american center

Archived "New Arrivals"

Articles

Islam and Orientalism
By Roger Scruton, The American Spectator, May 2006
„Unlike the West, the Muslim world is cruelly indifferent to the great achievements of Islamic civilization“. The author, writer and philosopher,  provides a brief and very informed opinion on the current state of affairs in Muslim world. He concludes that the spectacular cultural legacy of Islamic civilization has unfortunately been largely forgotten precisely in its region of origin.

The First Law of Petropolitics
By Thomas L. Friedman, Foreign Policy, May/June 2006
The multi-Pulitzer prize winning author approaches with another of his thoughtful and provocative observations: „Iran’s president denies the Holocaust, Hugo Chávez tells Western leaders to go to hell, and Vladimir Putin is cracking the whip. Why? They know that the price of oil and the pace of freedom always move in opposite directions. It’s the First Law of Petropolitics, and it may be the axiom to explain our age“.

Prague: The Glorious Moment
By Anthony Grafton, The New York Review, December 15, 2005
A large article dedicated to the recent exhibition „Prague: The Crown of Bohemia, 1347-1437“ at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York.

New Book Arrivals

The Savage Wars of Peace
Small Wars and the Rise of American Power
By Max Boot
Basic Books, 2002
Since 1800 until today, the often undeclared „small“ wars have represented significant share of U.S. military engagements. Max Boot takes the readers through the history of such conflicts from Jefferson´s expeditions against the Barbary Pirates to the most recent conflicts (as of 2002) and concludes with a convincing argument that the armed forces must reorient themselvces significantly to match current global situation.