2022

Washington Should Think Twice Before Launching a New Cold War: A History Lesson for Our Desperate Moment

By >William D. Hartung, Nick Cleveland-Stout, and Taylor Giorno | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – A growing chorus of pundits and policymakers has suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marks the beginning of a new Cold War. If so, that means trillions of additional dollars for the Pentagon in the years to come coupled with a […]

Climate Crisis

Biden needs an Iran Deal: The US cannot Afford to Sanction both Moscow and Tehran without Risking $300 a barrel Oil

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United States cannot afford to impose severe economic sanctions and boycotts on Russia and on Iran at the same time. That way lies $300 a barrel oil, global economic retraction, and likely a Democratic Party bloodbath in the midterms as voters protest their anguish at the pump. There is […]

Arab World

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Exacerbates Hunger in Middle East, North Africa: Strong Government Response Needed to Protect the Right to Food

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch) – (Beirut) – Governments should ensure that the conflict in Ukraine does not worsen the food crisis in the Middle East and North Africa and protect the right to affordable, adequate food for everyone, Human Rights Watch said today. Both Ukraine and Russia are leading exporters of agricultural products to many Middle […]

Latin America

In the new Great Game, can Venezuela negotiate an end to deadly US sanctions?

Ramzy Baroud

(Middle East Monitor ) – The tables have turned. A high-level US delegation visited Venezuela on 5 March, hoping to repair economic ties with Caracas. One of the world’s poorest countries, in part due to US-Western sanctions, Venezuela is, for once, in the driving seat and capable of alleviating an impending US energy crisis if […]

Feminism

Ukraine’s women fighters reflect a cultural tradition of feminist independence

The Conversation

By Mia Bloom, Georgia State University and Sophia Moskalenko, Georgia State University | – Tens of thousands of Ukrainian women have taken up arms during the war sparked by Russia’s invasion. According to media reports, women constitute as much as 15% to 17% of the Ukrainian fighting force. In the first two weeks of the […]

Bashar al-Assad

Was Putin’s Himalayan Error on Ukraine a Result of his Syrian Success?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Alexander Titov at Queen’s University, Belfast, has argued that the commonly met with meme that Vladimir Putin has gone off his rocker is incorrect. Titov locates Putin’s grand strategy in the tradition of great power politics. I agree that it doesn’t add anything significant to our analysis to resort to […]

Christians

How the most Powerful Israel Lobby started Preferring anti-Democratic White Christian Nationalism to American Jews

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC, the major coordinator of thousands of organizations making up the Israel lobbies, can no longer call itself “non-partisan.” That they would openly endorse 37 Republican Members of Congress who voted to overturn the 2020 Election quashes any notion of non-partisan standing. […]

Iran

The story of the Iranian new year, Nowruz, and why its themes of renewal and healing matter

The Conversation

By Pardis Mahdavi, Arizona State University | – As the days grow longer and the flowers start to bloom, my 7-year-old gets excited and exclaims, “Nowruz is coming.” Nowruz – or “new day” in English – is the Iranian new year. Celebrated at the exact moment of the spring equinox, this is a secular festival […]

Climate Crisis

From Drought to Deluge: Those Who Contribute the Least to the Climate Crisis Suffer the Most

Tomdispatch

By Jane Braxton Little | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Greenville, CA — Snow began falling on December 24th, big fluffy flakes that made lace on mittens before melting. Within hours it had coated the ashes, the brick chimneys that the flames had left behind, and the jagged remains of roofs strewn across my burned-out […]

Archives for 2022