Ian Buruma is Professor of Democracy, Human Rights, and Journalism at Bard College. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance and Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents.
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Ian Buruma
Commentaries by Ian Buruma
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America’s Enemy Within
NEW YORK – Barring any unexpected new revelations, there is not much to be learned from the Tsarnaev brothers, better known as “the Boston b…
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The Trouble with North Korea
NEW YORK – Nobody would care much about North Korea – a small and isolated country of 24 million people, ruled by a grotesque dynasty that c…
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Send in the Clowns
NEW YORK – When too many Italians voted late last month for either a louche and discredited business tycoon or a comedian, European stock ma…
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Does Europe Need Britain?
NEW YORK – Many people in the United Kingdom believe that their country can do perfectly well outside the European Union. Members of the UK …
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The Pope’s Dangerous Sex Appeal
NEW YORK – Human sexual behavior can be perilous, as the ghastly rape of a 23-year-old woman by six men on a Delhi bus in December once agai…
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The Observer State of Palestine
NEW YORK – Palestine is no longer an “entity,” but a state – or, to be precise, a non-member observer state of the United Nations, just like…
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A Democratic Hurricane
NEW YORK – Nothing concentrates the mind like a full-blown crisis. Like millions of other people in New York City, I heard Hurricane Sandy r…
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American Presidential Beauty
NEW YORK – What is the point of a presidential debate? In the context of American presidential elections, “debate” is something of a misnome…
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East Asia’s Nationalist Fantasy Islands
TOKYO – They don’t look like much, those few uninhabited rocks in the East China Sea between Okinawa and Taiwan, and a couple of tiny islets…
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The Battle for Churchill’s Bust
NEW YORK – The election of the United States’ next president is surely the most important contest in the democratic world. Yet the issues be…
America’s Enemy Within
Hemant K Chitale: Very true. The American reaction was out of proportion. As for the reference to guns ..... notice how the recent shooting of the Mother's Day parade at New Orleans was labelled. Recall all the scho…
America’s Enemy Within
Carol Maczinsky: If Mr. Bush presents nonsense explanaitions for uneducated audiences then its a disgrace to propagate them.