Conn M. Hallinan

Conn M. Hallinan is a columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus, “A Think Tank Without Walls, and an independent journalist. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. He oversaw the journalism program at the University of California at Santa Cruz for 23 years, and won the UCSC Alumni Association’s Distinguished Teaching Award, as well as UCSC’s Innovations in Teaching Award, and Excellence in Teaching Award. He was also a college provost at UCSC, and retired in 2004. He is a winner of a Project Censored “Real News Award,” and lives in Berkeley, California.

Drones

Not Targeted or Bloodless: Why We Need an International Convention on Drones

Conn M. Hallinan

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – In the aftermath of the recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, drone warfare is being touted as the latest breakthrough in military technology, a “magic bullet” that makes armored vehicles obsolete, defeats sophisticated anti-aircraft systems, and routs entrenched infantry. While there is some truth in […]

China

Biden’s Top Foreign Policy Challenge: Avoiding a Cold War with China

Conn M. Hallinan

Taiwan and the South China Sea are the likeliest points of conflict — but conflict is not an option. ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – President Joe Biden’s administration faces a host of difficult problems, but in foreign policy its thorniest will be its relations with the People’s Republic of China. How the new administration […]

astronomy and outer space

The U.S. Needs COVID Relief and Renewable Energy, Not a Space Force

Conn M. Hallinan

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – When President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 21, he will be faced with some very expensive problems, from bailing out the COVID-19 economy to getting a handle on climate change. Vaccinating over 300 million people will not be cheap, and wrestling the U.S.’s hydrocarbon-based economy in the direction […]

Arab World

The Pandemic and Oil

Conn M. Hallinan

Foreign Policy in Focus) – With oil prices down and wealthy countries bungling COVID-19, the pandemic has exposed the weaknesses that wealth papers over. During the reign of the Emperor Justinian I (527-565 AD), a mysterious plague spread out of the Nile Valley to Constantinople and finished off the Roman Empire. Appearing first in China […]

China

China and the United States: The 21st Century’s ‘Great Game’

Conn M. Hallinan

For China, the global war for influence is about trading partners. For the U.S., it could mean something more volatile. (Foreign Policy in Focus ) – From 1830 to 1895, the British and Russian empires schemed and plotted over control of Central and South Asia. At the heart of the “Great Game” was the United […]

Arms Sales

In the Midst of a Pandemic, Can we Afford to spend Trillions on War Industries?

Conn M. Hallinan

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Camus’ novel of a lethal contagion in the North African city of Oran is filled with characters all too recognizable today: indifferent or incompetent officials, short sighted and selfish citizens, and lots of great courage. What not even Camus could imagine, however, is a society in the midst of […]

Epidemics

Italy Coronavirus Deaths Pass 10,000: How Austerity and Anti-Immigrant Politics Created Europe’s Worst Crisis

Conn M. Hallinan

( Foreign Policy in Focus) As the viral blitzkrieg rolls across one European border after another, it seems to have a particular enmity for Italy. The country’s death toll has passed China’s, and scenes from its hospitals look like something out of Dante’s imagination. Why? Italy has the fourth largest economy in the European Union, […]

Arab World

The New Middle East That’s Coming: End of American Empire?

Conn M. Hallinan

(Foreign Policy in Focus) – As Saudi Arabia slowly backpedals, we could see an end to the Yemen war, an easing of Iran’s isolation, and a reduced role for the U.S. By Conn Hallinan, November 5, 2019. The fallout from the September attack on Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil facilities is continuing to reverberate throughout the […]

Foreign Policy

How the Saudi Oil Field Attack Overturned America’s Apple Cart

Conn M. Hallinan

(Foreign Policy in Focus) – For all their overwhelming firepower, the U.S. and its allies can cause a lot of misery in the Middle East, but still can’t govern the course of events. In many ways it doesn’t really matter who — Houthis in Yemen? Iranians? Shiites in Iraq? — launched those missiles and drones […]