapting. City folk could learn much from the way we use our scarce resources.” One conservationist rancher writes about her hopes for The Guardian.

“Any effort to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians must reckon with the fact that bitter experience has taught many Israelis to doubt that their foes want a lasting concord.”

“The mass-deportation fantasies of some restrictionists notwithstanding, the great majority of ‘illegals’ are here to stay.” The New Yorker draws the borderlines of the real immigration debate.

Is there a coastal area close to your heart? Imagine the water there 23 feet higher than it is now. Sea levels are rising, and it can be painful to […]

To coin a phrase by Britain’s pre Second World Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, “It is a faraway country of which we know little”. Chamberlain was of course referring to Czechoslovakia, […]

Between the equally persuasive arguments for and against monogamy exists real life. Michael Thomsen at The Faster Times came and went from monogamy but remains monoamorous.

In evolutionary terms, menopause is something of a mystery since it inhibits further reproduction. The Economist explains the evolutionary advantages of having a grandmother.

“This week, the government released thousands of previously classified documents on the war in Vietnam. Bob Kerrey on why we should pay attention.” Read it at The Daily Beast.

“There is certainly some strange power that has some overlook on me & directing my life,” Winslow Homer wrote in a letter to his brother late in his life. “That […]

One of the most memorable moments during the recent World Cup in South Africa was the series of games played on that nation’s Youth Day on June 16th. This confluence […]

David Mitchell is the subject of the latest Paris Review Interview. He is charming. When asked, “Are you a storyteller outside of your writing?” he replies, “No. I botch jokes […]

If your company were taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices, you’d probably be shouting it from the rooftops, right? Actually, says Greenbiz.com editor Joel Makower, […]

Did you know that clothes dryers – generally speaking – use about nine times as much energy as do clothes washers? An energy-and-the-home graphic spread in Dwell Magazine’s July/August issue […]

What is the future of the workplace? Is new technology making the traditional office more efficient or is it making it extinct? Which innovations provide real solutions? These are some […]

The Israeli parliament may soon offer a legal definition of who is actually Jew, giving the country’s Orthodox rabbis control of all conversions in Israel.

Wall Street II features a hedge fund manager. What will he be like? N+1 editor Keith Gessen has published a book,Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous […]

“Just rejoice at this news!” So said Mrs Thatcher outside Downing Street as Prime Minister on news that the Royal Marines had recaptured the uninhabited, ice bound island of South […]

If I were Obama–I would have taken a different approach after hearing about the BP Oil Spill. 1. I would have removed BP from being in charge of this operation […]

We’ve all had well-meaning friends remind us that there are “plenty of other fish in the sea,” but the phrase may not be the most fitting fortune-cookie counsel for breakup-ees […]

I watched TV last night with a buddy of mine whose wife is out of town. That means we got to drink beers and curse at the people on TV […]

When Huang Rui first set up the 798 Space Gallery in 2002, shortly after returning to China after years of exile for his anti-Communist regime art, he knew he could […]

IN what will be seen as a significant ratcheting up of the pressure on isolated North Korea, South Korea is considering major changes in its relations with China – up […]

“Mad, bad and dangerous”, these are the epithets apparently attached to Gordon Brown, our previous Prime Minister by Tony Blair our previous Prime Minister but one. They form the centre […]