Ian Buruma
Ian Buruma is Professor of Democracy and Human Rights at Bard College. His latest book, Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents, has just been published by Princeton University Press.
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2010-03-08
| The Netherlands' recent decision to withdraw its forces from NATO operations in Afghanistan reflects more than mere domestic frustration that no partner country was willing to relieve Dutch troops, as promised. A military alliance without a clear common enemy, or a clear goal, becomes almost impossible to maintain. ... read |
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2010-02-08
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The French parliament wants to ban Muslim women from wearing the burqa – the full, face-covering garment worn by some orthodox believers – in public places. But, while no woman should be forced to cover herself up, nor, in a pluralist society, should anyone be forced not to.... read |
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2010-01-07
| With China's economy still roaring ahead and success following success in foreign policy, the Chinese government, under the Communist Party, has every reason to feel confident. So why did a gentle former literature professor named Liu Xiaobo have to be sentenced to 11 years in prison, just because he publicly advocated freedom of expression and an end to one-party rule?... read |
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2009-12-02
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To attribute the Swiss vote to ban minarets to “Islamophobia” is perhaps to miss the point. If the Swiss and other Europeans – many of whom would vote for a similar ban if given the chance – were self-assured about their own identities, their Muslim fellow-citizens would not strike such fear in their hearts.... read |
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2009-11-02
| Twenty years ago, when the Berlin Wall was breached and the Soviet empire was collapsing, only die-hard believers in a communist utopia felt unhappy. But, after the failures of neo-liberalism and neo-conservatisim, we are still waiting for a new vision that will lead to progress, but this time without tyranny.... read |
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2009-10-01
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It is hard to see any useful purpose in Switzerland's arrest of the filmmaker Roman Polanski for a 30-year-old crime committed in the US. But, while American justice may be populist and media-driven, the idea that the law should treat great artists differently – conspicuous in the outraged statements of Polanski's defenders - is fundamentally undemocratic.... read |
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2009-08-31
| The Japanese opposition's landslide victory shows that the desire for political choice is not confined to a few fortunate countries, mostly in the Western world. This is a vital lesson, especially at a time when China’s economic success is convincing too many leaders that citizens, especially but not only in Asia, want to be treated like children.... read |
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2009-07-28
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NEW YORK – In the afternoon of July 16 two men appeared to be breaking into a fine house in an expensive area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Alerted by a telephone call, a policeman arrived smartly on the scene. He saw one black male standing inside the house and asked him to come out. The man refused. He was then told to identify himself. The man, still refusing to step out, said he was a Harvard professor, showed his ID, and warned the cop not to mess with him. He said something about black men in America being singled out, and asked the cop, who was white, for his name and identification. The cop, joined by several colleagues, arrested the professor for disorderly conduct. ... read |
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2009-07-07
| What are opposition candidates to do when they are asked to take part in elections that they know they cannot win, or that, even when they can win, will give them only minimal authority? There is no absolute yardstick on how to behave in these impossible circumstances, so candidates and voters alike must judge every election on its merits.... read |
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Lessons from Tiananmen
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Ian Buruma 
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NEW YORK – It is a chilling thought that exactly twenty years after the “Tiananmen Massacre” few young citizens of the People’s Republic of China have much idea of what happened on that occasion. Many unarmed Chinese citizens were killed by People’s Liberation Army troops on June 4, 1989, not only in the vicinity of Tiananmen Square, but in cities all over China. Most were not students, who started the peaceful demonstrations against corruption and autocracy, but ordinary workers, the sort of people a Communist Party ought to be standing up for. ... read
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2009-06-01
| NEW YORK – It is a chilling thought that exactly twenty years after the “Tiananmen Massacre” few young citizens of the People’s Republic of China have much idea of what happened on that occasion. Many unarmed Chinese citizens were killed by People’s Liberation Army troops on June 4, 1989, not only in the vicinity of Tiananmen Square, but in cities all over China. Most were not students, who started the peaceful demonstrations against corruption and autocracy, but ordinary workers, the sort of people a Communist Party ought to be standing up for. ... read |
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2009-03-06
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Bishop Richard Williamson says that no Jews were murdered in gas chambers during World War II; that the Twin Towers were brought down by American explosives on September 11, 2001; and that Jews want to dominate the world “to prepare the anti-Christ’s throne in Jerusalem.” Should he, and other hate-mongers of his ilk, be punished for their words?... read |
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2008-11-05
| Europeans – and others – may regard China’s rise with awe, and hope to find a modus vivendi with Russia, but without the hopes inspired by America, which represents the worst and the best of our battered Western world, we would all be much worse off. That is why they are going crazy over Barack Obama’s election.... read |
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2008-06-30
| AMSTERDAM -- The late Arthur Koestler, born in Budapest, resident of many countries, and writer in several languages, once said that there is nationalism, and there is football nationalism. The feelings inspired by the latter are by far the stronger. Koestler himself, a proud and loyal British citizen, remained a lifelong Hungarian soccer nationalist. ... read |
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2008-09-08
| Seventy years ago this month, Neville Chamberlain signed a document that allowed Nazi Germany to grab a large chunk of Czechoslovakia, an act of "appeasement" that is widely blamed for Hitler's subsequent campaign to conquer the rest of Europe. Would today's Europeans behave any differently?... read |
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2008-04-07
| As long as Tibet remains part of China, it is hard to see how its distinct cultural identity can survive any more than the Apaches’ way of life survived in the United States. Outside Tibet, however, the establishment of thriving diaspora society might well ensure cultural survival in a more traditional form than would be possible even in an independent Tibet.... read |
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2008-06-06
| For many Asians, the West's insistence on human rights and democracy smacks of the kind of unwelcome interference that Western imperialists – and the Christian missionaries who followed them – practiced in the East for too long. But supposedly "Western" values have Asian analogs, while supposedly "Asian" values have often failed Asia's people.... read |
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2008-05-07
| The problem with many democratic politicians today is that they have become almost as dull as old communist autocrats. Does the future belong, then, to the clowns, the anarchic blogosphere, the anti-politicians, and the populist showmen who entertain the masses with jokes, slurs, and indiscretions?... read |
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2008-06-30
| AMSTERDAM -- The late Arthur Koestler, born in Budapest, resident of many countries, and writer in several languages, once said that there is nationalism, and there is football nationalism. The feelings inspired by the latter are by far the stronger. Koestler himself, a proud and loyal British citizen, remained a lifelong Hungarian soccer nationalist. ... read |
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2008-03-06
| North Korea is perhaps the last living example of pure totalitarianism – state control over every aspect of human life. Is such a place the right venue for Western musical performers?... read |
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2007-04-10
| Europe's ideology of multiculturalism has proven to be both wrongheaded and unworkable. But Europeans' fear of Islam and Muslim immigrants has given rise to a form of Enlightenment fundamentalism that poses a more serious threat to European values.... read |
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2008-01-07
| To recover from near destitution and bloody tyranny in one generation is a great feat, and China should be saluted for it. But China’s success story is also the most serious challenge that liberal democracy has faced since fascism in the 1930’s.... read |
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2008-02-06
| For populists in Europe and America, widespread fear of Islam has provided a new outlet for provincial rage against cultural and political elites. Their success is based on the sense that tolerance is not only weak, but an act of betrayal.... read |
2010-03-08
