The Turkish downing of a Russian jet that crossed into its territory while bombing targets in Syria complicates even further the play of contraries in an already bewildering set of Mideast conflicts. The episode introduces a fresh tension that could well pit NATO, of which Turkey is a member, against what Gopalkrishna Gandhi calls a fledgling new NATO, or New Anti-Terror Organization, that French President François Hollande is trying to organize globally in the wake of the Paris attacks. Hollande meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week.
Oxford Chancellor Chris Patten endorses Hollande's approach, calling for a broad effort that includes the U.S., Russia, China and the United Nations to fight the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Writing from Moscow, Fyodor Lukyanov argues that, after Paris, perhaps the West now sees the sense in Russia's Mideast strategy to save the Syrian state, and says in a separate article that the new clash between Turkey and Russia should not derail an "ad hoc coalition" against terrorism. From the Turkish side, a source closely involved at the top levels there over recent years tells the WorldPost: "Turkey is trying to say: you can't simply ignore me. I am here, I am assuming a huge burden vis-à-vis the refugees and I have already paid a high cost for fighting this war, so I may create serious disturbances if and when I want to prevent a Russian-U.S. rapprochement over fighting ISIS that departs from the priority of ousting Assad." WorldPost Middle East Correspondent Sophia Jones writes from Istanbul that Putin has charged Turkey with "supporting ISIS" by shooting down his warplane.
As if all this were not ominous enough, Joe Cirincione worries that, with Russia's recent announcement of a devastating new "nuclear torpedo" and U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to spend over $1 trillion over the coming decades "on an entire new generation of nuclear bombs, bombers, missiles and submarines," we are headed toward a deadly new arms race.
Taking the long view, Alex Gorlach writes from Berlin that the world may well enter another "30 Years' War" like that between Christian sects in Europe in the 17th century before global tolerance can be established. Writing from Madrid, Howard Fineman observes that, across the West, the "overall mood is one of rising fear, xenophobia and talk of military action" and sees fear as the best friend of the right-wing's political fortunes. Historian Sami Moubayed argues that the "all-loving order" of Sufi Islam, which dominated Damascus and Baghdad during Ottoman times, is the most effective antidote to ISIS.
In an interview, France's most famous Arab cartoonist, Riad Sattouf, explains to Michael Skafidas what it is like to grow up between two worlds and says there are a thousand ways of living in the Muslim world despite much of the rhetoric out there today. Nicolas Berggruen writes that the inability of the European Union to come together after the Paris attacks may signal its "final fracture" after all the other policy failures concerning sovereign debt, Greece and refugees. In another interview, novelist Isabel Allende nurtures the flickering candle of hope. "Despite terrorism, " she says, "the world is better than ever before."
In our Third Industrial Revolution series this week the president of the Pas de Calais region of France, Daniel Percheron, describes how his government and local entrepreneurs are making the transition to clean and renewable energy. Arianna Huffington hopes that business can join together with governments at the Paris climate conference next week to come up with "a solution equal to the problem." Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls on cities to "lead by example" in battling climate change. Alexander Howard inventories what cities around the world are doing to fight climate change from the bottom up.
While world attention is focused on fighting ISIS, much else is going on out there. Pepe Escobar observes that while the West is otherwise preoccupied, China is rapidly implementing its plans to transform its manufacturing economy and expand westward into Eurasia by building a new Silk Road. WorldPost China Correspondent Matt Sheehan visits Liu Renwang in China's remote Yaoyu Village to discuss his "memories of torture" by local officials and whether the new reforms that outlaw torture in obtaining convictions will be effective.
Writing from Karachi, Pakistan, Bina Shah notes that far more women are victims of physical and sexual violence than there are victims of terrorism worldwide. We also report on how one of India's top Supreme Court lawyers, Karuna Nundy, has contributed to that country's anti-rape laws and focus in on India's marital rape problem. Bonny Brooks wonders why there is not more rage -- like there has been over recent crises in Paris and Beirut -- over the fact that 1 out of 3 children in North Korea is stunted by malnutrition and instead mainly comedic stories coming out in Western media about that country. Investigative journalist Anabel Hernandez writes about receiving death threats at her home in Mexico City because of her continuing pursuit of the truth about the 43 missing students from Guerrero.
In a contribution from the Berggruen Philosophy and Culture Center this week, Julian Baggini explores how the notion of "human becoming" instead of "human being" can create a new bridge between Eastern and Western perspectives on the world.
In a photo essay, we display the spectacular images gathered by Steve McCurry as he wonders around India. In our Fusion column, you can watch this stunning music video composed by artificial intelligence. Lastly, our Singularity series this week focuses on how to teach those skills most required as technology changes ever more rapidly in the 21st century: communication, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration.
WHO WE AREEDITORS: Nathan Gardels, Senior Advisor to the Berggruen Institute on Governance and the long-time editor of NPQ and the Global Viewpoint Network of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate/Tribune Media, is the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost. Farah Mohamed is the Managing Editor of The WorldPost. Kathleen Miles is the Senior Editor of The WorldPost. Alex Gardels and Peter Mellgard are the Associate Editors of The WorldPost. Katie Nelson is the National Editor at the Huffington Post, overseeing The WorldPost and HuffPost's editorial coverage. Eline Gordts is HuffPost's Senior World Editor. Charlotte Alfred and Nick Robins-Early are World Reporters. Rowaida Abdelaziz is Social Media Editor.
CORRESPONDENTS: Sophia Jones in Istanbul; Matt Sheehan in Beijing.
EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Arianna Huffington, Eric Schmidt (Google Inc.), Pierre Omidyar (First Look Media) Juan Luis Cebrian (El Pais/PRISA), Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute/TIME-CNN), John Elkann (Corriere della Sera, La Stampa), Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera), Dileep Padgaonkar (Times of India) and Yoichi Funabashi (Asahi Shimbun).
VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS: Dawn Nakagawa.
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim (former editor of Foreign Policy), Nayan Chanda (Yale/Global; Far Eastern Economic Review) and Katherine Keating (One-On-One). Sergio Munoz Bata and Parag Khanna are Contributing Editors-At-Large.
The Asia Society and its ChinaFile, edited by Orville Schell, is our primary partner on Asia coverage. Eric X. Li and the Chunqiu Institute/Fudan University in Shanghai and Guancha.cn also provide first person voices from China. We also draw on the content of China Digital Times. Seung-yoon Lee is The WorldPost link in South Korea.
Jared Cohen of Google Ideas provides regular commentary from young thinkers, leaders and activists around the globe. Bruce Mau provides regular columns from MassiveChangeNetwork.com on the "whole mind" way of thinking. Patrick Soon-Shiong is Contributing Editor for Health and Medicine.
ADVISORY COUNCIL: Members of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council and Council for the Future of Europe serve as the Advisory Council -- as well as regular contributors -- to the site. These include, Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Juan Luis Cebrian, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Pierre Omidyar, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Eric Schmidt, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, Wu Jianmin, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Ahmed Zewail, and Zheng Bijian.
From the Europe group, these include: Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland and Guy Verhofstadt.
MISSION STATEMENT
The WorldPost is a global media bridge that seeks to connect the world and connect the dots. Gathering together top editors and first person contributors from all corners of the planet, we aspire to be the one publication where the whole world meets.
We not only deliver breaking news from the best sources with original reportage on the ground and user-generated content; we bring the best minds and most authoritative as well as fresh and new voices together to make sense of events from a global perspective looking around, not a national perspective looking out.