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Oct 4 , 2025 . By Antara Haldar

Must Our Globalized World Be a Suicide Pact

When the United Nations (UN) emerged from the rubble of two world wars 80 years ago, it represented humanity's most ambitious attempt ever to turn catastrophe into cooperation. But while the scarred world of 1945 had hope following the Allied victory, that optimism has since curdled. The UN today is...

Sep 27 , 2025 . By Edgar Morin and Claudio Pedretti

Intersecting Crises Spur Global Reckoning on Values, Human Purpose

In 1999, one of us (Morin) introduced the term "polycrisis" to describe the web of interconnected catastrophes threatening our world. At the time, the concept was meant to serve as a warning, but it has since become our reality. We are facing a confluence of escalating ecological, political, economic, technological, and existential crises, each of which is reinforcing the others. The polycrisis is best understood as a cascade, a tangle of intertwined non-linear causes and ripple effects. Climate change leads to human displacement and forced migration, which fuels xenophobia and nationali...

Sep 20 , 2025 . By Steven Sloman

Why Is Everyone So Self-Righteous?

It feels increasingly difficult nowadays to avoid righteousness; or, worse, self-righteousness. We are constantly being told what to do by those who supposedly have seen the light. For example, I was recently scolded by a colleague for suggesting that my own employer should aim to hire the best people, regardless of their sex or race. I was struck by the confidence that this person felt in instructing me on what I should value. It felt high-handed and uninformed. Of course, there is a difference between righteousness and self-righteousness (though the slippery slope between them is short an...

Sep 13 , 2025 . By Dani Rodrik

Who Will Model Democracy Now?

As a teenager growing up in Istanbul, I was lucky to be part of a generation that had democratic role models nearby. European countries such as Britain, France, Germany, and Sweden fueled our aspirations for prosperity and democracy, giving us hope for the future of our own imperfect polity. These countries' experiences showed us that economic growth, social justice, and political freedom were not only compatible but mutually reinforcing. Where will today's youth look to find a similarly hopeful message? Liberal democracy once seemed destined to be the wave of the future. But now, democr...

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Sep 6 , 2025

The Agricultural Fixes Africa Needs

The number of people facing hunger globally declined from 688 million in 2023 to 673 million in 2024, according to "The State of Food Security & Nutrition in the World 2025," a report recently rel...

Aug 30 , 2025

Trolls, Extremes, and the Economics of Outrage

Sometimes, the fulfilment of a promise feels like punishment. When the radio was invented more than 100 years ago, the German playwright Bertolt Brecht observed that its full potential could be explor...

Aug 23 , 2025

New Players Chip Away at Big Tech’s AI Stronghold

Leaders in Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as OpenAI and DeepMind, view themselves as being in a race to build artificial general intelligence (AGI), a model capable of performing any intellectual...

Aug 16 , 2025

Can Democracy Survive AI?

Digital technology was supposed to disperse power. Early internet visionaries hoped that the revolution they were unleashing would empower individuals to free themselves from ignorance, poverty, and t...

Aug 9 , 2025

The Left's "Everything Struggle"Is Undermining the Climate Cause

Progressives are caught in a trap of their own making. In an era of overlapping and mutually reinforcing crises, they have come to view every issue, from climate change and public health to energy, in...

Aug 3 , 2025

Machines Are Not Our Friends, Companions

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI's Sam Altman have been aggressively promoting the idea that everyone, children included, should form relationships with AI "friends" or "companions." Meanwhile, mul...

Jul 26 , 2025

The Language of Political Control

Language shapes our thinking and perception of the world and, consequently, what happens in it. That is why I worry less about the troubling state of the world nowadays than about the words we use to...

Jul 19 , 2025

Information Pollution Undermines Climate Progres

The devastation caused by the 2024 flash floods in Valencia, Spain, was so surreal that some images sparked a global debate over their authenticity. In an era when AI technology can produce hyper-real...

Jul 12 , 2025

The Lost Art of Collaboration

At a time of rising international tensions and deep polarisation in many countries, trust-building and cooperation seem like forgotten arts. To reconnect with them and devise creative solutions to sha...

Jul 5 , 2025

Are We Responsible for Our Choices?

Since ancient times, thinkers have pondered whether we freely choose our actions or if they are determined by forces beyond our control. That debate has been given new impetus by scientific discoverie...

Jun 28 , 2025

Healing Rivers Spurs City to Bend Growth Around Its Restored Spine

Over the course of several months of regular site visits, I have watched Addis Abeba's rivers transform from refuse-choked channels to polished corridors of urban life. The transformation, driven by t...

Jun 21 , 2025

Matters of Manners

As we walked down the road from Mexico (then Maychew Square) to AU (then OAU), the four of us munched on what we called Nechu Qolo, properly called Shimbra Dube, bought from Mebrat Hayl recreation cen...

Jun 14 , 2025

A Tea Leaf's Journey to Self-Reliance

At a weekend bazaar hosted at the Zobras Olympiakos Greek Club, I stumbled upon a Frenchman with a ponytail and fluent Amharic. He ran a stall offering herbal tea, wild honey, and artisanal organic pr...

Jun 7 , 2025

Saving A Thousand Mathiwoses

I was barely 18 in 1994 and just beginning my freshman year at Addis Abeba University when a friend asked me to accompany her on an errand to the nearby St. Mary Cathedral. The seat of the Ethiopian...

May 31 , 2025

Facing the Mirror in Turmoil, Change the World

A recent BBC documentary spotlighted a familiar face in war-torn Port Sudan—a city now bearing the scars of a protracted civil war. It was Husam Abdulsalam, a violinist I had come to know from his s...

May 24 , 2025

Animals Need A Better World Too

A three-legged cat loiters at the gates of the Louvre, not the Parisian Museum, but a high-end French restaurant in Addis Abeba where I have had the privilege to dine on several occasions. The sight i...

Columns

Commentaries | Oct 04,2025

Central Bank Loosens Credit Reins But Stops Short of Bold Overhaul

Eyob Tekalegn (PhD) had been in the Governor's chair for only weeks when, on September 29...

Editorial | Oct 4 , 2025

TRADITION THRIVES AS COSTS CLIMB

As dawn broke over Addis Abeba last week, the city's arteries pulsed not with the usual we...

Featured | Oct 5 , 2025 . By REDIET YARED

Textbook Shortages Mount as School Year Advances

The school year in Addis Abeba began almost a month ago, yet across the capital, thousands...

Agenda |

Mesfin Rebrands to Overcome Wartime Shadow

In Meqelle, a name long associated with industrial grit and regional pride is undergoing a...

Fortune News | Oct 5 , 2025 . By NAHOM AYELE

Must Our Globalized World Be a Suicide Pact

Intersecting Crises Spur Global Reckoning on Values, Human Purpose