Articles by Richard Falk
We found 810 results.
Reflections for the New Year: 2019
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2019
31 Dec 2018 – My private commitment for 2019 is to nurture humility, while trusting the formation of identities that link a progressive vision for our nation to a cosmopolitan embrace of humanity, with a major infusion of empathy. And as citizens, we need to be rooted in our particular personal and public experiences, while reaching out to the world and to the future.
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Jerusalem and Foreign Embassies: Legal, Political, and Diplomatic Implications
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jan 2019
6 Jan 2019 | Interview with Rodrigo Craveiro, Correio Braziliense – It seems obvious that Israel is trying to induce enough governments to move their embassy to Jerusalem so as to weaken the legal, political, and diplomatic weight of the UNGA Resolution that declared such an initiative by the USA to be ‘null and void’ by a vote of 128-9, finding the proposed move unlawful and lacking any political effect.
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In Praise of the Syria Withdrawal
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2018
29 Dec 2018 – Trump’s withdrawal of American troops from Syria that defied the bipartisan consensus that has shaped U.S. foreign policy since 1945 poses the biggest challenge to the Trump presidency, especially as it shook Israel’s confidence and coincides with woes of Wall Street. In coming weeks it should become clear whether the American version of the deep state remains asleep or perceives this ‘watershed moment’ as the opportunity to restore confidence in the pre-Trump version of world order.
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Can Yemen Be Saved?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
23 Dec 2018 – The people of Yemen have been experiencing devastating civil strife for several years. This ordeal was greatly intensive by a massive and sustained Saudi-led air attacks and other belligerent tactics that have targeted civilians, even hospitals. Several recent events hint at the possibility of restoring peace to the country, thereby averting the worst effects of a threatened mass famine, risks starvation for more than 75% of Yemen’s population of over 22 million.
→ read full articleOn the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
10 Dec 2018 – This Declaration was a notable step in the direction of asserting that persons by virtue of their humanness are entitled to protection in the exercise of a broad spectrum of rights, and hence, that sovereignty is subject to certain constraining limitations. Much progress has been made since 1948, although we live in a period of mounting pressure on human rights deriving from a surge of right-wing populism combined with the effects of an insufficiently regulated capitalism.
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The G20 Meeting and U.S./Russia Relations
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Dec 2018
2 Dec 2018 – What follows are my responses to questions addressed to me by Sputnik News Agency in Moscow. Although the focus was on the ongoing G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, the real concern was the future of U.S./Russia relations and how these relations should be managed to avoid arms races, geopolitical rivalry, and ideological tensions.
→ read full articleThe New New Anti-Semitism
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Nov 2018
Hiding Israel’s Crimes of State behind False Claims of Victimization
→ read full articleMy 88th Birthday
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Nov 2018
-13 Nov 2018-
To be almost 90
And happy
With good health
Feels criminal
On My 88th Birthday: A Reflection
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Nov 2018
13 Nov 2018 – I post a poem that I wrote earlier today, and read at the end of my talk, perhaps a self-indulgent conceit on my part, but I share it here as a way of thanking so many friends near and far who sent me the most moving birthday greetings throughout the day, which made me feel that we who are supporting the Palestinian struggle are part of a growing community that will prevail at some point, and the two peoples now inhabiting Palestine can finally live in peace, and with dignity and equality.
→ read full article(Italiano) Trascendere le regressioni nell’ordine mondiale
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Nov 2018
“In contrasto con i poteri governativo ed economico — del Principe e del Mercante — c’è un potere immediato e autonomo, talora evidente, talaltra latente: quello della gente. Alcuni ne sviluppano consapevolezza, si associano e agiscono con altri, divenendo così davvero cittadini. Essi e le loro associazioni, quando non cerchino il potere governativo o quello economico, costituiscono il Terzo Sistema”.
→ read full articleWhy Vote on Tuesday: The Menacing Challenges of Trump and Trumpism
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Nov 2018
4 Nov 2018 – World Order in the Age of Trump and Trumpism – This piece is based on a lecture given at West Chester University in Pennsylvania on 24 Oct. I have no great expectations about improvements in American foreign policy of Congress if it is fully or partially controlled by Democratic majorities after the November 6thmidterm elections. Nevertheless, I share the widely held anti-fascist view that any show of opposition to Trump and Trumpism at this time deserves priority on an urgent basis.
→ read full articleTranscending World Order Regressions
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Oct 2018
Without even attempting to offer reassurances, Trump champions a law-free sovereignty that is unapologetically dedicated to maximizing its national wealth and influence, backed up by escalating government investments avowedly designed to producing an all-powerful, globally capable military dominance that will last forever.
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The Loss of Two Unsung Heroes of International Relations: A Tale of Two ‘Bobs’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2018
21 Oct 2018 – Two giants of International Relations scholarship died, leaving behind a corpus of work and a legacy of influence. I was fortunate to have enjoyed the friendship of both Robert Gilpin and Robert W. Cox, learning from both of these masters of the field despite their seemingly divergent worldviews.
→ read full articleTrump’s Idea of World Order Endangers the Human Future
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2018
This is an interview with Daniel Falcone that was published in slightly modified form in Counterpunch on October 4, 2018. Question: What are your general thoughts on Trump’s recent UN talk and how world opinion received it?
→ read full articleRethinking Nuclearism
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2018
6 Oct 2018 – More than thirty years ago I applied the term ‘nuclearism’ to the association between the hardware dimensions of the weaponry and their various software dimensions ranging from strategic doctrine to the infatuations of powerful men with their awesome destructive capabilities.
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Symposium on Global Environmental Law
Richard Falk | Univ. of Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law & Governance – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2018
The symposium aimed to discuss whether and to what extent emerging concepts in global environmental law can help shed new light on the evolution and challenges of environmental law across different levels and sectors.
→ read full articleWeaponizing the ‘New Anti-Semitism’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2018
22 Sep 2018 – This post consists of an opinion piece developed by several members of California Scholars for Academic Freedom.
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Bolton’s Red Sky Worldview: ICC, International Law, and Iran
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2018
Bolton’s Game: Not Sovereignty, Not International Law—Clearing the Path for U.S., Geopolitical Primacy
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Is Genocide a Controversial International Crime?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2018
Why ‘Genocide’ is still a Controversial Crime? In this strikingly original, strange, and brilliant book, Philippe Sands raises a haunting question among a tangle of other intriguing issues discussed throughout East-West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity.
→ read full articleHuman Rights, State Sovereignty, and International Law: An Interview
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2018
20 Sep 2018 – The interview below conducted by my friend, journalist and author C.J. Polychroniou was initially published in the Global Policy Journal, on 11 Sep 2018, the 17thanniversary of the World Trade Center attacks and the 45thanniversary of the Pinochet coup in Chile that assassinated the elected president of the country Salvador Allende.
→ read full articleDecoding the Pipes/Trump/Kushner ‘Deal of the Century’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Sep 2018
True, Oslo diplomacy was a failure that worked to the political benefit of Israel, and was rightly abandoned. But the Trump response to this failure amount to the criminalization of diplomacy that violates the most basic precepts of international law, as spelled out in the UN Charter. It amounts to waging an aggressive war against a vulnerable and helpless people. If the UN and the leading governments watch this dismal spectacle in stony silence it can only be fervently hoped that the peoples of the world will recognize the need for radical reform to avoid a catastrophic future, not just for the Palestinians, but for all of humanity.
→ read full articleIn Praise of Serena Williams
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Seervice,
17 Sep 2018
13 Sep 2018 – In this time of Trump and Trumpism, we should seize the opportunity to celebrate the luminous presence of Serena Williams in our midst: a champion, a warrior for women and against racism, a woman of great charm and warmth, and a beacon of decency.
→ read full articleOn Qatar and Gulf Geopolitics
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2018
3 Sep 2018 – This is a slightly modified text of an interview by the Tunisian journalist Awatef Ben Ali on behalf of the Qatar newspaper, Al Sharq, August 26, 2018.
→ read full articleRevisiting the Earth Charter
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Sep 2018
Ron Engel has articulated an insider review of the Earth Charter so thoughtfully, urbanely, and persuasively that my initial temptation was to restrict my response to a single word: ‘Amen!’ Yet I am familiar enough with the academic ways of gathering diverse voices to explore a topic or to evaluate the scholarship of a distinguished author, as to discard my one-word option.
→ read full articleThe Future of NATO: An Interview
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2018
11 Aug 2018 – An interview with Daniel Falcone on the future of NATO that considers Trump’s brazen challenges and the tepid responses of European political leaders, and what this interplay signifies for the future of world order… Alarm bells should be ringing through the night at maximum volume, but so far the silences outweigh the noise as the world slouches toward catastrophe, chaos, and cruelty.
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‘The Arab International Forum for Justice for Palestine’ – Beirut 29 Jul 2018
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2018
1 Aug 2018 – The time is ripe for civil society to represent the Palestinian people in their struggle against the Israeli apartheid regime. This struggle is just and the means being pursued are legitimate. Resistance and solidarity are the vital instruments by which to challenge apartheid, and its geopolitical support structure. This was the path that led to the collapse of South African apartheid, and a similar path is now available for the Palestinian struggle.
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Palestine, Israel, and the UN: A PassBlue Interview
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2018
4 Aug 2018 – The interview was initially published on July 17, 2018, and Dulcie managed to get me to talk more about my personal background than I intended, although most of the private disclosures were not in the published text. Part of the motivation for the interview stems, I suppose, from the bewilderment of how a Jewish boy from Manhattan’s West Side should become so committed to the Palestinian national struggle.
→ read full articleSupport Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Swee Ang and Mazin Qumsiyeh
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2018
14 Jul 2018 – The two statements below about the al-Awda Freedom Flotilla en route to Gaza are contributions from two heroic figures in the long Palestinian struggle, hopefully known to many TMS readers. This flotilla is on a humanitarian mission, carrying much needed medical supplies and is again dramatizing the plight of the population of Gaza, unendurable victim of vindictive Israeli measures
→ read full articleA Reflection on the June 24th Turkish Elections (modified and corrected)
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2018
18 Jul 2018 – This is slightly modified text of an earlier post that seeks to take account of responses from friends, and gave me the opportunity to express these somewhat contrarian views in a clearer way, as well as correct some mistakes. This version will also be published by Sharq Forum in Turkey.
→ read full articleAre the 13 Demands to Qatar a ‘Geopolitical Crime’?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2018
11 Jul 2018 – Assessing the international relations and international law Gulf Crisis that was initiated by a coalition of four countries, issuing a set of 13 demands directed at the government of Qatar. This essay evaluates whether the confrontation should be treated as a ‘Geopolitical Crime,” itself an innovative and controversial idea that I developed in a lecture at Queen Mary’s University in London at the end of March, 2018.
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I Was Robert Mueller’s Undergraduate Thesis Adviser—and What He Wrote Gives Some Hints about What He’ll Do as Special Counsel
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2018
14 Jul 2018 – Rereading Robert Mueller’s Princeton thesis 52 years later with an eye as to how he will perform as Trump’s inquisitor. What makes Mueller’s thesis relevant for today is that the core of his inquiry is how a judge should interpret a legal document.
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Wider Consequences of U.S. Withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2018
7 Jul 2018 – I think the superficial response to this latest de-internationalizing move is the tendency of the Trump Administration to align its policies in conformity with Israeli priorities and preferences, which have long focused on the Human Rights Council as a venue hostile to their policies and practices.
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Great March of Return and the Unspeakable
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2018
This wordless borderland
Where love and atrocity meet
The U.S. Withdraws (Again) from the UN Human Rights Council
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
24 Jun 2018 – This is a slightly edited and corrected version of what was published on TMS last week. I owe particular thanks to my distinguished collaborator, Virginia Tilley, for pointing out several shortcomings and misleading formulations in the earlier version. Of course, the essence of the indictment of the U.S. rationale for withdrawal stands as before.
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Reflections on the June 24th Turkish Elections
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
27 Jun 2018 – I am sensitive to the inappropriate hubris of Americans traveling the world to impart their views on how other societies should be managed and governed. Such postures of criticism and praise is particularly suspect in this time of Trump where a pre-fascist leadership in the United States pursues policies at home and abroad destructive of elemental rights of its citizens and residents as well adopts as an entirely reckless policy agenda that imperils the ethical, ecological, and economic future of not only the country but the world.
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GAZA: Ordeal & Destiny
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
30 Jun 2018 – I post below two items pertaining to Gaza—my short poem, and a collection of responses to the question “What is the Future of Gaza?” by a clever online publication called ‘One Question,’ which true to its name poses a single question to a number of people presumed to have something to say in response.
→ read full articleThe U.S. Withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jun 2018
22 Jun 2018 – By purporting to punish the Human Rights Council, the Trump presidency, representing the U.S. Government, is much more punishing itself, as well as the peoples of the world. We all benefit from a robust and legitimated institutional framework for the promotion and protection of vital human rights. The claim of an anti-Israeli bias in the HRC, or UN, is bogus, the daily violation of the most basic rights of the Palestinian people is a tragic reality.
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The Great March of Return: The Gaza Sniper Massacre
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2018
10 Jun 2018 – The Gaza Sniper Massacre in response to the Great Return March is one more milestone in Palestinian resistance and yet another frightening episode in the Israeli apartheid narrative of cruel and excessive violence, a shameful sequel of crimes for which there exists no adjudicative tribunal available to the victimized party to pursue justice.
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Affirming the Normative Imagination (up to a point!)
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2018
16 Jun 2018 – This little essay is but a sketch drawn to help me address the often questionable enterprise of a memoir, presented as a sort of reflective selfie to invoke an idiom of our age. I would benefit from comments and criticisms, and promise on my part to listen attentively.
→ read full articleToward Benign Global Leadership in a Post-Trumpist World Order
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2018
7 Jun 2018 -Possible future geopolitical relationships that might provide beneficial global leadership, much needed if current world order challenges are to be met this side of catastrophe… A first step in the right direction is a recognition of the vital role that could be played by greater trust in what might be called ‘the public imagination.’
→ read full article“Sympathy Is Not Enough”
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2018
1 Jun2018 – Nadia Murad’s words contained a single message: “Sympathy is not enough. Sympathy does not create change. We need action.” Her manner as a speaker was exceptionally calm, her intonation almost without inflection. Her words were enveloped in an aura of resignation and despair, but her talk avoided the shocking details of her experience, the details where horror resides.
→ read full articleOnuma-san’s World
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2018
International Law in a Transcivilizational World, by Onuma Yasuaki, Cambridge University Press, 2017 – This text was published in May 2018 in the Yale Journal of International Law.
→ read full articleTransforming World Order?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
20 May 2018 – Review of an important critical study of the deplorable conditions of law and politics in the current global setting. The author grounds his diagnosis and proposals on a philosophical interpretation of this subject-matter, but the radical vision although appealing gives little attention to how such a vision can become a political project, and so this learned text creates an impression of apolitical utopianism.
→ read full articleGAZA: Grief, Horror, Outrage, Remembering
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
15 May 2018 – How can one not feel intense grief for the young Palestinians who out of despair and fury joined the Great March of Return, and so often found death and severe injury awaiting them as they approached the border unarmed!!? The feeble Israeli claims of its right of self-defense or attributing Palestinian martyrdom to Hamas are as shallow and lacking in credibility as to discredit further rather than provide justifications for this exhibition of homicidal violence on a massive scale not as isolated incident but as a series of arrogant reenactments.
→ read full articleThe End of Democracy?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
8 May 2018 – Because of globalization in its manifest forms, it is no longer tenable to confine the ambitions of democracy to national spaces. Global democracy has become, is becoming, a matter of ultimate concern. Issues raised concern transparency, accountability, participation, and responsiveness of global policy processes, and of course, how the global is to be linked to the regional and national.
→ read full articleWorld Order after the Cold War
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
The aftermath of the Cold War exhibited several forms of dysfunctionality: failures by the American-led West to recognize and act upon a new global agenda that served the ‘human interest’ rather than continue to pursue ‘geopolitical ambitions’ by relying on coercive diplomacy and militarism. What is politically ‘feasible’ at this point will not do. The peoples of the world deserve and require a politics that recognizes what is ‘necessary’ and aspires to achieve what is ‘desirable.’
→ read full articlePostscript: Additional Indonesian Impressions
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2018
1 May 2018 – It occurs to me that two additional impressions of Indonesia seem relevant enough to be worth a short supplement to my post of a few days ago.
→ read full articleIndonesian Impressions
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2018
Impressions from a Third Visit to Indonesia
→ read full articleAttacking Syria
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2018
18 Apr 2018 – These strikes raise questions of international law, domestic constitutional authorization for international uses of force, strategic logic, and moral imperatives and rationalizations. Each of these issues is capable of multiple interpretations raising further concerns about the appropriate location of the authority to decide given the nature of world order in the 21stcentury.
→ read full articleToward the Creation of a World Parliament: Strongly Recommended Reading
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2018
13 Apr 2018 – This is a brief promotional comment to call attention to the publication of a truly outstanding contribution to creative and restorative world order thinking. The book is entitled A World Parliament: Governance and Democracy in the 21stCentury by Jo Leinen and Andreas Bummel.
→ read full articleMiddle East Turmoil: Israeli Massacre, Palestinian Grievances
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2018
The Middle East Is Heating Up–Again – A Postscript on the Land Day Massacre (‘Great March of Return’)
→ read full articleWill ‘Democracy’ Survive? How? Whether? Hard Questions in Dark Times
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2018
7 Apr 2018 – Global democracy has become, is becoming, a matter of ultimate concern. Issues raised concern transparency, accountability, participation, and responsiveness of global policy processes, and of course, how the global is to be linked with the regional and national so as to pursue the goal of global humane governance: equitable, stable, sustainable, peaceful, compassionate, and above all, mindfulness.
→ read full articleThe Banality of Evil: Diverting the Palestinian Struggle
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
28 Mar 2018 – The Banality of Evil: Language Entrapment or Political Malevolence? It seems a language game is being played. Or is it better understood as a political maneuver suffused with bad intentions?
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The UN: Instrumental or Normative?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2018
Giving the veto power to the five permanent members of the Security Council almost assured that when ideological and geopolitical views clashed, which was virtually all the time, during the first 40 years after 1945, the UN would watch unfolding war-threatening events and violent encounters between ideological adversaries from the sidelines.
→ read full articleRenaming the 1948 War: Partition, Dispossession, and Fragmentation–On the Politics of Language
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2018
24 Mar 2018 – Israel has been brilliant over the years in shaping and misdirecting the public discourse on the future of Palestine. Among its earliest achievement along these lines was the crucial propaganda victory by having the 1948 War known internationally as the ‘War of Independence.’ Such a designation erases the Palestinians from political consciousness, and distorts the deeper human and political consequences of the war. Language matters, especially in vital circumstances where there are winners and losers, a reality that applies above all to a war of displacement.
→ read full articleThe Gulf Crisis Reassessed
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2018
12 Mar 2018 – The dysfunctionality of the Gulf Crisis, pitting a coalition of four countries, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt against tiny Qatar, is emblematic of the descent into multi-dimensional chaos, conflict, and coercion that afflicts much of the Middle East. Qatar may be tiny, but it is wealthy and has chosen for itself a somewhat independent path, and for this reason has experienced the wrath of the more reactionary forces operative in the region and world.
→ read full articleA Debate on Peacemaking: Ending Occupation or Apartheid?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2018
9 Mar 2018 – The core disagreement is whether to retain the emphasis on ending occupation as still the best, and some say, the only path to peace, and my view that a sustainable peace can only be obtained by a process of eliminating the apartheid structure by which Israel currently subjugates the Palestinian people as a whole.
→ read full articleBook Launch: Revisiting the Vietnam War-The Views and Interpretations of Richard Falk, edited by Stefan Andersson
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2018
Revisiting the Vietnam War: The Views and Interpretations of Richard Falk, edited by Stefan Andersson, Cambridge University Press, 2017 – Why the Legal and Political Debate on the Vietnam War Still Matters
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(Italiano) Pace e giustizia per il popolo Palestinese: una conversazione
Richard Falk | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2018
La crisi umanitaria a Gaza è entrata nell’11° anno di un assedio crippling di Israele che rende le condizioni di vita dei palestinesi via via più complicate. Il blocco di quella che si definisce popolarmente “la prigione all’aperto più grande al mondo” vuol dire disoccupazione crescente, accesso intermittente ad acqua pura, un’economia sballata e infrastrutture carenti e mancanza di fondi che rendono la popolazione di due milioni vulnerabile alle forti piogge e a fenomeni meteorologici estremi.
→ read full articleAmerica’s ‘Liberalism’ & Other Inhumane Styles of Governance at Home and Internationally
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Feb 2018
25 Feb 2018 – With apologies for this long post, which attempts to situate the struggle for an ethically and ecologically viable political future for the United States and the world in the overheated preoccupation with Trump and Trumpism, which is itself a distraction from the species challenges confronting the whole of humanity at the present time. Many of us, and I include myself, have allowed the side show to become the main attraction, which is itself a reason for struggle against the enveloping darkness.
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Why the Experience of Ahed Tamimi Matters So Much
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Feb 2018
13 Feb 2018 – It is now known by virtually everyone that a 16-year-old girl, now 17, named Ahed Tamimi, confronted Israeli soldiers on her family’s land shortly after her cousin, Mohammed, was shot in the face with a rubber bullet, causing a coma. The video of her actions has gone viral, showing the world a courageous young woman engaging in nonviolent acts of resistance, and then a day later in the middle of the night being arrested in her home and then charged with a series of crimes.
→ read full articleIsrael Claims to Be a Jewish State and a Democratic State: Legalism vs Justice
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 – The book is an important contribution to an understanding of two dimensions of the Palestinian experience within the state of Israel: first, the reliance on law to ‘legalize’ discrimination, and the accompanying denial of fundamental rights that has resulted; secondly, to develop a distinct Israeli jurisprudence that seeks to legitimize ‘ethnocracy,’ yet disguise this reality by claiming that the nationality laws and regulations distinguishing Jews and non-Jews do not invalidate Israeli claims to be a democracy.
→ read full articlePeace and Justice for the Palestinian People: a Conversation
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Feb 2018
This is a modified text of an interview conversation with Khourosh Ziabari, initially published on the website of the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence on February 4, 2018.
→ read full article(Français) Que la solution à deux États meure de mort naturelle!
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – Investig’Action,
5 Feb 2018
30 Jan 2018 – Il soutient que les défenseurs sincères de la paix entre les Israéliens et les Palestiniens devraient accorder la priorité à combattre l’apartheid plutôt que de vouloir ranimer un « processus de paix » style Oslo (toujours une imposture) ou de proclamer que l’objectif d’une Palestine indépendante et souveraine est réalisable sans d’abord démanteler les structures d’apartheid, qui asservissent le peuple palestinien dans son ensemble, afin de préserver l’exigence sioniste qui veut qu’Israël soit l’état du peuple juif (plutôt que de lui procurer un foyer à l’intérieur d’un État légitime et normal dont les fondements sont l’égalité ethnique et religieuse, les droits de l’homme, et les principes laïcs.
→ read full articleWhy the United Nations Matters (even for the Palestinians)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jan 2018
Despite understandable degrees of disillusionment, people of good will dedicated to UN ideals should not give up on the Organization or its potentiality, but work harder to make the UN come closer to fulfilling its original promise, needed now more than ever. Justice for the Palestinian people, however long deferred, remains the defining moral prism by which to assess the shifting balance between achieving global justice and bowing to the whims of geopolitics at the UN and elsewhere.
→ read full articleLet the Two-State Solution Die a Natural Death
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jan 2018
7 Jan 2018 – The proper priority for genuine advocates of peace between Israelis and Palestinians should be centered around apartheid rather than be devoted to reviving an Oslo style ‘peace process’ (always a sham) or proclaiming the goal of an independent and sovereign Palestine as attainable without first dismantling the apartheid structures that subjugate the Palestinian people as a whole so as to maintain the Zionist insistence on Israel as the state of the Jewish people.
→ read full articleEndings and Beginnings: A Commentary on 2017 to 2018
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jan 2018
1 Jan 2018 – The bad news is that the world crisis worsened during 2017, largely due to the inept and anachronistic orientation exhibited by the Trump presidency. His influence was an immense distraction from facing challenges that required urgent and creative national and global attention, including climate change, biodiversity, global migration, Middle East turmoil, nuclearism, and scandalous levels of income and wealth inequalities.
→ read full articleTrump, the UN, and the Future of Jerusalem
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jan 2018
31 Dec 2017 – The wider implications of the UN reaction to Trump’s Dec 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to follow this by relocating the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
→ read full articleThe Jerusalem Votes at the UN
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Dec 2017
23 Dec 2017 – What discussions gloss over is the degree to which issues of substance prevailed over matters of geopolitical alignment. Not one of America’s closest allies (UK, France, Germany, and Japan) heeded the arguments of Haley and Trump. Every important country in the world backed the GA Resolution on Dec 21 regardless of geography or political orientation (China, Russia, India, Brazil, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran).
→ read full articleDemocracy, Development, and Reputation: Vietnam, Turkey, and International Liberalism
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Dec 2017
The cases of Vietnam and Turkey strongly support the central claim here that national reputations of legitimacy should rest on a comprehensive assessment of material, ethical, and spiritual wellbeing of individuals and communities, and no longer be a reflection of geopolitical agendas (with respect to Turkey) and ideological arrogance (with respect to Vietnam).
→ read full articleJerusalem Is (Is Not) the Capital of Israel
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Dec 2017
10 Dec 2017 – Donald Trump: “Israel is the only state in the world that is not allowed to locate its capital in a national city of its choice.” It seems like an innocent enough proclamation, and even accurate pushback against global double standards, until one considers the political, moral, and legal dimensions of the actual situation.
→ read full article
Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Dec 2017
15 Dec 2017 – Critics, including myself, regard the initiative as a slap at the Palestinians and a confirmation of Trump’s disregard of international law and morality, and the authority of the UN. The status of Jerusalem is a focal point for the tension between the old geopolitics of hard power realism and the normative geopolitics of soft power new realism.
→ read full articleTaking Stock: One Year after Trump
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Nov 2017
20 Nov 2017 – This post addresses the need for dialogue with the political, economic, and cultural ‘other,’ that is, those multitudes acutely alienated from and angry with secular globalism and the Enlightenment legacy often equated with ‘modernity’ and ‘modernization.’ At the core is a search for closure on the nature of reality as well as feelings about equity (given many dimensions of inequality) and ethical innovation (revisionist approaches to gender, sexuality, marriage). Does reason or faith or tradition provide greater closure?
→ read full articleParallel Universes: Vietnam and Palestine
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Nov 2017
26 Nov 2017 – Not surprisingly, my sixth visit to Vietnam stirred many memories, among them, a recognition of the parallels between the Vietnamese and Palestinian experiences. Dreams don’t become the new reality without the dedication of a people brave and creative, and helped by the inspirational effects on friends and supporters. This blessing of empowering and charismatic resilience is the core identity of the Vietnamese and the Palestinian people, their point of most profound convergence.
→ read full articleFailing the People of Syria during Seven Years of Devastation and Dispossession
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Nov 2017
13 Nov 2017 – What follows is a wide-ranging interview in November 2017 that that concentrates on the failure of the UN and the world to rescue the people of Syria by a timely and effective humanitarian intervention. The interview is to be published in the Turkish magazine Causcasus International.
→ read full articleThe Spiritual Sources of Legal Creativity: The Legacy of Father Miguel d’Escoto
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Nov 2017
31 Oct 2017 – Father Miguel d’Escoto was both the Foreign Minister of Sandinista Nicaragua and President of the UN General Assembly, as well as pastor to the poor in the spirit of Pope Francis, an extraordinary person who fused a practical engagement in the world with a deeply spiritual nature that affected all who were privileged to know and work with him.
→ read full articleBalfour: Then and Now
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Nov 2017
2 Nov 2017 – Today, November 2, is exactly 100 years after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the pledge given to the World Zionist Movement in a letter signed by the British Foreign Secretary to support the establishment of a ‘national home’ in the then Ottoman millet of Palestine. Certainly ‘a day of infamy’ for the Palestinian people and their friends around the world, while unfortunately treated as ‘a day of pride’ by the British Government, and all in the West those morally bankrupt enough to regret the passing of the colonial era, and to pretend without embarrassment that the Balfour legacy is something to celebrate, rather than to mourn, in the year 2017.
→ read full articleThe Flawed and Corrupted Genius of American Republicanism
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Oct 2017
15 Oct 2017 – The odiousness of Trump’s presidency gives the people of America what might be their last chance to achieve political redemption for themselves and for others now and in the future who will drawn into the circle of extreme victimization unless this dynamic of renewal suddenly takes hold.
→ read full articleThe One and Only Path to Palestine/Israel Sustainable Peace
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Oct 2017
12 Oct 2017 – We should accept our human responsibility to aid and abet the Palestinian struggle for rights, self-determination, and a just peace. The attainment of such goals would also inevitably reshape the destiny of Israeli Jews toward a more humanistic and benevolent future.
→ read full articleNobel Peace Prize 2017: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Oct 2017
8 Oct 2017 – What the BAN Treaty achieves, and the Nobel Prize recognizes, is that the cleavage is now clear between international law and geopolitics with respect to nuclear weapons. The BAN Treaty provides likeminded governments and animated citizen pilgrim throughout the world with a roadmap for closing the gap from the side of law and morality.
→ read full articleVisiting Nuremberg, Reflecting on the Ambiguous Legacies of Nuremberg
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Oct 2017
2 Oct 2017 – I spent two days at Nuremberg to attend the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award ceremony on September 22, 2017. The reason we were in Nuremberg was that my wife had been a member of an international jury that selects an awardee every second year.
→ read full articleMy Ethnographic Moment: In Rome
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Oct 2017
What struck me, in contrast to the U.S, Germany, even France, where I have recently been is that Italy, and specifically Rome, is a deep culture that works for its working and middle classes, or put less structurally, for ‘ordinary people.’ Of course, this is an impression, but for me a rather convincing one, and harmonious with a morning cappuccino and croissant.
→ read full articleApartheid and the Future of Israel/Palestine
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Sep 2017
The interview, associated with my current visit to Belgium and France to speak on the report “Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid,” brings up to date the controversy generated by the UN Secretary General bowing to U.S. pressure and ordering its removal from ESCWA website. It was published in l’Humanité, Sept. 6, 2017.
→ read full articleRemembering Ebrahim Yazdi
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Sep 2017
For all those dedicated to the attainment of real democracy, the name and life of Ebrahim Yazdi is a precious legacy worth reflecting upon because it has so much to teach us today. Among those who struggled for an Iranian future that was Islamic, genuinely democratic, and humanly decent no one was more steadfast and clear about their commitment than Dr. Yazdi.
→ read full articleEvolving International Law, Political Realism, and the Illusions of Diplomacy
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Aug 2017
21 Aug 2017 – International law is mainly supportive of Palestinian grievances with respect to Israel, as well as offering both Israelis and Palestinians a reliable marker as to how these two peoples could live normally together in the future if the appropriate political will existed on both sides to reach a sustainable peace.
→ read full articleCharlottesville through a Glass Darkly
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Aug 2017
Anti-Semitism, and its links to Nazism and Fascism, and now to Trumpism, are genuinely menacing, and should encourage rational minds to reconsider any willingness to being manipulated for polemic purposes by ultra Zionists. We can also only wonder about the moral, legal, and political compass of ardent Zionists who so irresponsibly label Israel’s critics and activist opponents as anti-Semites, and thus confuse and bewilder the public as to the true nature of anti-Semitism as racial hatred directed at Jews.
→ read full articleEnd of Nuclearism or the End of the World: Utopian Dreams, Dystopian Nightmares
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Aug 2017
9 Aug 2017 – We are living amid contradictions whether we like it or not, driving expectations about the future toward opposite extremes. Increasingly plausible are fears that the ‘sixth extinction’ will encompass the human species, or at least, throw human society back to a technology of sticks and stones, with a habitat limited to caves and forests.
→ read full articleLiving in Dystopian Times
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Aug 2017
3 Aug 2017 – Twenty-five years ago there were three widely held beliefs about future trends on a global level: the assured preeminence of the United States; the continuing globalization of the world economy; and the expanding democratization of national governance arrangements. It was also assumed that these trends were more or less descriptive of regional realities, including the Middle East. Each of these trends that seemed so descriptive 25 years ago now seems to be completely out of touch with what is happening around us.
→ read full articleGeopolitical Dirty Dreams: Israel’s ‘Victory Caucus’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jul 2017
29 Jul 2017 – The main Trump assignment within the United States will likely be to lend full support to the Congressional and state-by-state pushback against the BDS campaign, slandering this nonviolent civil society movement of militant solidarity and human rights by castigating it as ‘the anti-Semitism of our time.’
→ read full articleOpen Letter of California Scholar for Academic Freedom (Palestine/Israel)
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jul 2017
22 Jul 2017 – Open Letter prepared under the direction of Vida Samiian of State University of California at Fresno on behalf of California scholars defending against any effort to abridge academic freedom anywhere in the world. Here the focus is on the role of the right-wing media in creating a climate of opinion that supports frantic Zionist efforts to intimidate and punish vocal critics of Israel, creating a crisis of confidence with regard to the exercise of academic freedom.
→ read full articleChallenging Nuclearism: The Nuclear Ban Treaty Assessed
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jul 2017
As of now the NBT is a treaty text that courteously mandates the end of nuclearism, but to convert this text into an effective regime of control will require the kind of deep commitments, sacrifices, movements, and struggles that eventually achieved the impossible, ending such entrenched evils as slavery, apartheid, and colonialism.
→ read full articleBetwixt and Between: The Shadowy Politics of Political (In)Correctness
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jul 2017
3 Jul 2017 – Assessing the exploits of Trump, and Cosby, at least raise these difficult issues of individual and collective responsibility that need to be resolved before the country can hope to recover its moral compass, and learn to respect the dignity of all of its citizens in spite of their diversities of experience and background.
→ read full articleUN Under Siege: Geopolitics in the Time of Trump
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jul 2017
1 Jul 2017 – Why the Peoples of the World Need the UN: Multilateralism, International Law, Human Rights, and Ecological Sustainability – This post is a modified and enlarged version of a talk I gave in Geneva a week ago. The audience was a blend of students of all ages from around the world, with almost none from Europe and North America, and several NGO representatives with lots of UN experience.
→ read full articleJewish Ethnicity, Palestinian Solidarity, Human Identity
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Jun 2017
23 Jun 2017 – The following interview with Abdo Emara, an Arab journalist, was published in Arabic. There are no substantive changes from my earlier responses. I think it worthwhile to share this text because the questions asked by Abdo Emara are often directed at me in the discussion period after talks I have given recently.
→ read full articleOvercoming Nuclear Crises: North Korea and Beyond
Richard Falk and David Krieger | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jun 2017
This jointly authored essay was initially published in The Hill on May 30, 2017 under the title, Averting the Ticking Time Bomb of Nukes in North Korea. We did not choose such a title that is doubly misleading: our contention is not that North Korea is the core of the problem, but rather the retention of nuclear weapons by all of the states pose both crises in the context of counter-proliferation geopolitics and with respect to the possession, deployment, and development of the weaponry itself; a second objection is with the title given the piece by editors at The Hill. While acknowledging the practice of media outlets to decide on titles without seeking prior approval from authors, this title is particularly objectionable to me. The term ‘nukes’ gives an almost friendly shorthand to these most horrific of weapons, and strikes a tone that trivializes what should be regarded at all times with solemnity.
→ read full articleRemembering a Priest, a Diplomat, and a Voice for Palestine: Miguel D’Escoto
Richard Falk and Phyllis Bennis – The Nation,
19 Jun 2017
14 Jun 2017 – Father Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, who died a few days ago, was a Catholic priest and former president of the UN General Assembly. The Nicaraguan diplomat was also a leading voice of conscience on Middle East peace — as well as a cherished friend, loved and admired by both of us, who became an inspirational figure to many around the world.
→ read full articleInterrogating the Qatar Rift
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jun 2017
7 Jun 2017 – The abrupt announcement that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, Yemen, the Maldive Islands, and the eastern government in divided Libya have broken all economic and political ties with Qatar has given rise to a tsunami of conjecture, wild speculation, and most of all, to wishful thinking and doomsday worries… We can gain some glimmers of understanding of what is motivating these Arab governments to act against Qatar, but little sympathy.
→ read full articleAverting the Ticking Time Bomb of Nukes in North Korea
Richard Falk and David Krieger | The Hill – TRANSCEND Media Service~,
5 Jun 2017
30 May 2017 – Alarmingly, tensions between the United States and North Korea have again reached crisis proportions. Until this structure of nuclearism is itself overcome, crises will almost certainly continue to occur. It is foolhardy to suppose that nuclear catastrophes can be indefinitely averted without addressing these deeper challenges that have existed ever since the original atomic attack on Hiroshima.
→ read full articleOn Zbigniew Brzezinski: Geopolitical Mastermind, Realist Practitioner
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jun 2017
When it comes to Brzezinski’s legacy, I believe it to be mixed. He was a brilliant practitioner, always able to present his views lucidly, forcefully, and with a catchy quality of coherence. In my view, his Cold War outlook was driven toward unacceptable extremes by his anti-Soviet preoccupations. After the Cold War he seemed more prudent and sensible, especially in the last twenty years, when his perceptions of world order were far more illuminating than those of Kissinger, his geopolitical other.
→ read full articleAlternate Worldviews: Davutoğlu, Kissinger, Xi Jinping
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 May 2017
This post is a much modified version of a shorter opinion piece published by the global-e online publication on May 18, 2017. It is a response to and commentary upon an essay of Ahmet Davutoğlu, former foreign minister and prime minister of Turkey.
→ read full article