The description of Rifondazione Comunista here has been corrected as indicated in a correction that ran in the issue of May 2, 1994.

Six months after the storming of Russia's Parliament, Boris Yeltsin and his backers, domestic and foreign, must have second thoughts about the wisdom of the coup that climaxed in a massacre.

The arrival of French peacekeeping troops in Rwanda was rather like arsonists returning as the fire brigade.

Climatically hot, it is politically a very strange summer on this side of the ocean.

The longest reign in the history of the French Republic is coming to an end, possibly a premature one, with a sense of drama.

Capitalist euphoria proved short-lived in Europe. Five years ago we witnessed the collapse of the post-Stalinist empire, which folded with unexpected ease.

Western Europe is looking into an uncertain future. The German election, which was supposed to clear the horizon, has really obstructed the view.

This year will be an electoral year in many parts of Europe. In France, François Mitterrand is scheduled to leave the presidency in May.

This essay, by the late Edward Said, from the April 26, 1980, issue of The Nation, is a special selection from The Nation Digital Archive. If you want to read everything The Nation has ever published on the Middle East, click here
for information on how to acquire individual access to the Archive--an electronic database of every Nation article since 1865.

Early on the morning of June 8, a messenger arrived at an apartment in one of the poshest districts of Paris bearing documents to be signed by a former high-level government official and prominen