Articles by Richard Falk
We found 811 results.
Alternate 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 articleTwo Sides of the Palestinian Coin: Hunger Strike/Gaza
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 May 2017
28 May 2017 – The Palestinian hunger strike protesting Israeli prison conditions was suspended on May 27th after 40 days, at a time when many of the 1000 or so strikers were experiencing serious deteriorations of health, most were by then hospitalized, and the holy period of Ramadan about to commence creating continuity between the daytime fasting of the faithful and the prior desperate protest of the strikers.
→ read full articleThe Palestinian Hunger Strike: “Our chains will be broken before we are…”
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 May 2017
Even if this commitment is not carried through to a grim finality, it will not tarnish the significance of what has been undertaken, and the great reluctance of the world to focus its attention on such a display of nonviolent martyrdom. It appears to be the most consequential due to the participation of Marwan Barghouti along with so many other Palestinian prisoners as well as producing many displays of solidarity beyond the prison walls.
→ read full articleTrumped Up Diplomacy in the Middle East
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 May 2017
20 May 2017 – As Trump dominates the news by his visits to Saudi Arabia and Israel we should not be tricked into thinking that his ‘achievements’ are hopeful developments. The only true beacons of hope for the peoples of the Middle East are the contrarian affirmations of the Palestinian hunger strike, the Rouhani electoral victory, and the BDS Campaign.
→ read full articleIsrael’s New Cultural War of Aggression
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 May 2017
A Small Battleground in a Large Culture War – The real institutional scandal is not that the UN is obsessed with Israel but rather that it is blocked from taking action that might exert sufficient pressure on Israel to induce the dismantling of apartheid structures relied upon to subjugate, displace, and dispossess the Palestinian people over the course of more than 70 years with no end in sight.
→ read full articleTrump versus International Liberalism: Should We Care?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
Only civil society militancy on an unprecedented scale can create a mandate for the kind of global transformation in ideas and structures are necessary to enable a sustainable future resting on the values of eco-humanism. If this analysis is correct, Trumpism and liberalism are nothing but sideshows.
→ read full articleThe Zookeeper’s Wife: Reflections on Past and Present
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Apr 2017
I do honor the memory of the Holocaust as a prime experience of unrestrained evil, forever a source of mourning and foreboding, and acknowledge that I have a certain degree of ‘survivor guilt’ having been so arbitrarily spared despite my ethnic eligibility for the gas chamber. At the same time, I refuse to defer to that past by disregarding present evil, no matter the perpetrator. The Palestinian experience of victimization is severe, prolonged, ongoing, without an end in sight.
→ read full articleIrish Recollections: After the Cork Conference on ‘International Law and the State of Israel’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Apr 2017
14 Apr 2017 – Palestinian wounds will not heal until a credible reconciliation process is established that includes Israeli official acknowledgements of historic wrongdoing centered on the nakba, conceived of as a process of dispossession, displacement, and domination.
→ read full articleThe U.S. Attack on al-Shayrat Airfield
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Apr 2017
There are two clusters of serious questions raised. Is this a new turn toward belligerent internationalism by the Trump presidency that will shape the near future of American foreign policy in the Middle East, and possibly elsewhere? Does the reversion to unilateralism with respect to international uses of force heighten the risks of geopolitical escalation and large-scale warfare, including possibly the threat or use of nuclear weapons?
→ read full article(Français) Richard Falk : de nombreux dirigeants israéliens ont eux-mêmes annoncé depuis longtemps qu’Israël deviendrait un État d’apartheid…
Richard Falk | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Apr 2017
Une enquête sur l’apartheid dans le contexte israélien n’est pas quelque chose de scandaleux, ni même de particulièrement nouveau.
→ read full articleHow the United Nations Should Respond in the Age of Global Dissent
Richard Falk, Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck – New Statesman,
3 Apr 2017
Three Former UN Insiders on the Future of the World’s Most Ambitious Organisation
→ read full articleThe Inside Story on Our UN Report Calling Israel an Apartheid State
Richard Falk – The Nation,
3 Apr 2017
A people cannot be permanently repressed in all these ways without viewing the structure that has emerged as an apartheid regime.
→ read full articleIs Israel an Apartheid State?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Mar 2017
This post was originally published on March 22, 2017 by The Nation under the title “The Inside Story of Our UN Report Calling Israel an Apartheid State.” What is below is somewhat modified.
→ read full articleUN Sponsored Report on Israel’s Responsibility for Apartheid in Relation to the Palestinian People
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Mar 2017
19 Mar 2017 – Below is the text of a report co-authored by Virginia Tilley and myself, commissioned by the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA) that examines the argument for regarding Israel as an ‘apartheid state’ with respect to the whole of the Palestinian people, that is, not only those Palestinians living under occupation, but also those living as residents of Jerusalem, those living as a minority in Israel, and those enduring refugee camps and involuntary exile.
→ read full articleAsking Foolish Questions about Serious Issues
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Mar 2017
Serious and worrisome parallel issues are raised by recent disclosures of serious cyber attacks by the US Government on the North Korean nuclear program. The American media and government officialdom treat the conduct of cyber warfare against North Korea’s nuclear program as something to be judged exclusively by its success or failure, not whether it’s right or wrong, prudent or reckless.
→ read full articleReading Elisabeth Weber’s KILL BOXES
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Mar 2017
Kill Boxes: Facing the Legacy of US-Sponsored Torture, Indefinite Detention, and Drone Warfare, by Elisabeth Weber – The purpose of this post is to recommend highly the above book addressing the interrelated issues of torture, indefinite detention, and drone warfare from a perspective that is both humanistic and deeply steeped in European philosophical thought.
→ read full articleErasing the UN
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
We have reached a stage of human development where future prospects are tied to finding institutional mechanisms that can serve human and global interests in addition to national interests, whether pursued singly or in aggregate. In this central respect, Trump’s ardent embrace of American nationalism is an anachronistic dead end. We need a greatly empowered UN, not an erased UN.
→ read full articleShould the Palestinians Seek Justice NOW at the International Criminal Court?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2017
23 Feb 2017 – This post calls particular attention to the punitive treatment of recourse to international law tribunals to address perceived grievances that is meant to discourage Palestinians from seeking relief at the International Criminal Court. It seems almost certain that the Palestinian Authority will not act to take advantage of the ICC option any time soon. The PA is likely to adopt a posture of neither/nor, that is, neither explicitly ruling out recourse to the ICC, nor activating the option.
→ read full articleIsrael Legalizes Settlement Options as a Prelude to the Netanyahu Visit to Trumpland
Richard Falk | Social Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2017
13 Feb 2017 – Responses to four questions posed by Rodrigo Craveiro, a journalist from the Brazilian newspaper Correio Braziliense.
→ read full articleWays of Living with ‘Alternative Facts’: An Anecdote
Richard Falk | Social Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2017
This brings me inevitably to Kellyann Conway’s reliance on ‘alternative facts’ to validate the claim that Donald Trump’s inaugural crowd was bigger than that of Barack Obama. She was contesting contrasting pictures shown by CNN and other media outlets in which even the most casual observer could tell that Trumps crowd was by far smaller.
→ read full articleTrump’s Pre-Fascism and Progressive Populist Opportunities
Richard Falk | Social Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2017
The Dismal Cartography of the Pre-Fascist State – Listening to Donald Trump’s inaugural speech on January 20th led me to muse about what it might mean to live in a pre-fascist state.
→ read full articleNAPF: To Rid the World of Nuclear Weapons
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2017
The statement below was drafted and endorsed by participants in a symposium held in Santa Barbara, CA in October 2016 under the auspices of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
→ read full article2017: Palestine’s Three Dark Commemorations
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2017
Israeli expansionism, United States unconditional support, and UN impotence. These factors are combining to create dismal prospects for Palestinian self-determination and for a negotiated peace that is sensitive to the rights and grievances of both Palestinians and Jews.
→ read full articleOpen Letter to President-elect Donald Trump on Nuclear Weapons
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2017
8 Jan 2017 – The text below is an Open Letter to the next American president urging complete nuclear disarmament as an urgent priority. The letter was prepared under the auspices of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and its current list of signatories is listed below.
→ read full articleA Poetic Illumination at the Start of a New Year
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2017
I came across a few lines of the Zen poetry of the late eighteen century Zen poet, Ryōkan. A verse from The Long Winter Night: Three Poems.
→ read full articleCondemning Israeli Settlement Expansion: UN Security Council Resolution 2334 and Secretary Kerry’s Speech
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2017
To bring together China, Russia, France, and the UK on an initiative tabled by Senegal, Malaysia, and Venezuela, is sending Israel and Washington a clear message that despite the adverse developments of recent years in the Middle East the world will not forget the Palestinians, or their struggle.
→ read full articleAn Open Letter to Myself on New Year’s Day 2017
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2017
‘Clarity,’ not ‘hope,’ is the opposite of ‘despair.’ To be awake to unpleasant, even dire, realities and resist the temptations of denial demands increasing resolve in the face of the mounting evidence that the human species is facing a biopolitical moment threatening civilizational collapse and species decline and fall as never before.
→ read full articleOpen Letter to the Japanese Prime Minister on Eve of Visit to Pearl Harbor
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2017
25 Dec 2016 – The press release and open letter to the Japanese Prime Minister concern the complex issues surrounding the ethos and politics of apology. I would have liked the statement to include an acknowledgement of accountability by the U.S. Government.
→ read full articleRemembering Zsa Zsa Gabor
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2016
20 Dec 2016 – As an early teenager I came to know Zsa-Zsa Gabor and her family rather well. Indeed, her sister, Eva, lived in our New York apartment for several months. Zsa Zsa became my father’s client, and later close friend, during her high profile divorce from the pre-Trump hotel magnate, Conrad Hilton.
→ read full articleThe Confused Russian Hacking Debate, Trump Victory, and U.S. Global State
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century,
26 Dec 2016
I have long opposed American interferences in the political life of foreign countries, believe in accepting the outcome of the dynamics of self-determination, and have long thought the United States and the rest of the world would be better off if the government accepted the discipline of international law as setting limits on foreign policy options.
→ read full articleOn the Death of Fidel Castro
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2016
I have been bemused by the captious tone and condescending assessments of mainstream media in the West reacting to Fidel Castro’s death. The lead editorial in The Economist went on even to mock the reverence ordinary Cubans felt for Castro: “Cubans say Mr. Castro was ‘like a father” to them. They are right: he infantilized a nation. Anyone with initiative found ways to leave for exile abroad.”
→ read full articleRethinking the Arab Spring: Uprisings, Counterrevolution, Chaos, and Global Reverberations
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2016
At this point, following the election of Donald Trump as the next American president, there are likely to be significant geopolitical adjustments with related regional impacts. It is possible that cooperation between Russia and the United States will be forthcoming for the purpose of ending civil strife in Syria and Yemen, defeating religious extremism in the region, and maintaining the Iran nuclear agreement.
→ read full articleHonoring Henry Kissinger at Oslo
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Dec 2016
What is equally distressing is the Orwellian insensitivity of the Nobel authorities to the inappropriateness of treating Kissinger as though he is a highly trusted source of guidance and wisdom with respect to world peace. Kissinger has applauded the worst excesses of dictators, especially in Latin America, and backed the most immoral geopolitical policies throughout his long career.
→ read full articleFive Years after the Arab Spring: A Critical Evaluation
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Dec 2016
A new political geography has emerged in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) after the Arab Spring. The transformative impact of the popular upheavals appeared to put an end to long-term authoritarian regimes. Today, the region is far from stable since authoritarian resilience violently pushed back popular demands for good governance and is pushing to restore former state structures.
→ read full articleTurkish Realignment: Prospects amid Uncertainty
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2016
3 Dec 2016 – In recent months the Turkish President, Recep Teyipp Erdoğan, and his principal advisors have not made it a secret that they are reconsidering Turkey’s relations with neighbors, with the countries of the region, and with leading geopolitical actors.
→ read full articleHarmony with Nature: Toward an Earth Jurisprudence
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2016
30 Nov 2016 – This post consists of my responses to four questions asked of 189 ‘experts’ around the world by a project of the UN Harmony with Nature Network. My own approach is based on the biopolitical imperative in this historical period of developing an ecological consciousness for the sake of human wellbeing, and possibly species survival.
→ read full articleEscaping ‘Fortress Earth’
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Nov 2016
Reading Journey to Earthland is an extraordinary experience. Paul Raskin is not only a master navigator of the complexities of our world but someone who conveys a vision of the future that manages to surmount the unprecedented challenges facing humanity at several levels of social, cultural, and ecological being.
→ read full articleMoralizing Military Intervention
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2016
Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union there has been an upsurge of international undertakings that have claimed humanitarian justifications for military interventions in foreign societies. A second kind of justification for such interventions all of which are launched by Western countries (especially the United States) was associated with the global “war on terror.”
→ read full articleAnticipating the Trump Presidency
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2016
It is wildly premature to think that this election signals that the American people have descended into the swamps of racism and nativism, but it will still take a vigilant opposition movement to prevent Trump’s government from imposing its horrendous agenda on our collective future.
→ read full articleUNESCO Censures Israel’s Administration of Jerusalem
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Nov 2016
In response to UNESCO resolutions adopted in October that were highly critical of Israel’s protection of sacred and cultural Islamic heritage sites in Jerusalem, there is again a fiery confrontation between Israel and this UN organ whose actions have so often touched the raw nerves of Western political sensibilities.
→ read full articleUSA: What Are We to Think?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2016
29 Oct 2016 – A cascade of developments should make us afraid of what seems to be emerging politically in the United States at this time. Although politicians keep telling us how great we were or will be or are.
→ read full articleInterview on Palestine for Middle East Eye with Hilary Wise
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2016
I want above all that Palestine will not suffer the fate of other oppressed people, and be written off as ‘a forgotten struggle,’ or worse, ‘a lost cause.’ “Apartheid, annexation, mass displacement and collective punishment have become core policies of the state of Israel.”
→ read full articleWhy Okinawa Should Matter
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2016
12 Oct 2016 – An earlier version of this post appeared in the Japanese publication, Ryukyu Shimpo. The article is devoted to a critical discussion of Okinawa’s role in serving American and Japanese strategic interests. Since the end of World War II Okinawa has been a mostly unhappy host of American military bases, and the issue has been prominent at times on the agenda of the Japanese peace movement.
→ read full articleWas the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 Wrongly Awarded?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2016
My comment critical of the award is printed below, and is followed by an even more critical comment by Fredrik S. Heffermehl, a Norwegian jurist who has taken a special interest in the Nobel Peace Prize, especially making a great effort to call attention to the failure of the Norwegian committee that is responsible for deciding on recipients to adhere to the will and intentions of Alfred Nobel who established this most coveted of international awards at the end of the nineteenth century.
→ read full articleThe Geopolitics of Shimon Peres’ Legacy
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2016
Basically, the question posed is whether to celebrate Peres’ death as that of a man dedicated to peace and reconciliation or to portray him as a wily opportunist, a skillful image-maker, and in the end, a harsh Zionist and ambitious Israeli leader.
→ read full articleThe Enigma That Was Shimon Peres
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2016
My own experience of the man was direct, although rather superficial, but it did give me greater confidence to trust my reservations about his impact and influence, which collides with the adulation that he has inspired among American liberals, in particular.
→ read full articleA Warming of US/Turkish Relations?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2016
There are continuing concerns in Washington and Ankara about whether and to what degree United States-Turkey relations can be restored; it depends on the behavior of the two governments, and likely will be influenced by the outcome of the American presidential elections.
→ read full articleInterview on Israel, Palestine, and Peace
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2016
14 Sep 2016 –The U.S. Government and Israel have signed a military assistance agreement promising Israel $38 billion over the next ten years, the largest such commitment ever made. Again, we should grieve over the extent to which ‘reality’ and morality is sacrificed for the sake of the ‘special relationship’ while looking the other way whenever the Palestinian ordeal is mentioned.
→ read full articleThe Uses and Abuses of Uncertainty: The Case of Turkey
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2016
9 Sep 2016 – One of the paradoxes of the digital age with its real time awareness is the degree to which information overloads clouds our imagination with cheaply achieved and false clarity, which in political contexts is often the Mad Men work of selective interpretation or deliberate manipulation.
→ read full articleClinton versus Trump: How It Might Matter for the Middle East
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2016
If voting for an American president was only about the Middle East, I would rate the candidates as a tossup, but it isn’t. When the American domestic scene is taken into account, as well the rest of the world, Clinton holds the clear edge unless one feels so disgusted her candidacy as to write in Bernie Sanders on the ballot or cast a vote of conscience for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. I remain uncertain as to which of these choices to make.
→ read full articleFailures of Militarism in Countering Mega-Terrorism
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
27 Aug 2016 – A critique of the American response that is based on a ‘war’ rather than a law enforcement paradigm. An argument is then made to adapt international law to new modalities of conflict while at the same time learning the right lessons from the repeated militarist failures of transnational counterterrorism.
→ read full articleThe Sky above Turkey
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
23 Aug 2016 – It seems so important at this time for the sake of the future of Turkey that the West look at the country and its political circumstances in a far more balanced way than how the situation has been portrayed since the coup. How to explain this imbalance is another matter that should be explored at some point, but for now is largely put aside.
→ read full articleHuman Rights after the Failed Coup in Turkey
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2016
It is probably wise to separate human rights concerns from an appraisal of Turkish constitutional democracy. It is quite possible that present tendencies toward a more inclusive democracy will continue, and at the same time, denials of human rights are almost certain to persist, and justify scrutiny and vigilance.
→ read full articleBeyond Jewish Identity: Exceptionalism Revisited
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2016
20 Aug 2016 – The problem with Jewish identity is Jewish identity! By this I mean, the hegemonic forms of Jewish exceptionalism to which most Jews are enthralled, including a provocative insistence on willed disaffiliation in a few rate instances… Instead of Jewish exceptionalism (or American exceptionalism) the call of this bio-political moment is for species exceptionalism.
→ read full article‘Dreaming of Freedom:’ Palestinian Child Prisoners Speak
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2016
8 Aug 2016 – This is a collection of reflections by child prisoners in their own words, edited by Norma Hisham. It is a successor to her earlier volume of Palestinian prison recollections. I post below some blurbs that convey the importance of Dreaming of Freedom and the text of my Foreword. As much as anything I have read, these texts convey the reality of the experience of all Palestinians living under occupation or as exiles or as a subjugated minority.
→ read full articleAftermath of Political Ruptures: Iran, Egypt, Turkey
Richard Falk | Social Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2016
12 Aug 2016 – This post offers a commentary of recent dramatic developments within Turkey and the largely critical international media and diplomatic responses. It compares international reactions to political ruptures in Iran (1979) and Egypt (2011, 2013), and encourages greater public attention to the importance attached by the Turkish citizenry to the defeat of the coup attempt and more sympathy with the kind of political leadership provided by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since the coup attempt of July 15th.
→ read full articleContext Matters: Turkey after the Failed Coup
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2016
Part of the prescribed contextualization, given Turkish realities, is to avoid premature international appraisals, admit underlying uncertainties, and allow enough imaginative space to enable a hopeful future for Turkey.
→ read full articleIs Genocide a Controversial International Crime?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2016
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 (New York: Knopf, 2016).
→ read full articleHow the United States Government Obstructs Peace for Palestine/Israel
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jul 2016
The United States Government has not only taken Israel’s side in diplomatic negotiation between Israel and Palestine, but has actively opposed all moves toward the establishment of an independent sovereign state for the Palestinian people (meaning that the American endorsement of the two-state mantra as the consensus formula for peace was a deliberate official lie).
→ read full articleNarrating Turkey at a Time of National Crisis
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jul 2016
In times of tension, it is particularly important for the defense of what is good and identification of what would worsen the status quo, to strive for balanced assessments, always hoping for the best, while trying to identify and oppose any and all steps toward coercive authoritarianism. I have had the same reaction to conversations in the United States with friends who deem the country to have become ‘fascist.’
→ read full articleAn Unlikely AMEXIT: Pivoting Away from the Middle East
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2016
Unfortunately, for America and the peoples throughout the Middle East the US seems incapable of extricating itself from yet another geopolitical quagmire that is partly responsible for generating extra-regional terrorism of the sort that has afflicted Europe in the last two years.
→ read full articleSmearing BDS Supporters
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2016
The misappropriation of anti-Semitism as a propaganda weapon to smear pro-Palestinian activists, especially those supportive of the BDS Campaign. Also the issues of representation by explaining the formal differences between the PLO and PA, which do not seem presently consequential in my understanding.
→ read full articleWhy Arms Control Is the Enemy of Nuclear Disarmament
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2016
No First Use: Arms Control versus Disarmament Perspectives
→ read full articleAre We Heading Toward Global Autocracy, Ecological Collapse, Political Malaise?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
The failures of neoliberalism, the successes of digitization, the scourge of random violence, and more broadly, the dilemmas posed by late modernity are among the root causes of this global crisis of legitimate governance, which is deepened while being mishandled by unprecedented ecological challenges, extremely irresponsible geopolitical leadership, and a variety of ultra-nationalist backlashes against the encroachments of economic globalization.
→ read full articleA Weak UN Ensures a Weak Secretary General
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2016
13 Jun 2016 – There are many angles of interpretation relevant to the startling admission by Ban Ki-moon that he succumbed to undisguised diplomatic pressure when removing Saudi Arabia from the ‘shame list’ of countries whose armies are found responsible the maiming and killing of children, earning them dishonorable mentioned in an annex to the annual UN report on violations of children’s rights.
→ read full articleZionism, Anti-Semitism, BDS, and the United Nations
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2016
The misuse of anti-Semitism by those defending Israel to deflect a rising tide of civil society activism and public criticism of Israeli policies and practices.
→ read full articleA Moral Revolution? Reflections on President Obama’s Visit to Hiroshima
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2016
5 Jun 2016 – There is doubt that President Barack Obama’s visit to Hiroshima this May crossed some thresholds hitherto taboo. Above all the visit was properly heralded as the first time a sitting American president has dared such a pilgrimage… The whole idea of impunity for the victors and capital punishment for the losers is morally regressive.
→ read full articleOn (Not) Loving Henry Kissinger
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2016
There is an irony that would be amusing if it was not depressing about news that Donald Trump has been courting the 92-year old foreign policy sorcerer Henry Kissinger. Of course, the irony is that earlier in the presidential campaign Hilary Clinton proudly claimed Kissinger as ‘a friend,’ and acknowledged that he “relied on his counsel” while she served as Obama’s Secretary of State.
→ read full articleGeneral Golan’s Holocaust Remembrance Day Speech
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2016
Speaking at Tel Yitzak Kibbutz, where the Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies is located, General Golan urged that this very special day of observance in Israel be treated as an occasion for soul-searching. He placed this call in an extraordinary context by suggesting that conditions in Israel were disturbing in ways relevant to the Holocaust, horror of horrors.
→ read full articleCelebrating the Life and Legacy of Daniel Berrigan
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2016
I was privileged to know Daniel Berrigan in the last stages of the Vietnam War, not well, but well enough to appreciate his quality of moral radiance and to admire the spiritual dedication that he exhibited in opposing the Vietnam War, and later nuclearism. I also knew Dan’s brother, Phil, who shared these remarkable qualities.
→ read full articleMaking the Most of Obama’s Hiroshima Visit
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2016
Message to President Barack Obama with Respect to Forthcoming Hiroshima Visit – 11 May 2016 | I sent the following message to the White House today, and encourage readers of this blog to do the same.
→ read full articleDreaming of the Next UN Secretary General
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2016
The Charter is astonishingly silent about the qualifications that should guide the selection of a secretary general, but it is clear on the procedure: a recommendation must be made by the Security Council to the General Assembly for its approval. This means that any one of the P-5 can use their veto to block a candidate.
→ read full articleIf Obama Visits Hiroshima
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2016
As the global approach to nuclear weapons, climate change, and neoliberal globalization should make clear, we are not likely to survive as a species very much longer if we continue to base world order on a blend of state-centric national interests and dominant actor geopolitics. Obama has this rare opportunity to choose the road not often traveled upon, and there is no better place to start such a voyage than at Hiroshima.
→ read full articleAn Anecdote about Fascism
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2016
I tried to engage her in conversation about evolving Israeli attitudes toward the Palestinians and the related failed diplomacy, but she seemed rather uninformed and perhaps even disinterested as if the peace agenda was not really present in her active consciousness. Then all at once she said something that surprised me. “I am not looking forward to returning to Israel, it is becoming a fascist state.”
→ read full articleIf Obama Visits Hiroshima
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2016
Obama has this rare opportunity to choose the road not often traveled upon, and there is no better place to start such a voyage than at Hiroshima. We in civil society would then with conviction promote his nuclear legacy as ‘From Prague to Hiroshima,’ and feel comfortable that this president has finally earned the honor of the Nobel Peace Prize prematurely bestowed.
→ read full articleShould We Vote for Hillary Clinton? A Meditation
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Apr 2016
14 Apr 2016 – It seems now almost inevitable that Hillary Clinton will be the candidate for the Democratic Party in November. This inevitability came about by a combination of ‘a Southern strategy’ […] Should feelings of solidarity and revolutionary patience outweigh a principled refusal to go along with militarist opportunism?
→ read full articleReading Jeff Halper’s ‘War against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Apr 2016
I believe that Jeff Halper’s book deserves the widest possible reading. It explains clearly and convincingly one of the deepest and least understood roots of Israel’s diplomatic support throughout the world, which is its role as a niche arms supplier and influential tactical specialist in waging wars against peoples who dare offer resistance to state power as variously deployed against them.
→ read full articleThree Unshakeable Pillars of American Foreign Policy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Apr 2016
3 Apr 2016 – It deserves to be noticed that it is only the two anti-establishment candidates who have challenged the foreign policy consensus that has guided American politicians ever since the end of World War II: consistently express unconditional support for the Pentagon, Wall Street, and Israel.
→ read full articleReflections on the Brussels Attack
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Mar 2016
The themes addressed and the policies proposed are advanced in a tentative spirit. Debate and reflection are urgently needed with respect to the political violence that is being unleashed in various forms in the West and non-West.
→ read full articleHow Neoliberalism Really Works: A Small Anecdote
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2016
27 Feb 2016 – Along with several million, I suffer from the eye disease known as glaucoma. It can be managed, rather than cured, by taking eye drops several times a day.
→ read full articleWhy Democratic Party Foreign Policy Fails and Will Continue to Fail
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2016
5 Mar 2016 – An earlier version of this essay appeared on March 2, 2016 in The Progressive Magazine. It tries to explain the entrapment of liberal Democrats in an iron cage of militarism when it comes to international security policy.
→ read full articleAn Open Letter to Ban Ki-moon
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Feb 2016
We need all to realize what else should not be tolerated: while the Palestinian flag flies outside UN Headquarters, the Palestinian people have lived for almost 70 years under the daily brutalities of occupation, refugee camps, Gazan captivity, and involuntary exile. Can you bring yourself to call this ordeal ‘intolerable’? Then at least you could leave your UN post with a feeling that when your career was no longer in jeopardy you spoke truth to power.
→ read full articleWaiting for Rainbows
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Feb 2016
Below is the cover of my recently published book of poems that can be obtained from Amazon. I have received some inquiries, and although I have been writing poems for the past 60 years, I have never gathered the courage to publish them in one place before.
→ read full articleIsrael’s Security Establishment Makes Public Plea for a Two State Solution
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Feb 2016
7 Feb 2016 – Rarely, if ever, has a newspaper ad mobilized such influential backing for a position of prominent Israelis at odds with the elected leadership of the Israeli state. A full page add appeared in the New York Times on February 4, 2016. Its message was proclaimed in large bold type: “Israel’s Security Chiefs Agree: Separation into two States is in Israel’s vital security interest.”
→ read full articleThe Complex Problematics of Palestinian Representation
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Feb 2016
This post attempts to address the current quandary that arises from the collapse of Oslo diplomacy and the seeming continuing encroachment of Israel on the territories long believed to provide the Palestinian people with a sovereign state of their own.
→ read full articleClimate Change: Post-Paris Challenges and Concerns
Hilal Elver and Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Feb 2016
It is time to move on from the aura of good feelings of accomplishment created by the Paris Climate Change Conference and begin asking some hard questions. Above all we need to assess whether an agreement that consists of voluntary pledges is workable and sufficient, and whether its contribution to slowing global warming should be celebrated or lamented at this stage.
→ read full articleAn Open Letter to the American People: Political Responsibility in the Nuclear Age
Richard Falk, David Krieger and Robert Laney – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
What is most notable about the Nuclear Age is that we humans, by our scientific and technological ingenuity, have created the means of our own demise. The world currently is confronted by many threats to human wellbeing, and even civilizational survival, but we focus here on the particular grave dangers posed by nuclear weapons and nuclear war.
→ read full article‘Voluntary’ International Law and the Paris Agreement
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
16 Jan 2016 – Now that the celebrations by the diplomats have ended, it is time to take a hard look at what was and was not accomplished by the Paris Agreement. What we need and should seek is a moral epistemology that reconnects knowledge with human values configured so as to achieve justice, sustainability, and the pleasures of ‘a good life.’
→ read full articleOn Ghada Ageel’s Edited ‘Israeli Apartheid in Palestine’
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
Ghada Ageel’s expertly edited ‘Israeli Apartheid in Palestine: Hard Laws and Harder Experiences’ has just been published by the University of Albert Press. It is an important contribution to Palestinian studies with an especially welcome linking of activism, scholarly analysis, and experiential narrative, each a vital perspective represented by excellent chapter writers.
→ read full articleWibisono’s Resignation as UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
I am surprised, but not shocked. Surprised because he should have known that he was faced with a dilemma between doing the job properly of reporting on Israel’s crimes and human rights abuses and gaining Israel’s cooperation. Not shocked, indeed grateful, as it illuminates the difficulty confronting anyone charged with truthful reporting on the Palestinian ordeal under occupation, and by his principled resignation Wibisono doesn’t allow Israel to get away with neutering the position of special rapporteur.
→ read full articleDespair and Hope for the New Year
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2016
Most needed in these dark times is to hold tight to what we believe with an unruly embrace of faith, patience, and urgency. This is my most fervent New Year’s wish for 2016.
→ read full articleSlouching toward Global Disaster: Chaos and Intervention in the Middle East
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Dec 2015
Even the more thoughtful Democrats limit their proposals to enhanced militarism, hoping to induce the Arab countries to put ‘the boots on the ground’ with nary a worry about either igniting a regional war or the imaginative collapse that can only contemplate war as the recipe for peace, again recalling the degree to which Orwellian satiric irony is relied upon to shape foreign policy prescriptions by ambitious politicians.
→ read full articleA Christmas Message in Dark Times
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Dec 2015
Christmas has an ecumenical resonance that calls for bright lights, ornamented trees, celebration, and wishes for peace on earth and good will toward all, bringing together those of diverse faith or no faith at all. The legions of ‘the politically correct’ determined to avoid offending those, especially Jews, who are not Christians, will carefully express their good wishes with such phrases as ‘happy holidays!’
→ read full articleA New World Order? ISIS and the Sykes-Picot Backlash
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Dec 2015
The shaping of world order remains mainly the work of the heavyweight states that act on the basis of geopolitical calculations with respect for international law and morality displayed only as convenient. Yet the political monoculture of territorial states remains formally the exclusive foundation of world order, but its political reality is being challenged in various settings and nowhere more so than in the Middle East.
→ read full articleGerry Spence on America Menaced by Impending Police State
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Dec 2015
The book pertains to the situation here in America, but as recent events in Paris, San Bernardino, and Colorado Springs confirm, we are in danger of moving without realizing it toward some kind of ‘global police state,’ all in the name of security, trampling on the rights and self-esteem of billions of people and extinguishing the freedom of all. Such a devastating scenario cannot be separated from the predatory features of global capitalism in its present neoliberal phase.
→ read full articleResponding to Megaterrorism after Paris
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Dec 2015
6 Dec 2015 – The post below is based on an opinion piece published by Middle East Eye on December 1, 2015 under the title “A Different Response to ISIS after Paris.” My modified text places its focus on the originality of megaterrorism and its distinctive challenges, suggesting that the choice of response needs to be extended beyond the iron cage of militarism and vengeance.
→ read full articleThe Failure of U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Nov 2015
22 Nov 2015 – What follows is a modified version of the Morton-Kenney annual public lecture given at the University of Southern Illinois in Carbondale on November 18, 2015 under the joint sponsorship of the Department of Political Science and the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.
→ read full articleEdward Said’s Humanism versus the U.S. State Department’s Antisemitism
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Nov 2015
There is an obvious tension that exists more vividly than when Edward Said was alive, and commenting on the Palestinian struggle. Israel has created on the ground a set of circumstances that seem irreversible and are institutionalizing a single apartheid Israeli state encompassing the whole of historic Palestine (minus Jordan).
→ read full articleHopes for the Morning After in Ankara: Taking Stock (2002-2015)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Nov 2015
Let’s hope than when Erdoğan awakens the morning after his glowing victory, he chooses what is best for Turkey rather than to settle for becoming a grandiose figure who is certain to be both revered and feared. Only if he tames his ambitions will Erdoğan ensure his legacy as a great Turkish leader, second only to Ataturk.
→ read full articleAl Jazeera Turka Interview on Turkish Foreign and National Policy
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Nov 2015
28 Oct 2015 – This is a modified text of an interview conducted by Semin Gumusel Guner of Al Jazeera Turka, and published online in abbreviated form on October 19, 2015. The situation in Turkey is increasingly precarious and troublesome.
→ read full article