Articles by Richard Falk
We found 803 results.
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.
→ read full articleOn 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.
→ read full articleClimate 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.
→ read full articleOn 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.
→ read full articleThe 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.
→ read full articleReacting 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.
→ read full articleWhat 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.
→ read full articleFour 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!
→ read full articleThe 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.
→ read full articleThe 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.
→ read full articleCrime 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
→ read full articleEverything 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.
→ read full articleDemonizing 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.
→ read full articleThe 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.
→ read full articleDeclaration of the Crime of Apartheid: Israel
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jul 2021
9 Jul 2021 – The Declaration on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid in Historic Palestine below is an initiative endorsed by scholars and artists worldwide. Please distribute widely as there is a campaign underway to reach 1,000 signatures. List of the 773 signatories (last update : 8 Jul 2021)
→ read full articleApproaching Iran: The Flaws of Imperial Diplomacy in the Middle East
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jul 2021
28 Jun 2021 – Biden pledged as a candidate to restore JCPOA, but has so far shown only a limited commitment to rejoin the earlier agreement, and seems to be insisting on a new agreement that is more restrictive of Iran’s nuclear program and its regional political activity. The U.S. Government seems to forget that it was its actions that led to the breakdown of the agreement.
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Who Was Edward Said? Biographically Interpreted and Existentially Recollected
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jul 2021
3 Jul 2021 – This is an edited text from the 30 Jun 2021 book launch of Timothy Brennan’s ‘Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said’ (2021), under the auspices of the Cambridge Centre of Palestinian Studies and moderated by its director, Dr. Makram Khoury-Machool.
→ read full articleCulture as Combat: Palestinian Voices
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Jun 2021
Festivals, Museums and Awards – In stirring opening remarks at the international 2021 mega-conference, Palestine Writes, Susan Abulhawa asserts that “… this festival is meant to expand Palestine’s cultural imprint in the world.”
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Confronting the Ruling Elite
Chris Hedge interviews Richard Falk | RT – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jun 2021
5 Jun 2021 – Richard Falk joins Chris Hedges for a new episode of “On Contact.” Falk has denounced what he calls “the global legalization of rogue behavior embedded in the UN Charter” which vests a right of veto in the five permanent members of the Security Council, the only organ within the UN system with the authority to reach binding decisions.
→ read full articleIDF Operation ‘Guardian of the Walls’: Prelude, Aftermath, Prospects
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jun 2021
7 Jun 2021 – The Palestinian ordeal is certainly not over, but for the first time we can envision it ending!
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Whither Palestine? Whither Israel? After the Violence Spike, after the Abraham Accords, after Netanyahu
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jun 2021
13 Jun 2021 – The changing circumstances in Israel/Palestine over the last six weeks. Two questions that will shape the Palestinian destiny: Will the post-Netanyahu government push harder the political agenda of the right-wing settler movement? Will the aftermath of the IDF military operation, Guardian of the Walls, increase Palestinian resistance and global solidarity?
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(Français) Réflexions sur le génocide comme crime ultime
Alfred de Zayas et Richard Falk | Investig'Action - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jun 2021
10 Juin 2021 – L’utilisation abusive du mot «génocide» est un manque de respect envers les proches des victimes des massacres arméniens, de l’holocauste et du génocide rwandais. Il est bien plus dangereux de découvrir que nous risquons également d’être immergés dans les eaux troubles du «faux droit» (fake law). Il est urgent de réagir. Une telle évolution n’est pas tolérable.
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(Italiano) ‘Ordine internazionale su base normativa’: nuova metafora per un primato geopolitico U.S.A.
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jun 2021
3 Giugno 2021 – Questa enfasi su un mondo ‘governato da norme’ implicitamente esprime l’asserzione polemica che gli Stati Uniti si muovono secondo le regole mentre gli avversari no. Ma Snowden ha rivelato che gli USA hanno investito più pesantemente di qualunque altro governo del pianeta nello sviluppo di capacità di sorveglianza intrusiva. I precedenti USA di manipolazione di elezioni estere sono notori, e sono da tempo una parte ben nota del repertorio CIA.
→ read full articleA New Different Cold War, an Old Geopolitics
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 May 2021
30 May 2021 – This text is based on responses to questions posed by C.J. Polychroniou, a skilled interpreter of the global scene and noted author and interviewer.
→ read full article‘Rule-Based-International-Order’: A New Metaphor for U.S. Geopolitical Primacy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 May 2021
The implication of this ‘rules-governed’ world is that the USA plays by the rules whereas our adversaries do not. But Snowden revealed that the US has invested more than any other government in intrusive surveillance. Its record of manipulating foreign elections is notorious being a well-known part of the CIA’s portfolio. It has projected more deadly force outside its borders than any other state in last 75 years and has intervened repeatedly in disrupting democracies, blocking and sanctioning their governments if they refuse U.S. tutelage.
→ read full articlePalestine Is Winning the Legitimacy War
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 May 2021
19 May 2021 – This piece attempts to contextualize the current violence directed against Gaza in earlier Israeli provocations and takes note of Israel’s reliance on excessive force upon a helpless Gazan civilian population of over two million people trapped inside a crowded and unlawfully blockaded enclave. I find it appropriate to recall Gandhi’s famous observation along these lines: “First, they ignore you, then they insult you, then they fight you, then you win.”
→ read full articleConversation at the Crossroads
Joseph Camilleri talks with Richard Falk and Stuart Rees – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 May 2021
Conversation at the Crossroads have chosen two inspiring books and their celebrated authors for an international event on Tuesday 8 June:
>Public Intellectual-The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim by Richard Falk
>Cruelty or Humanity by Stuart Rees
Citizen Pilgrim: To Be or Not to Be
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 May 2021
Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim – Conversation with Richard Falk, Noura Erakat, Victoria Brittain and Jeremy Corbyn~
Monday 17 May, 5:30–7:00 PM (GMT-BST), Where: Online
Biden’s Foreign Policy and Nuclear Weapons: A Dialogue
Richard Falk and David Krieger | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 May 2021
5 May 2021 – Biden’s international bipartisan approach risks a renewed arms race in a political and economic atmosphere that makes it unaffordable as well as acutely dangerous. My conversation with David Krieger explores some of the ramifications.
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Israeli Apartheid and Palestine Grievances
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 May 2021
3 May 2021 – Questions from Rodrigo Craveiro from Correio Braziliense, 27 Apr 2021, in response to Report of Human Rights Watch on Israeli Apartheid; it is followed by my responses to questions of Zahra Mirzafarjouyan on behalf of Mehr News Agency in Tehran, addressing some of the underlying causes of Palestinian grievances.
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(Italiano) Riflessioni sul genocidio come crimine estremo
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 May 2021
L’abuso del termine genocidio è sdegnoso verso i parenti delle vittime dei massacri armeni, dell’Olocausto, del genocidio rwandese – come pure un disservizio alla storia, al diritto, e alla conduzione prudente dei rapporti internazionali. Sapevamo già di essere alla deriva in un oceano di fake news. E’ ben più pericoloso scoprire che rischiamo anche di venire sommersi nelle acque turbolente del “fake law” [falso diritto]. Dobbiamo reagire, con senso d’urgenza. Tale sviluppo non è tollerabile.
→ read full articleReflections on Genocide as the Ultimate Crime
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Apr 2021
26 Apr 2021 – The misuse of the word genocide is disdainful toward relatives of the victims of the Armenian massacres, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide – and as well a disservice to both history, law, and the prudent conduct of international relations. We already knew that we were adrift in an ocean of fake news. It is far more dangerous to discover that we are also at risk of being immersed in the turbulent waters of “fake law”. We must push back with a sense of urgency. Such a development is not tolerable.
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Remembering Ramsey Clark
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Apr 2021
12 Apr 2021 – Ramsey Clark was a great man, and it was my privilege to work with him closely on several occasions. His death is a time to mourn, but it is also a time to remember who he was and why his life mattered in profound ways to so many people.
→ read full articleThe Middle East: Geopolitical Battleground
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Apr 2021
18 Apr 2021 – Questions posed on the basis of my memoir, ‘Public Intellectual,’ by an Egyptian journalist. The interview covers several distinct issues that involve interpretations of major foreign policy concerns in the Middle East.
→ read full articleHow Significant Is the $400 Billion Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between China and Iran
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Apr 2021
This post consists of my responses to questions posed by the Iranian journalist Javad Heiran-Nia, Questions on the China/Iran Agreement (4 April 2021). The agreement, officially known as Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, was signed formally just a few weeks before it was announced that so-called ‘indirect talks’ between Iran and the U.S. were taking place in Vienna.
→ read full articleDo We Really Want a Second Cold War?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Apr 2021
31 Mar 2021 – The protection of human rights is being geopolitically manipulated to mobilize public support for an anti-Chinese foreign policy in the West that risks generating a dangerous geopolitical confrontation. Such a confrontation amounts to war-mongering and diverts U.S. attention from self-scrutiny and global peacebuilding. Whether a second cold war is already underway is a matter of interpretation.
→ read full articlePalestinian Balance Sheet: Normative Victories, Geopolitical Disappointments
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Mar 2021
21 Mar 2021 – . It seems to me that Israeli leaders understand that South African racism collapsed largely because it lost the Legitimacy War. Maybe some Israeli leaders are beginning to grasp the writing on the wall. The ICC decision may turn out to be a turning point not unlike the Sharpeville Massacre of 1965. This may be so even, as is likely, not a single Israeli is ever brought to justice before the ICC.
→ read full articleThe Geopolitics of the Normalization Agreements
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Mar 2021
Listen Closely to the Israeli Discourse in an American Liberal Idiom: Geopolitical Dreams, Ethical Nightmares
→ read full articleCorrupting Democracy One Dollar at a Time
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Mar 2021
Commodifying Democracy is a Costly Failure in America – Everyday I receive ten to twenty times more appeals for money to support this or that political campaign than I receive any kind of serious substantive statement of explanation or concern. And because this storm has become so deadening, the language of most appeals is nearly always hysterical, wildly exaggerating good or bad marginal developments designed to create a sense of urgency on the part of recipients.
→ read full articleA German Court Punishes an International Crime Committed in Syria
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Mar 2021
26 Feb 2021 – The case is significant because it asserts the legal authority of a national court to impose accountability when the territorial sovereign is itself the culprit and international tribunals lack the means to pursue those most responsible for the commission of the most serious international crimes. In this instance, Russia and China vetoed an attempt in the UN Security Council to authorize allegations against Syria.
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(Italiano) La violenza nucleare è il motivo per cui viviamo nell’Antropocene
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Mar 2021
26 Febbraio 2021 – Comprendo l’essenza del consenso emerso da questa discussione dell’eloquente scritto di Paul Raskin. Infatti si tratta di un’accettazione dell’Antropocene come un terribile avvertimento che la specie umana è destinata al disastro, se non all’estinzione, se la sua impronta ecologica non sarà notevolmente ridotta in un futuro relativamente prossimo.
→ read full articleNuclear Violence Is Why We Are Living in the Anthropocene Age
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 – Violence: Another Existential Crisis – As I grasp the essence of the consensus emerging from this discussion of Paul Raskin’s eloquent essay, it is an acceptance of the Anthropocene as a dire warning that the human species is headed for disaster, if not extinction, if its ecological footprint is not greatly reduced in the relatively near future.
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(Italiano) Un Bilancio Palestinese: Vittorie Normative, Delusioni Geopolitiche
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Feb 2021
Nei decenni a venire la decisione ICC può risultare il punto di svolta, non così diverso dal Massacro di Sharpeville. Prima dell’alba la notte è più buia. La maggioranza Africana attese allora oltre 30 anni per la propria emancipazione dall’apartheid. I palestinesi hanno già sopportato gli stenti e le umiliazioni della soggiogazione razzista e della supremazia ebraica per più di 70 anni. Quando finirà, e come?
→ read full articleIran’s Islamic Republic Celebrates Its 42nd Anniversary
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Feb 2021
9 Feb 2021 – Iran is in the process of celebrating the 42nd Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that led to the downfall of the Shah of Iran’s dynastic rule and its replacement by the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has defied the odds by resisting successfully a variety of attempts to restore the old established order either by an Iraqi encouraged war in the 1980s, destabilization efforts all along pushed by the U.S. and Israel, and an undisguised goal of regime change.
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Living by Love [Haiku]
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Feb 2021
30 Jan 2021 – Haiku is my form of lockdown therapy.
→ read full articleA Palestinian Balance Sheet: Normative Victories, Geopolitical Disappointments
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Feb 2021
In decades to come the ICC decision may turn out to be a turning point not unlike the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre. Before dawn, the night is darkest. The African majority waited more than 30 years for their emancipation from apartheid. The Palestinian people have already endured the hardships and humiliations of racist subjugation and Jewish supremacy for more than 70 years. When will it end, and how?
→ read full articleRemembering George Shultz after 53 Years
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Feb 2021
I recall nostalgically, George’s civility, which according to reports, nevertheless required backbone, resisting the Nixon’s tactics that prefigured Trump’s antic presidency. George impressively stood his ground firmly whenever political leaders asked him to cross his red lines, so unlike the Republicans who inhabit Congress, and toe the Trump line no matter what. [He died on 6 Feb 2021 at the age of 100.]
→ read full articleThe B’Tselem Report on Israeli Apartheid
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Feb 2021
3 Feb 2021 – The significance of the B’Tselem Report, which recently concluded that Israel imposes an apartheid regime to sustain Jewish supremacy on both Israel itself and all of the Occupied Palestine.
→ read full articleIs There an American ‘Deep State’?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2021
23 Jan 2021 – Trump’s foreign policy was indeed disastrous, but it did somewhat illuminate the anachronistic character of the zombie like ‘bipartisan consensus’ that yet be revived in the course of reaffirming the old Cold War/neoliberal globalization orthodoxy of pre-Trump America.
→ read full articleBlocking Twitter & Twitter Blocking Trump: Why We Should Worry
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2021
Should a government have the authority to limit the dissemination by social media of material derogatory to or defamatory of the elected leadership of the country, as well as have a mandate to impose limits on access to sexually explicit material in deference to public morals?
→ read full articleState Terrorism: Remembering General Soleimani
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2021
8 Jan 2021 – This first anniversary of the assassination of General Qassim Soleimani, provides an occasion to remember not only the man but the nature of the act, the precedent set, and degree to which Iran and the region have become the main hunting ground of post-colonial Western imperialism. It is also relevant to take note of Mossad’s apparent responsibility for the targeted killing of Iran’s leading nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, ten months later.
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The Trump Pardons and Fast-Tracking Capital Punishment
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2021
31 Dec 2020 – Among the disquieting dimensions of this strangest of all Christmas holidays has been the lurid spectacle of misplaced empathy by Donald Trump, placating cronies and criminals who helped him circumvent law and morality while exhibiting hard heartedness toward those unfortunate souls awaiting execution on death row in federal prisons.
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From Counterterrorism to Geopolitics: Reviving the U.S. Deep State
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2021
25 Dec 2020 – The challenge of transnational non-state violence, what the media dutifully criminalizes as ‘terrorism’ while whitewashing the abuses of state and state-sponsored violence as ‘counterterrorism’ or exercises of every state to act in self-defense. Language matters as those who wanted to sugarcoat ‘torture’ by such phrases as ‘enhanced interrogation.
→ read full articlePeace and Peacefulness: Reaching for the Stars
Richard Falk | The Transnational - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2021
29 Dec 2020 – This interview is not about current political concerns. It rather explores ‘peace’ in its manifold identity. The interview was conducted by Miguel Mendoça a couple of months ago for a book project.
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Peace and Peacefulness: Reaching for the Stars
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Dec 2020
I recall being rather bemused more than 25 years ago when a meditation practice was premised on the confidence that if enough people meditated for a few minutes each day on the reality of a peaceful world it would bend the arc of history toward peace. I know that spiritual attentiveness has wider implications but I find no evidence that links connect my meditation with the policies and actions of performers in ongoing world dramas.
→ read full article(norsk-Norwegian) Nedrusting må begynne hjemme
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Dec 2020
Vi ruster opp og bruker nærmere 100 milliarder bare på F-35-jagerfly. USAs og våre militære ledere anser Russland som en potensiell fiende. Den erfarne forskeren Richard Falk mener at global nedrustning neppe er mulig å få til før USA avruster sin egen, tungt bevæpnede befolkning.
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Palestine Legal: Please Support & Donate
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Dec 2020
18 Dec 2020 – Palestine Legal’s work is necessary not only for those of us involved in work for Palestinian human rights, but for anyone who believes in preserving space for open political debate and upholding our rights to protest, which are sacred elements of any genuine constitutional democracy. Needless to say, Palestine Legal’s work will remain urgently necessary under the next U.S. administration.
→ read full articleWill China Run the World? Should It?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Dec 2020
14 Dec 2020 – Responses to interview questions from Javad Heiran-Nia on ‘World Order in the Time of COVID-19,’ with emphasis on China & United States, especially as reflected in the restructuring of the world economy. The underlying issue is whether the Chinese or U.S. approach to global policy and world order will gain the upper hand, and at what costs to humanity.
→ read full articleMurdering Nuclear Scientists Does Not Prevent Proliferation–A Nuclear Free Middle East Does
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Dec 2020
Interview published in the Tehran Times on 2 Dec 2020. Fakhrizadeh’s assassination cannot be legally and politically justified by any acceptable theory governing the use of force in international relations and has very negative implications as an international precedent.
→ read full articleQatar: Between the Scylla of Coercion and the Charybdis of Accommodation: An Inquiry into Sub-Regional Geopolitics
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Dec 2020
11 Dec 2020 – Qatar is caught between seeking the end of the coercive diplomacy led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE and not wanting to end its necessary cooperation with Iran, especially with respect to large maritime natural gas deposits. The efforts at accommodation can turn out to be either a lessening of a confrontational approach to Iran or its intensification.
→ read full articlePompeo’s Diabolical Diplomacy
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Nov 2020
29 Nov 2020 – This interview, devoted to Pompeo’s three-day visit to Israel and Occupied Palestine, was conducted by Eshrat Mardi and published in the Tehran Times Interview Nov. 28, 2020.
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Remembering Robert Fisk
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Nov 2020
15 Nov 2020 – ‘Remembering Robert Fisk’ is the text of an interview conducted by Daniel Falcone, and published below on Nov. 9, 2020 in Counterpunch. There is one insertion mentioning Seymour Hersh as a fourth journalist in this style of exceptional devotion to the courage and craft of truth telling in place of danger or where transparency is obscured by state secrets.
→ read full articleA Comic Display of Geopolitical Subservience: Mike Pompeo’s Visit to Israel
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Nov 2020
22 Nov 2020 – On the entirely inappropriate and distasteful visit of the U.S. Secretary of State to Israel for three days. For me the entire event was a grotesque occasion of national embarrassment from start to finish. Even the most dimwitted imperialist would know better than to declare Pompeo’s subservience to Israel in these scary words: “Israel is everything we want the entire Middle East to look like going forward.”
→ read full articleDemilitarization Begins at Home
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Nov 2020
In my view, until the American people are fully disarmed as a matter of law, reinforced by political sentiment, it is foolhardy to expect global demilitarization. The same worldview that exaggerates security threats to overinvest in the military, despite abundant evidence of the disastrous failure of militarist foreign policies in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, is what gives political traction to the powerful gun lobby that has a potency with politicians that seems to exceed even what the Zionist lobby is able to achieve.
→ read full articleReaching 90 in 2020
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Nov 2020
Note from TMS editor: Richard Falk and his friends around the world celebrated his 90th year on 13 Nov 2020.
Happy Birthday dear Richard! Thank you for existing.
Interpreting the U.S. Election Results: Preliminary Observations
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Nov 2020
9 Nov 2020 – The victory by the Biden/Harris ticket is basically good news for the country and the world, although not as good as expected. And there is some bad news, as well, lurking just beneath the surface. Not only the strength of Trumpism in America, but the likely drift toward the center-right of the Biden presidency.
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Making Sense of Hunger Strikes and Symbolic Politics
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Nov 2020
12 Nov 2020 – My essay speaks to the hunger strikes as political resistance of a sublime character, and at the same time to the selective silence of the Western media when it comes to heroic moments in the Palestinian struggle
→ read full articleInterview on U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Nov 2020
2 Nov 2020 – A momentous test of whether the Trump challenge to constitutional democracy will be decisively repudiated by the American people and whether Republicans will mount a perverse challenge via the judicial system. The system is structurally rigged against democratic values by enabling Trump to be reelected via the anachronistic Electoral College even if he loses the popular vote by 5,000,000 or more.
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The Politics of Hunger Strikes
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Nov 2020
28 Oct 2020 – During my six years as UN Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine, I found disturbing the silence of the Western media about Palestinian hunger strikes, especially when these extreme expressions of nonviolent resistance were in reaction to prison confinement by Administrative Detention decrees, that is, without charges or any show of incriminating evidence.
→ read full articleA Gathering Global Storm
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Oct 2020
24 Oct 2020 – This is my chapter contribution to The Great Awakenkng: New Modes of Thinking Amid the Ruins of Capitalism (2020) edited by Anna Grear & Davd Bollier. My text is preoccupied with the decline of the state as an efficient problem-solving instrument in a period where global scale challenges are generating an ethical-ecological-bio crisis.
→ read full articleWhy Biden Must Win: It Is Not about Democracy, It’s about Fascism
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Oct 2020
8 Oct 2020 – Interview with Iranian Journalist Javad Heiran-Nia on U.S. Elections: “What is the most important issue affecting the upcoming US presidential election? (Economy; Foreign Policy; Domestic Policy; etc.)”
→ read full articleShould Iran Be Concerned about the U.S. Elections?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Oct 2020
30 Sep 2020 – This interview was published by Mehr News Agency on 27 Sept 2020 in Tehran. It addresses questions that arise for foreign societies seeking to comprehend the spectacle of the 2020 US national elections. The outcome of the Trump/Biden struggle is, of course, of particular concern to Iran.
→ read full articleUAE/Bahrain Normalization with Israel: Peace or Geopolitics?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2020
23 Sep 2020 – the willingness to endorse these normalization agreements in the White House setting was a dramatic expression of identification with Trump’s regional diplomacy in the Middle East and a formalized repudiation of Palestinian aspirations for a sustainable peace based on their inalienable right of self-determination.
→ read full articleIconic Deaths and What They Mean: George Floyd and Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2020
26 Sep 2020 – 2020 is a year that will be remembered for its many distinctive features—the global reach and lethality of the COVID pandemic, worldwide protests against racism, and likely, to come, the outcome and aftermath of an American presidential election with likely severe worldwide reverberations. Yet one of the least conceptualized aspects up until now is the occurrence of two very different iconic deaths. By according an iconic status to an individual’s death is to acknowledge its historic impact.
→ read full articleTrump Induced Normalization Agreements with Gulf Monarchies: Is This What Peace Looks Like?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Sep 2020
18 Sep 2020 – Two interviews based on the normalization agreements between Israel and two Arab countries, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which are being perceived from a variety of angles depending on the agendas of the various political actors. In the present context it seems a win for Israel and Trump, and a loss for the Palestinians and Iran. However,…
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A Conversation at the Edge of the Human Future
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Sep 2020
12 Sep 2020 – I am posting below a long interview with Konrad Stachnio on wide-ranging questions, which stretched by knowledge past its breaking point, especially in assessing where the technological innovations on the horizons will lead us. It is one of 17 conversations published by Clarity Press under the title, Civilization in Overdrive: Conversations at the edge of the Human Future.
→ read full articleGlobal Governance after the COVID Pandemic
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Sep 2020
31 Aug 2020 – In making conjectures about global governance in the post-COVID-19 era, it is important to be both cautious and clear. Cautious because there are many uncertainties. Clarity is equally important, especially drawing clear lines between what is expected and feasible, what seems necessary, and what is desirable but not likely attainable.
→ read full articleCan the U.S. Democracy Be Fixed?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Aug 2020
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, attention was redirected to the market-driven economy. With the support of both political parties, the U.S. Government focused on making the world safe for predatory capitalism, ‘the Washington consensus’ or more politely, ‘neoliberal globalization.’ This version of Marxist materialism encouraged consumerist orgies and the militarists required an enemy for continuing with wartime military budgets and restoring their self-esteem as guardians of national and global security.
→ read full articleNuclear Complacency and the Dangerous Drift toward a New Cold War with China
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Aug 2020
22 Aug 2020 – I am increasingly worried by the either/or quality of the U.S. November elections that effectively suppresses concerns about a bipartisan drift toward a second cold war focused on China as geopolitical adversary that will be confronted.
→ read full articleInterpreting the UAE/Israel Agreement on Suspending Annexation
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Aug 2020
16 Aug 2020 – Responses to interview questions from Javad Heiran-Nia, an Iranian journalist, on the UAE/Israel Normalization/Annexation Agreement of Aug. 13, 2020.
→ read full articleTrumpism: What Will 2020 Bring?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Aug 2020
8 Aug 2020 – During the height of the Cold War when it was viewed as disloyal and compromising to show a sympathetic interest in Marxism or sympathies with Soviet ideology, someone at the U.S. military base at Frankfurt distributed to the soldiers stationed there, a handwritten version of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution, in the form of petition.
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With John Lewis in Stockholm 1969
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Aug 2020
1 Aug 2020 – Moved by the iconic recognition of John Lewis’ exceptional courage and perseverance on behalf of human rights, nonviolence, and opposition to American militarism, I recall a weekend spent together in Stockholm. We were the two invited American speakers at a conference opposing the American War in Vietnam.
→ read full articleIs the United States a Failing State? A Failed State?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jul 2020
22 Jul 2020 – To ask whether the United States, the world’s dominant military power, is ‘a failing state’ should cause worldwide anxiety. Such a state, analogous to a wounded animal, is a global menace of unprecedented proportions in the nuclear age. Its political leadership is exhibiting a reckless tendency of combining incompetence with extremism. The November elections will send a strong signal as to whether the United States is failing or has failed.
→ read full articleLearning Now from Gandhi
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jul 2020
12 Jul 2020 – a faithful and highly accessible presentation of Gandhi’s essential thought and practice as applicable to the rather overwhelming set of circumstances that amount to gathering storm clouds. Such a darkened sky hovering over the present is intended to call to our attention the severe threats to the human and ecological futures all beings on earth confront, whether or not they are aware of these unprecedented dangers.
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Poems, Pandemics, and Preservation
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jul 2020
3 Jul 2020 – With the help of a friend I taught myself to write poems in a haiku form following classic Japanese guidance. Poetry has long been a place of sanctuary for me, and in recent months it has also offered me the pleasures of ‘lockdown therapy.’ I hope I am not abusing readers by posting a sample, and hoping others will be drawn to join an invisible community of haiku lovers.
→ read full articlePost-COVID Prospects Assessed
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jul 2020
8 Jul 2020 -This text is a slightly edited interview on post-COVID prospects that was published in Mutekabiliyet, a Turkish student online journal, July 3, 2020.
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