Articles by Richard Falk

We found 775 results.


G-7 and BRICS Visions of the Future: Coercive Geopolitics or Multilateral Cooperation?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Sep 2023

17 Sep 2023 – A modified version of this post was published in CounterPunch on 8 Sep 2023, which itself is a reconfigured version appearing earlier on TMS (Transcend Media Service) on 4 Sep. Neither version considers the relevance of the Delhi meeting of the G-20, which represents a weaker and somewhat overlapping grouping compared to either G-7 or BRICS.

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(Italiano) Niger: il calvario del colonialismo perenne
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Sep 2023

Da allora sono successe molte cose che riguardano il Niger e il modo in cui intendiamo la sua relazione con quel Paese, con la regione del Sahel dell’Africa occidentale, con l’Africa in generale e con la guerra geopolitica di posizione che mette in primo piano la rivalità degli Stati Uniti con Russia e Cina.

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Niger’s Ordeal of Forever Colonialism
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 Sep 2023

27 Aug 2023 – A lot has happened since the coup, which affects Niger and how we understand its relation to that country, to the Sahel region, to Africa generally, and to the U.S. rivalry with Russia and China in the foreground. I have taken ‘liberties’ with my answers to address this awareness of the broader context.

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Roads Taken and Not Taken: Two Visions of the Future
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 Sep 2023

When the Cold War ended in 1991, the West, and particularly the United States, found itself at a fork in the road. One road led to peace, justice, cooperation, nuclear disarmament, a revitalized UN, inclusiveness, pluralism, human rights, multilateralism, fair trade, regulated markets, food security, sustainability, and humane governance. The other road led to militarism…

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(Italiano) Vietnam e Palestina/Israele: un confronto tra legge e guerra
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 Sep 2023

31 Agosto 2023 – Il testo che segue è la mia prefazione a un confronto di conflitti di eccezionale valore: Vietnam e Palestina/Israele. Queste due regioni mi hanno preoccupato per tutta la mia carriera professionale e nel corso della mia vita di cittadino attivista.

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Law & War: A Comparison of Vietnam and Palestine/Israel
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Aug 2023

26 Aug 2023 – The text below is my foreword to an exceptionally valuable comparison of conflicts: Vietnam and Arab-Israeli.

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Quran Desecration and Freedom of Expression
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Aug 2023

The harder efforts are made to stop this highly objectionable behavior by Islamophobic and right-wing extremists groups, the greater is their temptation to persist in such action. In the short-term what these groups seek is public recognition and media attention, not power or authority.

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Innovative Regional Dialogue: Iran, Iraq, and Six Gulf Countries
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Aug 2023

7 Aug 2023 – The regional dialogue scheduled for Sep 2023 is a notable breakthrough, by diplomatic initiatives, to replace tensions with stability in the Middle East, and in the process gaining political independence from U.S./Israel hegemony. This development also reflects the increased involvement of China in the region.

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Why Is the West Bank Under Assault by Settlers and Netanyahu Government?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 31 Jul 2023

24 Jul 2023 – While the media focus has been on ‘the judiciary overhaul’ confrontation between antagonistic Jewish factions as to the ‘democratic’ character of Israel, the unifying themes in apartheid Israel remain the further marginalization of the Palestinians in their own homeland.

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Asia-Pacific NATO: Fanning the Flames of War (SHAPE Webinar)
Richard Falk, Joseph Camilleri and Chandra Muzaffar | SHAPE - TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Jul 2023

“I encourage attendance at this webinar on July 4 or 5, depending on time zone, devoted to encroachment of NATO on Asia-Pacific security, with excellent speakers.”
— Richard Falk

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Daniel Ellsberg: A U.S. Hero
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Jun 2023

25 Jun 2023 – If democracy survives the digital age with its scary newly appreciated AI dimensions, it will be thanks to brave whistleblowers starting with Ellsberg and continuing with Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Jack Teixeira, individuals currently hounded as criminals by the U.S. government.

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(Italiano) Dar retta al ‘grido accorato’ di Cornel West
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Jun 2023

La reazione di Biden all’attacco russo all’Ucraina non è stata di quelle che cercano quanto prima una tregua e un compromesso diplomatico. Ha optato piuttosto per armamento e assistenza tali da sostenere una guerra protratta in Ucraina come dimostrazione del la rinascita della NATO a guida USA, a quanto pare non tanto motivata per la difesa dell’Ucraina ma per un incontenibile interesse ad umiliare Putin e sconfiggere la Russia. E non solo.

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Heeding Cornel West’s ‘Cri de Coeur’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Jun 2023

Biden’s response to the Russian attack on Ukraine was not for a ceasefire and diplomatic compromise but for weaponry and assistance to sustain a prolonged war as a demonstration of US-led NATO resurgence; not motivated by the defense of Ukraine but by an overwhelming interest in humiliating Putin and defeating Russia. Not only this.

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Assessing Big History at a Time of Global Crisis
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 May 2023

27 May 2023 – To achieve positive forms of change at a time of multiple converging crises imperiling the human species and its natural habitat is the ‘crisis of crises’ facing humanity at this time.

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War Prevention Depends on Respecting Invisible Geopolitical Fault Lines
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 May 2023

18 May 2023 – ‘Rule-governed’ seems to be a synonym to international law. But Blinken makes no such claim to rationalize U.S. international behavior as ‘law-governed,’ but rather believe, following Thucydides, ‘that strong do as they will, while the weak do as they must.’

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Ambiguous Geopolitical Fault Lines Endanger World Peace
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Apr 2023

The idea of ‘geopolitical fault lines’ is not well established in the practice or theory of international relations, but their existence is profoundly relevant to the maintenance of peace and security because of the failure of international law to set consistently respected limits on the behavior of political actors, granting them impunity for acting beyond the limits of the law.

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Democracy at Risk for Jews in Israel, Bare Survival for Palestinians
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Apr 2023

7 Apr 2023 – Israeli police violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque directed at Palestinian worshipers in the midst of Ramadan on the nights of April 5 and 6 is a serious violation of international arrangements in Jerusalem to protect Muslim holy sites, none more sacred than Al-Aqsa.

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In Homage to David Ray Griffin: Indispensable Public Intellectual
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Feb 2023

I think it was the successful branding of the 9/11 skeptics as ‘wacky’ that proved more useful in squelching their influence than by labeling them as ‘dangerous,’ ‘subversive,’ and ‘radical’ or ‘socialist.’ It might be understood as the advent of a more advanced, more sophisticated version of McCarthyism, a discrediting ploy that George Orwell would have immediately understood.

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Saint Valentine
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Feb 2023

14 Feb 2023 – A whimsical poem to celebrate the love legacy of Saint Valentine, written by Marianne Moore 63 years ago, published in The New Yorker on 13 Feb 1960, dedicated by me to all of us who love poetry and dare to love love on Valentine’s Day 2023.

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Biden’s Misplaced Optimism: 2023 State of the Union Address
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Feb 2023

18 Feb 2023 – The national situation is far too deeply challenged for us to be content with presidential bromides. What is most needed are policies and practices that embody compassion, and are dedicated with the fullness of being to responding to the imperatives of human security at all levels of social interaction.

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Ukraine, Rethinking Global Security—Webinar
Richard Falk, Chandra Muzaffar, et al. | SHAPE – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Feb 2023

Our second webinar on 23 Feb 2023 draws lessons from the Ukraine war and sets new pathways to global security. An initiative to address the multiple crises that brought us to the brink of the precipice. Doomsday Clock: 90 seconds to midnight.

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Antony Blinken Plays the ‘Two Sides Game’: Getting Netanyahu/Israel off the Hook
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Feb 2023

31 Jan 2023 – Antony Blinken is the most lightweight Secretary of State, a fitting complement to the overweight Mike Pompeo. Together they could do a late night TV comedy routine on the ‘arrogance of decline’ when it comes to US foreign policy in the Trump/Biden years.

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Ukraine: Rethinking Global Security–Saving Humanity and Planet Earth
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century - TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Feb 2023

Saving Humanity and Planet Earth (SHAPE) is an initiative to address the multiple crises that have brought us to the brink of the precipice. This, our second webinar to be held on 22/23 February 2023, draws lessons from the Ukraine war and sets new pathways to global security.

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Lifting the Curtain: Barbara Walters
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Jan 2023

21 Jan 2023 – This post is a departure from my usual focus on current political concerns. It attempts a mini-exploration of the public/private interface of a news and entertainment celebrity, especially known for her ability to go ‘persona,’ and even enter intimate terrain with some of the most famous political leaders of our time.

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Israeli Settler Colonialism and Apartheid: Poised for Victory or Defeat?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Jan 2023

13 Jan 2023 – Anyone with but half eye open during the last several decades should by now be aware of the existence of an undisclosed Zionist Long Game that preceded the establishment of Israel in 1948,  and remains currently very much alive. It aims at extending Israeli sovereignty over the whole of Occupied Palestine.

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Harvard University Succumbs
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 Jan 2023

7 Jan 2023 – Harvard University Withdraws a Fellowship from Kenneth Roth & Human Rights Watch

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Toward Justice for Kashmir
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Jan 2023

18 Dec 2022 – Among the self-determination struggles of our time, Kashmir is at risk of being forgotten by most of the world (except for Pakistan), while its people continue to endure the harsh crimes of India’s intensifying military occupation that has already lasted 75 years.

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(Italiano) Elezioni israeliane 2022: una vittoria per i “coloni” colonialisti o per la lotta di Liberazione Palestinese?
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Nov 2022

Non c’è dubbio che le elezioni israeliane 2022 del 1°novembre [U.S..] saranno d’importanza durevole. I mesi e gli anni a venire riveleranno se Israele consolida il suo status di stato coloniale di coloni o se la lotta palestinese aumenta la sua resistenza al dominio israeliano rafforzata da un crescente movimento di solidarietà globale.

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What to Expect from Netanyahu & Religious Zionism
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Nov 2022

A Preliminary Appraisal

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2022 Israeli Elections: A Victory for Settler Colonialists or for the Palestinian Liberation Struggle?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Nov 2022

There is no doubt that the November 1st Israeli elections will be of lasting significance. The months and years ahead will reveal whether Israel consolidates its status as a settler colonial state or the Palestinian struggle increases its resistance to Israeli rule reinforced by an intensifying global solidarity movement.

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Call on the Future of Humanity
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Oct 2022

A webinar to build a global community of endorsers to work for a better future for this lonely endangered planet.

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(Italiano) Guerra in Ucraina: la scalata verso l’oblio
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Oct 2022

Washington non solo ha mobilitato il mondo per denunciare l’aggressione della Russia, ma ha fornito armi avanzate in grandi quantità agli ucraini per resistere all’attacco russo, e ha fatto tutto il possibile all’ONU e altrove per costruire una coalizione punitiva ostile alla Russia, accompagnando il tutto con una serie di sanzioni e la demonizzazione di Putin. Questa prospettiva di propaganda di Stato è stata fedelmente veicolata da un filtro mediatico occidentale autocensurante.

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Ukraine War: Climbing the Escalation Ladder to Oblivion
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Oct 2022

Not only did Washington mobilize the world to denounce Russia’s ‘aggression,’ but supplied advanced weaponry in great quantities to the Ukrainians doing all it could at the UN and elsewhere to build a punitive coalition hostile to Russia, coupled with a variety of sanctions and the demonization of Putin. This perspective of state propaganda was faithfully conveyed by a self-censoring Western media.

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Will Saudi Leadership of OPEC Clash with U.S. Strategic Partnership?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Oct 2022

Reevaluating US Relations with Saudi Arabia after OPEC+ Oil Production Cut

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On Loving the ‘Vietnam Syndrome’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Oct 2022

2 Oct 2022 – Never, in my opinion, is the country and world more in need of a second coming of the Vietnam Syndrome than at present, with pressures building for an existential nuclear confrontation more menacing to contemplate than was the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago.

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Please Endorse Our Call for Global Peace
Chandra Muzaffar, Richard Falk and Joseph Camilleri – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Oct 2022

26 Sep 2022 – This call prepared by the undersigned has been endorsed by 38 individuals from a wide array of nationalities across the globe. They are mainly public intellectuals and activists who have been involved in a variety of causes over the years. We have shared our call with the U.N Secretary General, as well as with other leaders involved directly in the Ukraine and Taiwan Crises, and with those who have tried to mediate.

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What Makes Ukraine Different from Serbia? Why Kosovo? Why Not Donbas?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Sep 2022

Defying Serbian Territorial Sovereignty in Kosovo, Upholding Ukrainian Territorial Sovereignty in the Donbas Region – The blind eye turned toward denials of the right of self-determination to the Palestinian people in what had been their own country of Palestine represents a flagrant example of international double standards.

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Ukraine: War, Statecraft, and Geopolitical Conflict—the Nuclear Danger
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Sep 2022

14 Sep 2022 – The risk of nuclear escalation in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a subject of considerable debate in the United States among scholars, policy analysts and media commentators. These debates reveal a broad spectrum of views from those who dismiss Russian references to nuclear capabilities as mere saber rattling to those who worry that if Russian President Vladimir Putin finds his back to the wall in Ukraine, he may resort to tactical nuclear strikes.

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Appraising Mikhail Gorbachev
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Sep 2022

6 Sep 2022 – Mikhail Gorbachev had the greatest historical impact of any public figure since WW II. It is a bitterly polarized legacy of admiration and historical achievement in the West and one of contempt and almost total disrepute in Russia.

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Is It Time to Stop Bullying Iran? Washington Should Restore the Nuclear Program Agreement with Iran Now
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Sep 2022

4 Sep 2022 – It is time for the morally attuned public to awake to the reality that a nuclear Israel has neither security justifications nor political grounds for its continuing bullying of Iran. Iran’s political solidarity with some movements in the region pales in its gravity compared to the U.S. and Israel’s discretionary bombing, political assassinations, interventions, and violations of the basic sovereign rights of countries in the Middle East.

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(Italiano) Il come ricordiamo Hiroshima e Norimberga riflette il potere non la giustizia
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Sep 2022

I pacifisti del vasto mondo sovente scelgono l’8 agosto ogni anno per provare di nuovo la sofferenza umana e la devastazione causate dallo sgancio di bombe atomiche sulle città giapponesi inermi di Hiroshima e Nagasaki.

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The Nuclear Agreement (JCPOA, 2015) Should Be Renewed
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Aug 2022

25 Aug 2022 – Undoing the human and diplomatic harm of Trump’s international legacy is a complex matter that not only exhibits the persisting influence of unrepentant Trumpists but the passivity of the Democratic Party leadership, particularly when it dares to disagree with Israel on a matter of foreign policy concern.

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Movements to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons and to Establish Geopolitical Accountability
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Aug 2022

16 Aug 2022 – Go to the links given connecting you with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, the NGO that has the longest record of commitment to establish a global security system without nuclear weapons and with geopolitical accountability.

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Donation Politics: Worse than Hypocrisy
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 Aug 2022

1 Aug 2022 – We need to ask ourselves with a sense of urgency, ‘where is the outrage?’ and ‘why are the streets empty?’ Bob Dylan’s message of the sixties rings truer than ever: ‘The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind.”

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How We Remember Hiroshima and Nuremberg Reflects Power Not Justice
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 Aug 2022

This year the remembrance of the atomic bombings of Japanese cities is especially poignant. The world, as the UN Secretary General noted, is just one miscalculation away from nuclear war. I was also reminded that 8 Aug was the day in 1945 that the Allied Powers had the unfathomable insensitivity to sign the London Agreement setting up the Nuremberg Tribunal to prosecute German war criminals–two days after the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and one day before the second one incinerated Nagasaki. Sad to note, times have not changed.

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Biden’s Middle East Visit: An Orgy of Cynicism, Hypocrisy, and Erasures
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Jul 2022

21 Jul 2022 – This piece criticizes the dual tracks of Biden’s ill-executed trip in mid-July to Israel and Saudi Arabia. It faults Biden for the extreme cynicism of pursuing a realpolitik approach in Riyadh and an approach in Israel that mixed silences about apartheid, Shireen Abu Akleh, and the Palestinian ordeal with fanciful claims about shared values and democratic affinities.

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The Worst Is yet to Come: When the Center Cannot Hold
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Jul 2022

15 Jul 2022 – This is an attempt to connect my despair about developments in the USA with wider global systemic tendencies. It is not hopeful about the future, yet its central message is that we should continue to struggle for a future we can believe in given that we live at a time of radical uncertainty.

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A European Call for an End to the Ukraine War
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Jul 2022

5 Jul 2022 – This piece appeared in the prominent German weekly, ZEIT, last week. It is written from a European perspective, calling for a ceasefire followed by bilateral negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

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Human Rights and Confronting China Geopolitically
Richard Falk and Alfred de Zayas | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jun 2022

16 Jun 2022 – Breakthrough success of Bachelet’s HRC mission to China. We decry those who distort such an achievement to continue to rationalize confronting China coercively. Opportunism in relation to human rights is not a path to peace and justice. Rather than provoking a critical storm the mission, in our judgment, should have been applauded with a sustained shout of BRAVO!

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Ukraine and the Risk of Geopolitical Conflict — A Reawakening to Nuclear Dangers?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Jun 2022

11 Jun 2022 – The risk of nuclear escalation has been subject of debate in the US. These debates reveal those who dismiss Russian references to nuclear capabilities as mere saber rattling to those who worry that if Putin finds his back to the wall in Ukraine, he may resort to tactical nuclear strikes.

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Westphalian Logic and Geopolitical Prudence in the Nuclear Age
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 May 2022

24 May 2022 – The Ukraine War, its complexities and global spillover effects, have not been adequately depicted by either political leaders or the more influential media. Most commonly, the Ukraine War has been narrowly and reductively depicted as a simple matter of defending Ukraine against Russian aggression.

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The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 May 2022

28 May 2022 – The USA Must Demand a Credible Investigation into Shireen Abu Akleh’s Killing – The assassination sent shock waves throughout the Middle East as Shireen was known and respected as a trusted journalist. We keep waiting for a ‘Sharpville Moment’ with respect to Palestine and Israeli impunity. When will it come?

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(Italiano) Tribunale dei Popoli sulle Guerre Ucraine
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 May 2022

È ormai tempo d’iniziative della società civile per opporsi al disastroso confronto globale che sta ora mettendo in pericolo il mondo, anzi prospettive di sopravvivenza di specie, perseguendo obiettivi politici degli Stati Uniti camuffati con una certa dose di complicità dei media che continuano a trasmettere l’impressione che la guerra in Ucraina concerna la difesa dell’Ucraina.

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The Second Level Geopolitical War in Ukraine Takes Over
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 May 2022

30 Apr 2022 – The recent acknowledgement that U.S. goals are secondarily related to the wellbeing of Ukraine, and primarily by the dangerously regressive goals of taking on challengers to the unipolarity, which has guided U.S. grand strategy since the end of the Cold War.

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Toward a Peoples Tribunal on the Ukraine Wars
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 May 2022

The time has come for civil society to counter the global confrontation endangering the world for U.S. geopolitical goals disguised, with media complicity, in a Ukraine War for its own defense. This is a false and dangerous image… I hope some readers throughout the world will feel motivated to make the Peoples Ukraine Wars Tribunal a reality!

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Al-Aqsa Violence during Ramadan
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Apr 2022

21 Apr 2022 – Once more Israel strikes hard against Palestinian rights when the world has its attention fixed elsewhere, with a mainstream media posture of indifference and inattention compounding the problem . The pro-Palestinian solidarity movement is being seriously challenged not to let this happen.

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Renounce the Geopolitical War between the U.S. and Russia
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Apr 2022

18 Apr 2022 – Stopping the Geopolitical War being waged by the United States against Russia is a precondition for ending the aggressive war initiated by Russia against Ukraine and also a return to semi-responsible statecraft, which is the most we can expect or hope for in the present. Diplomacy seeking a ceasefire and a political compromise is the only sane path.

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Complexities of the Ukraine War
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Apr 2022

15 Apr 2022 – This war can be characterized thus:
– Level One: Russia vs. Ukraine
– Level Two: USA vs. Russia
– Level Three: Ukrainian nationalism vs. Russian-oriented separatism

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This Geopolitical War Is a ‘Geopolitical Crime’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Apr 2022

9 Apr 2022 – There is no doubt that atrocities have been committed in Ukraine, seemingly yet not exclusively by Russian attacking forces, and in a perfect world those who so acted would be held responsible. But the world is highly imperfect when it comes to accountability for international crimes.

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Make Peace, Not War, in Ukraine
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 Apr 2022

31 Mar 2022 – There were a series of provocations by NATO that aroused security concerns in Moscow, including the expansion of NATO after the Cold War was over, the threat from the Soviet Union had disappeared, and promises were made by Western leaders to Gorbachev of no further NATO expansion. Such geopolitical behavior amounted to imprudent statecraft by the West,

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2022 Global Policy Institute Book Award to Richard Falk
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century - TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 Apr 2022

Dr. Falk is now a Santa Barbara resident. After four decades at Princeton, he has served as Visiting Distinguished Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has lectured widely around the world as one of America’s most recognizable and relentless crusaders for international justice.

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(Italiano) Guerra in Ucraina: una prospettiva geopolitica
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Mar 2022

18 Marzo 2022 – Ripresa modificata di una conferenza tenuta il 9 marzo 2022 a una sessione dei Colloqui su Studi Globali all’Università di California – Santa Barbara convocata dal professor Jan Nederveen Pieters, purtroppo priva di una serie di domande impegnative a seguito del mio intervento, fra cui da vari partecipanti in Europa.

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Ukraine War: Three Academic Perspectives
Daniel Falcone interviews Richard Falk - TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Mar 2022

17 Mar 2022 – The following discussion resulted from three separate interviews. There was no interaction among the three of us. I wonder whether this war is best described as ‘Russo-Ukrainian War’ or simply as ‘Ukrainian War’ or ‘Russo-U.S. Proxy War.’ It seems an amalgam of all three.

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The Ukraine War: A Geopolitical Perspective
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Mar 2022

Talk on 9 Mar 2022 at the Global Studies Colloquium, UCSB. When we agreed on a theme for my presentation, we were in a pre-Ukraine world. Interim developments: the imprudent US-led provocations, Russian aggression against a sovereign state of over 44 million people, the confrontational Western sanctions, and a surging Russophobia produced a win/lose calculus rather than partial win/win political outcomes.

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The Paused Quest for Humane Governance in the Arab World: Is It Time ‘to fail better’?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Feb 2022

The acceleration of history foreshortens our memory of past events, especially when disillusionment displaces hope. This happened a decade ago when uprisings were celebrated as ‘the Arab Spring.’ The role of activist youth, the spontaneous displays of populist strivings for a better political future, created the feeling that something irreversible, and for the better, was taking place. Yet it was not to be.

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On Israel as an Apartheid State: An Interview with Richard Falk
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Feb 2022

19 Feb 2022 – An interview David Falcone originally published in CounterPunch on 11 Feb prompted by the Amnesty Report but extending beyond it.

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‘Politics as Usual’ Will Never Be a Solution to the Current Climate Threat (or to Nuclear War)
C.J. Polychroniou interviews Richard Falk | DWF News - TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Feb 2022

17 Feb 2022 – There is an ever-growing consensus that the climate crisis represents humanity’s greatest problem. Indeed, global warming is more than an environmental crisis — there are social, political, ethical and economic dimensions to it. (Commentary added by Roger Kotila)

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Is the Amnesty International Report an Israeli ‘Sharpeville Moment?’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Feb 2022

10 Feb 2022 – This interview followed the release on 1 Feb of the explosive Amnesty International Report finding Israel guilty of the continuing crime of apartheid. How much longer can governments, the UN, and liberal Zionist close their eye in face of the mounting consensus in the international human community on the question of Israeli apartheid?

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The Problematics of Middle Eastern Diplomacy: The Case of Iran
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 7 Feb 2022

2 Feb 2022 – In relation to both Iran, Israel, and Palestine, the essential message sent by the new leadership is continuity when it comes to substance combined with a resumption of the pre-Trump pretension of equi-distance diplomacy when it comes to the search for a sustainable peace.

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Will the Iran Nuclear Agreement Be Restored?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 31 Jan 2022

26 Jan 2022 – An interview with Mojtaba Majidi of the Mehr News Agency (Tehran) on the Vienna Talks that are seeking to restore the Iran Nuclear Agreement of 2015 reached during the Obama presidency.

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Dangerous Gaps: Knowledge, Action, and Justice
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Jan 2022

16 Jan 2022 – This essay was published on 13 Jan 2022 on This View of Life, which brings to bear the views of science and evolutionary biology on a series of global challenges increasingly overwhelming the capabilities of civilizational modernity.

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(Italiano) L’ascesa sorprendente della Cina
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Jan 2022

4 Gennaio 2022 – L’ascesa sorprendente della Cina: dovuta a un ‘socialismo con caratteristiche cinesi’ o a un ‘capitalismo con facciata cinese? O a un po’ di entrambi?

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January 6th: A Year Later
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 Jan 2022

6 Jan 2022 – In retrospect, the attempted insurrection at the Capitol was about a great deal more than an angry expression of disappointment by the populist side of gun culture America. The coup attempt of January 6th failed, yet it succeeded in undermining the unwritten, yet vital, social contract that brought high levels of stability to United States since the republic was established in 1789.

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What’s Ahead for Palestine in 2022
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Jan 2022

2 Jan 2022 – To begin with, we will witness a growing awareness that traditional diplomacy will not bring stability, much less peace with justice to this struggle that has gone on for more than a century.

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Private Prescriptions for a Better Life in 2022
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 Jan 2022

1 Jan 2022 -A thoughtful Indian friend in Paris sent this list as her prescription for a better life in 2022. I adopted her list and added to it. I invite readers to propose their own additions and subtractions.

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Was China’s Amazing Rise Due to ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’ or ‘Capitalism with a Chinese Facade? Or a Little of Both?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Dec 2021

23 Dec 2021 – There has in recent months many discussions centering around the proper characterization of China from an ideological point of view. The Chinese leadership has its own reasons for doing this, seeking to present what it deems a glorious self-image.

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Covering Up Failure: Ignoring the Record of Regime-Changing Interventions
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Dec 2021

6 Dec 2021 – The militarized U.S. political class rejects the record of failure with respect to regime-changing interventions since suffering defeat in the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.

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On the Collective Will of the Human Species to Survive
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Nov 2021

23 Nov 2021 – The human will to survive is often uncritically taken for granted, which was of little consequence prior to the advent of the nuclear age in 1945. That the first atomic explosion was the event chosen by the scientific community agreed to signal the advent of the age of the Anthropocene is of added significance.

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Climate Change in an Unjust World
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 Nov 2021

23 Nov 2021 – It is a great pleasure to participate once again in this annual Congress on Agricultural and Food Ethics. The fact that it coincides with the UN COP-26 Summit on CC taking place is especially appropriate.

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Climate Challenge Cannot Be Overcome in an Unjust World
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Nov 2021

16 Nov 2021 – Climate Change, Survival, and Justice in Relation to Agricultural and Food Security – The UN COP-26 delivered mixed messages that disappointed a worried world public. Only the future will tell us whether Glasgow was a welcome new beginning or, in Greta Thunberg’s rhetoric, “more blah, blah, blah.”

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(Italiano) Cambiamento Climatico, Sopravvivenza e Giustizia
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Nov 2021

18 Nov 2021 – Il Raduno sul Cambiamento Climatico ONU COP-26 recentemente concluso a Glasgow ha rilasciato messaggi misti a un pubblico mondiale preoccupato.

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Climate Change, Survival, and Justice
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 Nov 2021

The recently concluded UN COP-26 Climate Change Gathering in Glasgow delivered mixed messages to a concerned world public. Only the future will tell whether Glasgow was a welcome new beginning or, in Greta Thunberg’s well-chosen rhetoric, “more blah, blah, blah.”

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Is This a Sputnik Moment? Or a Paranoid Geopolitical Moment?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 8 Nov 2021

6 Nov 2021 – US Military Interests Are Promoting a Culture of Fear With China – This is a slightly modified interview with Daniel Falcone. It attempts to challenge the pathological geopolitics that diverts attention from climate change and the global justice agenda in a period of growing dangers.

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Colin Powell: In Life and Death
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Oct 2021

Colin Powell died on Monday [18 Oct 2021] at the age of 84. Richard Falk reflects on Powell’s life and the US reaction to his passing including the relevance of identity politics, the question of moderation, his contribution to the horrors of Vietnam and Iraq, and US governmental hypocrisy in the wake of its January 2020 assassination of the comparable Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani.  

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On Denigrating the Humanities
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 25 Oct 2021

18 Oct 2021 – This post reflects on the brutal frankness of this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Professor Joshua Angrist, unqualified rationale for leaving his faculty position at Hebrew University in Jerusalem for a higher paying professorship at MIT. The put down of literature is mindlessly irresponsible and civilizationally obtuse.

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The Rebranding of Antisemitism after the Holocaust
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Oct 2021

12 Oct 2021 – This post is concerned with the legacy of the Holocaust as providing antisemitism as a policy tool exploited by Israel and Zionist activists to intensify Palestinian suffering and deflect attention from Israeli wrongdoing. My main contention is that the Holocaust experience accentuated the tendencies of the Zionist movement to be opportunistic in the course of its long effort to attain, little by little, its territorial and ideological goals.

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(Italiano) Iron Dome Israeliane: la farsa del finanziamento USA
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Oct 2021

4 Ottobre 2021 – Che gli Stati Uniti paghino il conto per ricostituire la scorta di missili nel sistema difensivo israeliano Iron Dome (Cupola di Ferro) utilizzato durante l’attacco a Gaza in maggio è una caricatura di legalità e giustizia.

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L’ONU 75enne: una storia mista di delusioni e adempimenti
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Oct 2021

8 Ottobre 2021 – L’ONU: S’impegna aldilà del suo potenziale [“fa a pugni sopra la sua classe di peso”] ? Le pressioni verso l’unità e il bene pubblico globale possono ricostruire un’ONU orientata e autorizzata a servire gli interessi umani piuttosto che quelli nazionali o la geopolitica? Il suo contributo è nella politica simbolica, come “una superpotenza soft power”, il suo segretario generale è quasi solo come una voce rispettata della ragione e dell’empatia o un gentile critico dell’eccesso geopolitico.

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The UN after 75: A Mixed Record of Disappointment and Fulfillment
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 4 Oct 2021

UN: Does It Punch above Its Weight? Can pressures toward unity and global public good remake a UN oriented and empowered to serve the human interest rather than national ones or geopolitics? Its contribution is in symbolic politics, as ‘a soft power superpower,’ its Secretary General being almost alone as a respected voice of reason and empathy or a gentle critic of geopolitical excess.

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Reacting to Crime by Waging War(s) – 9/11+9/12: Compounding Tragedy
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Sep 2021

20/22 Sep 2021 – Greater transformative effects resulted from 9/12 than the tragic events of 9/11 due to the vengeful recklessness of the U.S. response. It is a reflection of the deficiencies of political pedagogy and journalistic priorities in the US that despite all that has happened at home and abroad in the course of the last twenty years virtually no distinct attention is given to 9/12.

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What a Travesty! Iron Dome Subsidy
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Sep 2021

25 Sep 2021 – For the US to pay the bill for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system used during the Gaza attack in May is a travesty of law and justice. And to gain support for such a measure by a vote of 420-9 in the U.S. House of Representatives should be an embarrassment for the strategic rationality of American foreign policy.

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Four Remarkable Women
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Sep 2021

13 Sep 2021 – This post reflects an amateurish interest in depicting a fascinating form of feminism that is exemplified by certain exceptional women whom I have been privileged to know. It was originally to be a chapter for my memoir, but I was compelled to cut 100,000 words, and this is one way of saying that my life is bigger than the book!

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The Bipartisan Demise of U.S. Democracy
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Sep 2021

16 Sep 2021 – The Republican Party contempt for liberal U.S. values, traditions, constitutionalism, the findings of science and truthfulness, became routine features of the presidency of Donald Trump.

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The Shared Struggle of Palestinian and Irish Hunger Strikers
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Sep 2021

7 Sep 2021 – Posted below is my foreword to a very illuminating collaboration relating the comparative experience of Palestinian and Irish hunger strikers. Desperate circumstances give rise to desperate behavior. If by states, extreme violent behavior tends to be rationalized as ‘self-defense,’ ‘military necessity,’ or ‘counterterrorism,’ and governmental claims of legal authorization tend to be upheld by judicial institutions.

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Crime and Punishment in Afghanistan
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Sep 2021

29 Aug 2021 – Atrocity in Kabul, Geopolitical Crime in Washington

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Everything Went Wrong in Afghanistan
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Aug 2021

23 Aug 2021 – In the post-colonial world, the military superiority of Western intervening powers has proved unable to shape the political outcomes of non-Western sovereign spaces, especially if they have unresolved tribal and ethnic conflicts, warlordism, and drug cartels. In Afghanistan, this proved to be once again validated, despite trillions of dollars spent in devastating parts of the country.

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Demystifying Geopolitical Crime and Afghan Debacle
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Aug 2021

26 Aug 2021 – Further Thoughts on Demystifying the Afghan Tragedy and the US-led NATO Geopolitical Crime

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Toward Global Solidarity: A Politics of Impossibility
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Aug 2021

14 Aug 2021 – This post is my stimulus essay for a Forum sponsored by Great Transition Initiative, a project of the Tellus Institute, dedicated to the exploration of humane and ecologically resonant adjustments to the challenges and threats posed by the onset of the Anthropocentric Age.

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Demonizing Durban
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Aug 2021

The Durban Conference was a forum at which Israel, colonialism, the legacy of slavery, and victimization of vulnerable ethnicities would be depicted and condemned. It is no longer plausible to contend that associating Israeli treatment of the Palestinian people as antisemitic. As a Jew myself, I regard Israeli justifications for its behavior toward Palestine as the embodiment of antisemitic behavior, bringing discredit to the Jewish people.

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The Turkish Coup Attempt: Five Years Later
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Jul 2021

16 Jul 2021 – A modified text of my responses to interview questions of Murat Sofuoglu, a Turkish journalist associated with TRT World.

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