The introduction to this issue's cluster of articles.
With the United States no longer engaged in war, hot or cold, American science is entering a new-- and uncertain-- age. The close relationship between science and government is being redefined. The exponential growth of the scientific enterprise is at an end. And science itself comes increasingly under attack.
The growth of the profession of science, the scientific enterprise, is bound to reach certain limits.
A scholar once called the late 18th century an era of "competitive dying." The ability to die well, preferably with a few well-chosen words on one's lips, was widely seen as a measure of greatness. For the philosopher David Hume, our author writes, death provided what many considered the ultimate test of his ideas.
Recent events in Russia raise fears that authoritarianism is making a comeback. Our author finds that the danger is not an overly powerful state but an enfeebled one.
Bosnia has become a synonym, along with Beirut, Somalia, and Rwanda, of murderous conflict and political anarchy. The tragedy of this Balkan nation, a Sarajevo-born journalist explains, cannot be understood apart from the larger story of Yugoslavia's unraveling.
Even its defenders concede that the modern American suburb has many
shortcomings. An antidote may be found in the ideas of the nation's earliest suburban pioneers.
A Survey of Recent Articles
It was never supposed to be permanent, and after some 30 years the time may have come for government "affirmative action" to cease. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D.-Conn.), upon assuming the chairmanship of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council earlier this year, expressed the now-wide- spread view: racial and gender preferences are "patently unfair."
California is taking the lead in the dismantle- ment. Governor Pete Wilson recently ordered scores...