CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN is the author of No Place Like Home (Virago) JOHN ARMSTRONG is research fellow in philosophy at the University of London. He is the author of Looking at Pictures (Duckworth) NICHOLAS BEALE is an adviser to the Church of England on science and medicine MIKE BRACKEN is deputy editor of internet magazine. He can be reached at brax@dircon.co.uk JEREMY CLARKE is a freelance writer WINSTON FLETCHER is chairman of Delaney Fletcher Bozell ANDREW FRANKLIN is managing director of Profile Books CARLO GEBLER is a Northern Irish writer. He is the author of How to Murder a Man (Little, Brown) and W9 & Other Lives (Marion Boyars) JO GLANVILLE is a freelance writer AC GRAYLING is lecturer in philosophy at Birkbeck College and fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. He is working on a biography of William Hazlitt FRED HALLIDAY was raised in the Republic of Ireland and is professor of international relations at the LSE. His lecture, “Irish Nationalisms in Perspective” will be published by Democratic Dialogue, 5 University Street, Belfast CHARLES HILLS is editor of P E N News COLIN HOWSON is professor of logic and scientific method at the LSE ANATOL LIEVEN is editor of Strategic Comments at the IISS and author of Chechnya: Tombstone o f Russian Power (Yale University Press) to be published later this year IAIN McLEAN is professor of politics at Oxford University and a fellow of Nuffield College NOEL MALCOLM is a writer living in London. He is currently working on a biography of Thomas Hobbes DAVID MARQUAND is principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. His latest book is The New Reckoning (Polity) SIMON MASON is the author of Lives o f the Dog Stranglers (Jonathan Cape) JOANNA PITMAN writes for The Times JOHN PLENDER writes for the Financial Times FREDERIC RAPHAEL is a novelist and broadcaster TOMWILKIE is head of the biomedical ethics programme at the Wellcome T rust ROBERT WINDER is deputy editor of Granta JAMES WOOD is senior editor at the New Republic and the author o f The Virtue o f I f Essays on Literature and Beliefs (Jonathan Cape) to be published next year TONY WRIGHT is MP for Cannock Chase
2 PROSPECT May 1998
Prospect
Issue thirty May 1998
O P I N I O N S 8 IRELAND'S THIRD WAY FRED HALLIDAY The h i s to r ic deal m u s t t r a n s c e n d 1798, 1916 a n d 1968.
E S S A Y S 19 THE BLAIR PARADOX DAVID MARQUAND New Labour shares the entrepreneurial spirit of Thatcherism but its programme of constitutional reform will dramatically change the country’s political landscape. 25 THE MISSING CHILDREN ROBERT WINDER Where on earth, in the history of the novel, have all the children gone?
Book burning. Page 12
10 BEHEMOTH OF BOOKS ANDREW FRANKLIN The Bertelsmann takeover means more literary Darwinism. 12 LIBERALISM AND ITS LIMITS YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN comes up against the boundaries of happy-clappy multiculturalism.
Survival o f the biggest. Page 10
14 DEBATE: GOD AND SCIENCE NICHOLAS BEALE AND COLIN HOWSON What are the odds in favour of the existence of an ultimate creator? 18 THE WEB WARS MIKE BRACKEN Britain may side with the US, not the EU, on internet regulation.
Apartheid in Europe. Page 29
29 THE BATTLE OF KOSOVO NOEL MALCOLM Contrary to popular belief, the conflict between Serbs and Albanians is not an expression of ancient ethnic and religious hatreds. 34 GOOD GOVERNMENT IAIN McLEAN Mancur Olson's analysis of how political lobbies weaken democracies subverts both left and right.
Hands-off government. Page 34
