So it is champion Chomsky. With nearly 5,000 votes to his name, Noam Chomsky has run out the easy winner of the Prospect/Foreign Policy global public intellectuals poll. Not too much should be read into the vagaries of one poll, but on the face of it this is an odd choice. The readers of two politically liberal but hardly radical magazines have chosen a thinker with no influence at all in the mainstream politics of his own country—rather a man who conforms to the old-fashioned, romantic image of the engaged intellectual waving his fists impotently at the geopolitical status quo.
That geopolitical scene has been dominating the news in recent days with the political aftershocks from the Kashmir earthquake and the Iraq constitution. This issue has a particularly international flavour, with pieces on the future of Africa, the decline in global institutions, the EU budget as well as an insider's account of the Islamic takeover of southern Iraq over the past year.
On a more personal note, thanks to all of you who sent in congratulations for our tenth birthday. Prospect has a core readership who see themselves as members of a club. Without you, we would not exist and we ignore you at our peril, but to flourish and grow we have to focus much of our attention on the potential new reader. Our goal is to broaden the magazine's appeal without changing its basic character as we try to build the circulation from today's figure of around 25,000 to closer to 40,000.
The magazine has been evolving throughout its short history and will continue to do so. For those of you interested in contributing to its development, we are planning some reader focus groups over the next few months to consider both Prospect's form and content. If you want to be involved, please write to me at the address above or email focus@prospect-magazine.co.uk.
