ANDREAS WHITTAM SMITH: Once the West set out to conquer the world. Those days have gone for ever A series of defeats have done for colonialism, and its more virulent form, imperialism

Except that Nemesis, or the spirit of divine retribution, was waiting to punish them for their arrogance. Afghanistan and Iraq turn out to be the final disasters. The British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, the French defeats in Indochina and Algeria, and finally the ignominious withdrawals by the US and its allies from Afghanistan and Iraq, these have done for colonialism and its more virulent form, imperialism. There can be no going back. No US president, no UK prime minister, no French president is ever again going to ask Congress, Parliament or National Assembly to approve the invasion of a another country, even by airpower alone. After 600 years, that is over. Never again.

Mein Blog befasst sich in einem umfassenden Sinn mit dem Verhältnis von Wissen, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft. Ein besonderes Augenmerk richte ich dabei auf die Aktivitäten des Medien- und Dienstleistungskonzern Bertelsmann und der Bertelsmann Stiftung.