Articles by Foreign Policy
We found 205 results.
The Fifth Estate
Roger Peace | US Foreign Policy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jun 2023
Designed with three purposes in mind. First: a coherent overview of US foreign policies covering the wars, military interventions and major doctrines over 245 years. Each entry draws on the work of experts, summarizing major developments, analyzing causes and contexts, and providing links to additional information and resources. The second one…
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The Toxic Legacy of U.S. Foreign Policy in Puerto Rico
Monisha Ríos, Ph.D. | Foreign Policy In Focus - TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2023
23 Apr 2023 – The women of Vieques, an island off the east coast of Puerto Rico, have been on the front lines of the generations-long struggle for peace and justice to end the havoc wrought by U.S. foreign policy on their island, in their homes, and on their bodies.
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A Call to Cancel RIMPAC in Hawaiʻi
Kim Compoc and Joy Lehuanani Enomoto | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2022
26 Jul 2022 – The movement to demilitarize and deoccupy Hawai‘i is guided by kapu aloha, a code of conduct grounded in nonviolent resistance and Hawai’ian values.
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1980s US Central America Wars
Virginia S. Williams, Roger Peace and Jeremy Kuzmarov | US Foreign Policy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2022
Updated January 2022 – Less than a decade after U.S. troops were withdrawn from Vietnam, the United States became deeply involved in Central America. The catalyst was a popularly supported leftist revolution in Nicaragua led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
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USA: The Post-Cold War Era, 1989-2001
Brian D’Haeseleer, Jeremy Kuzmarov and Roger Peace | US Foreign Policy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2022
Imperial Self-Deception: There is no shortage of books, articles, and websites addressing the history of US foreign policy. There is nevertheless, within the USA, a dearth of understanding and often knowledge about the subject. This is due in part to popular nationalistic history, which tends to obscure, overwrite, and sometimes whitewash actual history.
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U.S. Cold War Interventionism, 1945-1990
Roger Peace | US Foreign Policy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Nov 2021
The idea that the United States should lead the world, replacing the British Empire, had been advanced by various U.S. leaders and influential citizens since the late 19th century. This ambition was in keeping with age-old aspirations of great states and empires, and also with the trajectory of U.S. history. The U.S. expanded across North America in the 19th century, became an imperial power in Asia in 1899, declared Latin America an exclusive sphere of influence in the early 20th century, and became the foremost global economic power prior to the First World War.
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1901-1934: “Yankee Imperialism” in Latin America
Roger Peace | US Foreign Policy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Oct 2021
On 20 Jun 1898, as U.S. troops prepared to land in Cuba to “pacify” the island, Assist. Sec. State Francis Loomis writing to his boss, Sec. State William Day, declared, “I think it our destiny to control more or less directly most all of the Latin American countries.” One means to this end was economic domination. “It is possible to attain commercial ascendancy in them in much the same way that England does in China, by lending them money and administering their revenues.”
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U.S. and China Reach Deal to Block Myanmar’s Junta from U.N.
Colum Lynch, Robbie Gramer, and Jack Detsch | Foreign Policy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Sep 2021
13 Sep 2021 – The informal deal offers common ground with Beijing and a blow to Myanmar’s hopes of legitimacy.
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Africa and the War on Terror
Elizabeth Schmidt | US Foreign Policy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Sep 2021
To understand the war on terror in Africa, it must be placed in historical context. At the close of WWII, the Cold War intensified and African struggles for independence escalated. European colonial powers and Cold War superpowers attempted to control the decolonization process. Western powers deployed military might to promote friendly governments that catered to their own political and economic interests and justified their interventions with the “communist threat.”
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Israel’s Attacks on Iran Are Not Working
Anchal Vohra | Foreign Policy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 May 2021
27 Apr 2021 – The recent sabotage of the Iranian nuclear program has been spectacular—and strategically incoherent.
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Videogame: Nonviolence as War by Other Means
Michael Peck | Foreign Policy - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Aug 2020
14 Aug 2020 – “Gandhi” is a wargame that inverts Clausewitz’s famous dictum: Instead of war as politics by other means, nonviolence becomes war waged by other means. Players control one of four competing factions: the British Raj; the Indian National Congress; the Muslim League; or the Revolutionaries.
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The Racist Underpinnings of the American Way of War
Walden Bello | Foreign Policy In Focus - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jul 2020
1 Jul 2020 – The deadly interplay of racism, genocide, and denial at the heart of American white society has been reproduced in the country’s wars. The political economy of the U.S. is built on two “original sins:” genocide of Native Americans to clear the ground for capitalist relations of production, and slave labor of African Americans. The reproduction and expansion of U.S. capitalism over time have consistently reproduced its racial structures.
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The Race to Replace a Dying Neoliberalism
Walden Bello | Foreign Policy In Focus - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 May 2020
13 May 2020 – The world’s prevailing socio-political models aren’t going to survive this pandemic. What’s going to replace them? In response to the cataclysm occasioned by the coronavirus, three lines of thinking are emerging.
→ read full articleDuterte Does the Right Thing for a Change
Walden Bello | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Feb 2020
19 Feb 2020 – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s termination of a key military pact with the United States, the Visiting Forces Agreement, which governed the deployment of US troops in the country, has evoked varied responses. He might be the devil incarnate, but Duterte is beginning the process of ending over 120 years of colonial subjugation.
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Goodbye to All That: The UK after Brexit
John Feffer | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Feb 2020
5 Feb 2020 – If I were the EU, I’d be wiping my hands, sighing in relief, and slamming the door after the UK’s long-delayed departure. Britain had been a noisy, pushy houseguest for 47 years, and it was only growing ruder. Even as it steps out the door it’s trying to negotiate the terms: all rights with no responsibilities. Brexit could see the UK eventually lose Scotland, Northern Ireland, and a great deal of its prosperity.
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Beyond Macron’s Subversive NATO Comments: France’s Growing Unease with the Alliance
Hajnalka Vincze | Foreign Policy Research Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Dec 2019
26 Nov 2019 – Most European governments prefer discreet but concrete steps to appease the United States and to reinforce the U.S.-dominated Alliance. To Paris, this is utterly illogical. But as Robert Cooper had said precisely on the issue of EU autonomy: “The world does not proceed by logic. It proceeds by political choice.” In the French vision, the path of strategic autonomy and away from dependence on les Anglo-Saxons has not yet produced the expected results.
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Burning Down the House
John Feffer | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Sep 2019
4 Sep 2019 – Doesn’t idiocy ever take a vacation? Three different attempts at national self-destruction by far-right governments–Johnson in the UK, Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Trump in the US– are laying bare their nihilistic roots. Bolsonaro, at least, is only interested in trashing a rainforest (albeit a large one). Boris Johnson is content to trash a country (albeit a rich one). Donald Trump, with that ego of his, aspires to trash an entire planet.
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This Time, the World Is Watching in Kashmir
Shubh Mathur | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Sep 2019
22 Aug 2019 – How India is shooting itself in the foot by taking over Kashmir at gunpoint; it has set itself up to reap the whirlwind. This time, the world will be watching.
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The Balkan Wars Created a Generation of Christian Terrorists
Azeem Ibrahim and Hikmet Karcic | Foreign Policy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
24 May 2019 – War radicalized the far-right–and nobody stopped them at home. This failure produced the same kinds of figures and networks of radical extremism on the European right as happened with Islamist terrorism.
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Why Israel Has No ‘Right to Exist’
Jeremy R. Hammond | Foreign Policy Journal – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Apr 2019
15 Mar 2019 – Zionists taking it upon themselves to try to defend Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people frequently level the charge that its critics are attempting to “delegitimize” the self-described “Jewish state”. Israel, they counter, has a “right to exist”. But they are mistaken. This is not to single out Israel. There is no such thing as a state’s “right to exist”, period.
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Laughing All the Way to Autocracy
Rudolph Herzog – Foreign Policy,
25 Feb 2019
8 Feb 2019 – Jokes can stop a society’s slide into dictatorship. Satire and comedy can help stop the slippage toward totalitarianism — but only as long as they ruthlessly target policies, not just the vanity or quirks of the mighty.
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It’s Time to Trust the Taliban
Anatol Lieven | Foreign Policy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2019
31 Jan 2019 – Afghanistan’s jihadi insurgents are ready to give America what it wants: defeat without humiliation.
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U.S.A. Participation in World War One
Charles F. Howlett, Jeremy Kuzmarov and Roger Peace | U.S. Foreign Policy History & Resource Guide – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Nov 2018
A deep analysis into the origins of U.S. involvement in WWI unpacking President Woodrow Wilson’s idealistic justifications for entering it and charting the efforts of European and U.S. peace advocates. It is written for the general public and students, synthesizing the work of many historians.
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Drifting Away from Peace
Sajjad Hussain | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2018
According to a new study, peaceful countries are getting more peaceful while the violent are getting more violent.
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Forget the Libya Model – South Africa Shows the Path to Peace with Pyongyang
Terence McNamee – Foreign Policy,
30 Jul 2018
If Kim Jong Un follows in F.W. de Klerk’s footsteps, denuclearization could allow North Korea to move from pariah status to prosperity. As the only country to build and then voluntarily destroy all its nuclear weapons, South Africa gained a stature in the international community that it had not held since the end of World War II.
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Yemen: Political Stalemate, Mercenaries Prosper, the Population Disintegrates, and Humanitarian Relief Blocked
Rene Wadlow | Foreign Policy News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
29 Jun 2018 – The United Nations Security Council has been discussing the situation in both public and private meetings without any visible impact. Today, the choice between an end to the armed conflict with negotiations for a renewal of a Yemeni State on the basis of the con-federal system proposed and continued fighting in the hope that one faction become a “winner-take-all” is relatively clear.
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Never Call Kim Jong Un Crazy Again
Stephen M. Walt – Foreign Policy,
25 Jun 2018
After the Singapore summit, it isn’t just wrong to say the North Korean leader is irrational — it’s dangerous.
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First They Came for the Rohingya
Azeem Ibrahim – Foreign Policy Magazine,
16 Apr 2018
Other ethnic minorities will be Myanmar’s next victims.
→ read full articleThe Real Threat to America Comes from Americans
Kim Ghattas | Foreign Policy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Aug 2017
Just as the Arab world struggles to come to grips with jihadism, the United States has failed to grapple with its own demons. It’s time to realize that no society is without darkness — and the direst threat facing the US today may well be from within, not without.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Yemen Policy Is Creating More Terrorists
Adil E. Shamoo and Bonnie Bricker | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jul 2017
18 Jul 2017 – Just as the invasion of Iraq eventually produced the Islamic State (ISIS or IS), the killing of innocent Yemenis for no moral reason at all is providing a recruitment tool for terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East and Africa.
→ read full articleIt’s Not only Necessary to Develop an Alternative to Globalization — It’s Entirely Possible
Walden Bello | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jul 2017
It was the left who diagnosed the ills of globalization. So why is the right eating our lunch?
→ read full articleAmerica’s Violent Century
John Feffer| Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jul 2017
The last near-century of American dominance was extraordinarily violent. Is it coming to an end?
→ read full article64 Years Later, CIA Finally Releases Details of Iranian Coup
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian | Foreign Policy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Jun 2017
20 Jun 2017 – Declassified documents released last week shed light on the Central Intelligence Agency’s central role in the 1953 coup that brought down Iranian Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadegh, fueling a surge of nationalism which culminated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution and poisoning U.S.-Iran relations into the 21st century.
→ read full articleThese Nuclear Breakthroughs Are Endangering the World
Conn Hallinan | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 May 2017
How a growing technology gap between the U.S. and its nuclear-armed rivals could lead to the unraveling of arms control agreements — and even nuclear war.
→ read full articleThe Multibillion-Dollar U.S. Spy Agency You Haven’t Heard of
James Bamford - Foreign Policy Magazine,
27 Mar 2017
On a heavily protected military base some 15 miles south of Washington, D.C., sits the massive headquarters of a spy agency few know exists. Even Barack Obama, five months into his presidency, seemed not to have recognized its name.
→ read full articleNorth Korea: The Cyberwar of All against All
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
20 Mar 2017
They hack us. We hack them. It’s a recipe for catastrophe. The U.S. pioneered this kind of warfare when it inserted malware into the Iranian nuclear complex that destroyed centrifuges and set back the program. The latest revelations of cyberware involve North Korea. At least some of the many mishaps and failures associated with their missile program were the result of a secret U.S. program to thwart launches through electronic means.
→ read full articleThe U.S. Should Back Russia’s Syria Ceasefire
Christopher Bolan | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2017
For all its shortcomings, Obama’s seemingly improvised Syria strategy has taken advantage of unexpected opportunities. This could be the latest.
→ read full article10 Zionist Arguments You’ve Encountered, but Didn’t Have Answers to
Jeremy R. Hammond – Foreign Policy Journal,
12 Dec 2016
Here are ten popular arguments Zionists use to defend Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians and how to answer them effectively.
→ read full articleA Genocide in the Making
Sir Geoffrey Nice and Francis Wade – Foreign Policy,
5 Dec 2016
The world can no longer look away from the intensifying assault on Burma’s Rohingya minority.
→ read full articleThe Public Loves Myanmar’s New War on Muslims
Poppy McPherson | Foreign Policy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2016
One year after a historic election put a civilian government in charge, the country’s army is using brutal methods to regain its popularity.
→ read full articleEvery Move You Make
James Bamford – Foreign Policy,
3 Oct 2016
Over eight years, President Barack Obama has created the most intrusive surveillance apparatus in the world. To what end?
→ read full articleYOLO Economics
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
19 Sep 2016
“Sustainable growth” just won’t cut it. We have to come up with something that redefines growth, emphasizes the importance of equity and dignity, and ensures that innovation works for us all. In the end, coming up with this new economic model should be on everyone’s bucket list.
→ read full articleThe Deep Colonial Roots of France’s Unveiling of Muslim Women
Jeanne Kay – Foreign Policy In Focus,
12 Sep 2016
If the burkini is incompatible with fundamental French values, it is those fundamental values that have to change.
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Rise of Islamic State Was ‘a Willful Decision’: Former Defense Intelligence Agency Chief Michael Flynn
Brad Hoff – Foreign Policy Journal,
5 Sep 2016
7 Aug 2016 – In Al Jazeera’s latest Head to Head episode, former director of DIA Michael Flynn confirms that not only had he studied the memo predicting the West’s backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk in 2012, but even asserts that the White House’s sponsoring of radical jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Nusra) against the Syrian government was “a willful decision.”
→ read full articleThe ‘American Century’ Has Plunged the World into Crisis – What Happens Now?
Conn Hallinan and Leon Wofsy – Foreign Policy In Focus,
22 Aug 2016
U.S. foreign policy is dangerous, undemocratic, deeply out of sync with real global challenges, full of corruption, and has not done the world well. Continuous war is inevitable if we continue to follow these same policies. Can we change this for the better?
→ read full articleFrom Brexit in the UK to Austerity in Spain, Europe is on the Edge
Conn Hallinan – Foreign Policy In Focus,
18 Jul 2016
European elites are blaming “stupid” voters for turning against an economic system that hasn’t worked for them.
→ read full articleThe New Burma Is Starting to Look Too Much Like the Old Burma
Elliott Prasse-Freeman – Foreign Policy,
4 Jul 2016
In Aung San Suu Kyi’s “democratic” Burma, the people are a silent partner.
→ read full articleAung San Suu Kyi Is in Power. So Why Is She Ignoring Her Country’s Most Vulnerable People?
Richard Cockett – Foreign Policy,
20 Jun 2016
For the Rohingya, Burma’s new democratic government is little better than the old dictatorship.
→ read full articleA Very Brazilian Coup
Conn Hallinan – Foreign Policy In Focus,
6 Jun 2016
Brazil’s elites can’t win an election, but they can engineer an impeachment.
→ read full articleA Pox on the House of Nuclear Weapons
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
30 May 2016
In effect, the nuclear ban treaty will put a curse on nuclear weapons. A ban treaty imposes nothing on anybody, but demands, through its undeniable political and legal reality, that everyone re-evaluate and re-conceptualize nuclear weapons… Nuclear weapons become a collective international liability rather than an individual national asset.
→ read full articleThe Music of Hopelessness
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
30 May 2016
From the comfortable alt-rock of PJ Harvey to the hypnotic antagonism of Anohni, new protest music offers a relief from the official rhythms of war and peace.
→ read full articleThe Scope for Parallel Diplomacy Has Never Been Greater
David Richmond – Foreign Policy In Focus,
30 May 2016
One of the great diplomatic breakthroughs for which the Obama presidency will undoubtedly be remembered is the re-establishment of relations with Cuba. The role of the Vatican in this rapprochement serves as a reminder that even in the era of systematised diplomacy, significant benefit can be derived from an informal process that takes place away from the limelight.
→ read full articlePeople Are Likening the Next Philippine President to Donald Trump. Here’s Why.
Walden Bello – Foreign Policy In Focus,
23 May 2016
A hapless elite, an angry electorate, and a brash front-runner with little regard for democratic norms: The latest Philippine election sounds a lot like America’s.
→ read full articleRealizing Peace
Heath Mitchell – Foreign Policy In Focus,
23 May 2016
A new book on conflict resolution provides a history of the subject and a counterfactual history of recent events.
→ read full articleThe U.S. Is Militarizing the Pacific — And Not Taking Questions
Jon Letman – Foreign Policy In Focus,
4 Apr 2016
30 Mar 2016 – The biggest U.S. military re-alignment in a generation may be underway in the Asia-Pacific. But most Americans know nothing about it. Hawaii’s members of Congress sit at the linchpin of a huge realignment of U.S. military power. Good luck getting them to talk about it.
→ read full articleHow a Little Pink Flower Defeated the World’s Sole Superpower
Alfred McCoy – Foreign Policy In Focus,
7 Mar 2016
24 Feb 2016 – After fighting the longest war in its history, the United States stands at the brink of defeat in Afghanistan. How can this be possible? American military technology transformed remote, landlocked Afghanistan into the world’s first true narco-state.
→ read full articleHow Corporations Killed Medicine
Fran Quigley – Foreign Policy In Focus,
15 Feb 2016
For most of human history, life-saving drugs were a public good. Now they’re only good for shareholders.
→ read full articleAfrica’s Success Story
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
18 Jan 2016
Diamond-rich Botswana avoided the dreaded resource curse and established a prosperous, stable democracy. But political turmoil has begun to roil the traditionally placid society.
→ read full articleHow U.S. Interventions Dismembered the Middle East
Adil E. Shamoo – Foreign Policy In Focus,
14 Dec 2015
Despite everything, hawks are still pushing President Obama to send ground troops to Syria. He would be wise to reject their advice.
→ read full articleWaiting for the Myanmar Miracle
Michael Green & Daniel Twining – Foreign Policy,
23 Nov 2015
12 Nov 2015 – Myanmar’s election is a good reminder that authoritarian elites underestimate their political opponents at their peril. The [Aung San Suu Kyi’s] National League for Democracy won nearly three-quarters of the votes cast in last Sunday’s elections.
→ read full articleA Radical Win-Win Solution for Syria
Don Kraus – Foreign Policy In Focus,
9 Nov 2015
The United Nations works best when nations are united. To date, divided national priorities have not allowed the 70-year-old institution to play a significant role to end war in Syria. Promoting a new Trusteeship System to address this problem could be a way to bring nations together to focus on the limits of sovereignty and the responsibility to protect civilian populations.
→ read full articleGross National Happiness, Like the Gross National Product, Can Be Tracked by Data
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
26 Oct 2015
Gross National Happiness, which had its origins in Bhutan, has caught on with political scientists. … “We are not interested in deciding what happiness is – an undeniably difficult problem – but only in knowing if people are happy. … how much people find their lives to be positive and rewarding – in Einstein’s phrase, ‘satisfying’.”
→ read full articleWhy Should the U.S. Accept Syrian Refugees? Because It Helped Displace Them.
Laith Shakir – Foreign Policy In Focus,
26 Oct 2015
Washington is one of the most active players in Syria’s civil war, but it’s accepted effectively 0 percent of the conflict’s refugees.
→ read full articlePortugal: Europe’s Left Batting 1.000
Conn Hallinan – Foreign Policy In Focus,
19 Oct 2015
In Portugal’s elections, Left parties garnered more than 50 percent of the vote and austerity took a major hit. The EU is now the single most powerful alliance of capital on the planet, and it is not a bit shy about crushing anything it sees as a potential threat. However, the Troika’s efforts to scare—and bribe—Portugal failed.
→ read full articleMouth Wide Shut
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
12 Oct 2015
Under Obama, whistleblowers face a total of 751 months behind bars — compared to 24 months for all other whistleblowers combined since the American Revolution.
→ read full articleFinally, Nepal Gets a Constitution
Deepak Adhikari – Foreign Policy In Focus,
5 Oct 2015
First promised over a half a century ago, Nepal’s new constitution is surprisingly progressive. But it’s led to tensions with neighboring India and with underrepresented ethnic groups.
→ read full articleWhy Doesn’t the Foreign Policy Establishment Take World Peace Seriously?
Didier Jacobs – Foreign Policy In Focus,
5 Oct 2015
The faculty goes through a list of US “national interests.” The usual suspects are all there: preventing nuclear proliferation, strengthening democracy, and so on. I raise my hand to argue that protecting the Brazilian rainforest is also a vital U.S. national interest. The faculty’s reaction? “Er, so, if Brazilians keep chopping down their forest, should we bomb them?” Welcome to the establishment’s mindset!
→ read full articleThe Middle East’s New Nakba
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
5 Oct 2015
The chain of events set into motion by the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq is reaching its logical conclusion — the disintegration of multi-ethnic states and a great expulsion of innocents. Nationalist forces have squared off against religious extremists over not only who controls the states, but the very nature of the state institutions.
→ read full articleSanctioned Terrorism
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich – Foreign Policy Journal,
14 Sep 2015
Economic Sanctions Are a Form of Terrorism – Terrorism is “viewed as a method of violence in which civilians are targeted with the objective of forcing a perceived enemy into submission by creating fear, demoralization, and political friction in the population under attack.
→ read full articleWhere’s There’s War, There’s Refugees
Leon Wofsy – Foreign Policy In Focus,
14 Sep 2015
The refugee disaster is the legacy of the war makers, those who authored the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and the military misadventure in Libya. It is a living legacy of policies aimed at forcing “regime change,” a preference for superpower might and war over negotiations and diplomacy.
→ read full articleFinally, Science Beginning to Prove Torture Doesn’t Work
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
31 Aug 2015
Expecting brutal interrogations to extract good intelligence is like “banging a hammer on a radio to get a better signal,” [Andy Morgan, a psychiatrist at the University of New Haven in Connecticut and a former intelligence officer with the CIA]. “It doesn’t enhance cognition. It only makes it worse.”
→ read full articleWant a More Democratic UN? Give It a Parliament
Jo Leinen and Andreas Bummel – Foreign Policy In Focus,
31 Aug 2015
Every democracy in the world has an elected legislature. Why not the UN? As we approach the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, we’re moving further into a new century with many of the old, deficient institutions of the last century left untouched.
→ read full articleWhat the Mainstream Media Got Wrong about Gaza
Qossay Alsattari – Foreign Policy In Focus,
10 Aug 2015
You may have heard that “both sides” committed abuses in last Gaza war. But there’s no comparison when it comes to the scale of the violations — or the body count. According to the investigators, the war killed 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians — over half of them women and children. By contrast, six Israeli civilians and 67 soldiers were killed.
→ read full articleAfghanistan: The Forever War
Rachelle Marshall – Foreign Policy In Focus,
10 Aug 2015
After the United States has been in Afghanistan for 14 years, 91,000 Afghans have been killed and 26,000 wounded.
→ read full articleDubai’s Skyline Is a Monument to Oppression, Not Prosperity
Laith Shakir – Foreign Policy In Focus,
10 Aug 2015
Visual artist Arko Datto combines satellite images and text to paint a picture of migrant workers’ lives in the Arabian Peninsula — and his findings aren’t pretty.
→ read full articleAre Foreign NGOs Rebuilding Haiti or Just Cashing In?
Nathalie Baptiste – Foreign Policy In Focus,
20 Jul 2015
Haiti plays host to over 10,000 NGOs, whose foreign workers make up an affluent class of their own. By spending exorbitant sums on incentives for non-locals, NGOs effectively undermine the work they’re supposedly trying to do in Haiti
→ read full articleCall for Sanity on 60th Anniversary of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto
Emanuel Pastreich – Foreign Policy In Focus,
13 Jul 2015
July 9, 2015 – Sixty years after Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell issued their manifesto about the growing threat of world war, the globe continues to face the prospect of nuclear annihilation — coupled with the looming threat of climate change.
→ read full article‘The American Century’ Has Plunged the World into Crisis. What Happens Now?
Conn Hallinan and Leon Wofsy – Foreign Policy In Focus,
29 Jun 2015
U.S. foreign policy is dangerous, undemocratic, and deeply out of sync with real global challenges. Is continuous war inevitable, or can we change course?
→ read full articleSlavery, Genocide, Abuse: The Dark Side of Asia’s ‘Tiger Economies’
Walden Bello – Foreign Policy In Focus,
29 Jun 2015
From declining worker protections to violent labor trafficking and ethnic cleansing, the dark underbelly of Southeast Asia’s “tiger economies” is on full display this year.
→ read full articleEcuador Puts Piketty into Practice
Josh Hoxie – Foreign Policy In Focus,
22 Jun 2015
This small South American country is taxing wealthy estates and distributing the proceeds directly to workers.
→ read full articleCelebrating Destruction
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
18 May 2015
Our wartime commemorations are the functional equivalent of mounting the heads of our victims on pikes. Are we surprised that others celebrate bloodshed when we do the same?
→ read full articleHow the U.S. Contributed to Yemen’s Crisis
Stephen Zunes – Foreign Policy In Focus,
27 Apr 2015
Washington’s support for Yemen’s former dictatorship — and of Saudi efforts to sideline the country’s nonviolent pro-democracy movement — helped create the current crisis.
→ read full articleWomen’s Delegation to Cross DMZ between Koreas
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
27 Apr 2015
For what it’s worth, I think a peace march by women across the DMZ is a splendid idea. We need symbolic acts that capture the world’s attention and help shift all the major players in the direction of negotiations. It’s mostly men – men from politics, men from business, men on both sides of the DMZ – who have been dealing with the Korean peninsula issue over the years. And we men haven’t achieved very much.
→ read full articleCaldicott Nuclear Disarmament Conference Frightening, but Inspiring
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
9 Mar 2015
Dr. Helen Caldicott’s nuclear disarmament seminar in New York City intrigued, educated — and scared the wits out of you.
→ read full articleComparing Atrocities
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
9 Mar 2015
It’s tempting to call ISIS “medieval” murderers. But from mass murder to drone strikes, atrocity is very much a part of our modern experience. The description of the death of Robert-Francois Damiens, the man who attempted to kill Louis XV, is not for the faint-hearted.
→ read full articleTurning the European Debt Myth Upside-Down
Conn Hallinan – Foreign Policy In Focus,
9 Mar 2015
The European debt crisis has little to do with poor budgeting and everything to do with crony capitalism. Myths are dangerous because they rely more on cultural memory and prejudice than facts.
→ read full articleUpdating German Thrift for the Age of Austerity
Stefan Haus – Foreign Policy In Focus,
2 Mar 2015
After World War II the Marshall Plan provided Germany immediate financial relief. While it rebuilt its economy from scratch, much of the incurred debt was forgiven and payments postponed. The result was a thriving economy. Perhaps it’s time for Germany to apply those lessons to Europe more generally.
→ read full articleHow the Left Failed France’s Muslims
Walden Bello, TeleSur – Foreign Policy In Focus,
16 Feb 2015
In a different world, Cherif and Said Kouachi might have become progressive activists. But where the left abdicated its outreach to marginalized communities, the Islamists moved in.
→ read full articleStopping the Biggest Corporate Power Grab Ever, the TPP
Arthur Stamoulis – Foreign Policy In Focus,
12 Jan 2015
How fighting back against one arcane, Nixon-era trade negotiating procedure could put a stop to a global corporate coup. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a corporate power grab clearly worthy of Seattle-caliber mobilization. But the fight against this reprehensible deal requires different types of tactics.
→ read full articleHow Liberal Democracy Promotes Inequality
Walden Bello – Foreign Policy In Focus,
15 Dec 2014
Western-style democracies — not the dictatorships they replaced — have allowed deeply undemocratic economic systems to flourish. So what’s to be done? The evidence from Thomas Piketty, the UN and other sources is quite conclusive: Neoliberalism is to blame. The old Marxist term “bourgeois democracy” is still the best description for this kind of democratic regime.
→ read full articleWhat “Free Trade” Has Done to Central America
Manuel Perez-Rocha and Julia Paley – Foreign Policy In Focus,
1 Dec 2014
Warnings about the human and environmental costs of “free trade” went unheeded. Now the most vulnerable Central Americans are paying the price.
→ read full articleResisting U.S. Bases in Okinawa
Ayano Ginoza, Michiko Hase and Gwyn Kirk – Foreign Policy In Focus,
27 Oct 2014
Despite intense crackdowns, activists on the Japanese island of Okinawa continue to resist the construction of new U.S. military bases.
→ read full articleWhat West Africa Can Teach the U.S. about Ebola
Kwei Quartey – Foreign Policy in Focus,
27 Oct 2014
Nigeria and Senegal have declared victory on Ebola even as healthcare workers in Texas contract it.
→ read full articleTerror, Repression, and Diaspora in Haiti: The Baby Doc Legacy
Nathalie Baptiste – Foreign Policy In Focus,
27 Oct 2014
Haiti’s late dictator leaves behind a 1-million-strong Diaspora unlikely to ever return home.
→ read full articleConflict Resolution and German Reunification
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
20 Oct 2014
East and West Germany were like a couple that had rushed into marriage with very little understanding of what it would be like to live together.
→ read full articleFor Airstrikes on the Islamic State, U.S. Relaxing Drone Strikes’ Burden of Proof
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
13 Oct 2014
The standards the U.S. purportedly used to prevent civilian deaths from drone strikes have been relaxed. If you’re appalled at civilian deaths from U.S. drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, prepare to be aghast at civilian deaths due to U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.
→ read full articleMove Over, NATO and IMF: Eurasia Is Coming
Conn Hallinan – Foreign Policy In Focus,
13 Oct 2014
A thousand poles are blooming as new international blocs like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS Development Bank emerge to challenge Western economic and military hegemony.
→ read full articleThe Khorasan Group Creation Myth
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
13 Oct 2014
Glenn Greenwald’s report that the Khorasan group was hyped to mobilize support for attacking the Islamic State sounds credible.
→ read full articleMilitarizing the Ebola Crisis
Joeva Rock – Foreign Policy In Focus,
6 Oct 2014
Few would oppose a robust U.S. response to Ebola, but the Obama administration’s deployment of 3,000 troops to Liberia comes amid a broader U.S.-led militarization in West Africa.
→ read full articleThe Fight to Keep Toxic Mining—and the World Bank—Out of El Salvador
Diana Anahi Torres-Valverde – Foreign Policy In Focus,
29 Sep 2014
Hundreds of protesters recently gathered at the World Bank to shame a gold mining firm’s shakedown of one of Central America’s poorest countries. For miners, investors, and artisans, few things are more precious than gold. But for human life itself, nothing is more precious than water.
→ read full article