1. Decline of the United States : the eagle has crash landed -- 2. The twentieth century : darkness at noon? -- 3. Globalization : a long-term trajectory of the world-system -- 4. Racism : our albatross -- 5. Islam : Islam, the west, and the world -- 6. The others : who are we? Who are the others? -- 7. Democracy : rhetoric or reality? -- 8. Intellectuals : value-neutrality in question -- 9. America and the world : the twin towers as metaphor -- 10. The Left, I : theory and praxis once again -- 11. The Left, II : an age of transition -- 12. The movements : what does it mean to be an antisystemic movement today? -- 13. Geopolitical cleavages of the twenty-first century : what future for the world?