By John Sifton | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation is spiraling into catastrophe. Millions of Afghans are now facing severe economic stress and food insecurity in the wake of the Taliban’s August takeover, set off by widespread lost income, cash shortages, and rising food costs. Officials with the UN […]
For Afghan Women, the Frightening Return of ‘Vice and Virtue’
By Heather Barr | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – There is no better symbol for the disappearance of women’s rights in Afghanistan than the end of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the return of the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. When the Taliban on September 7 announced […]
Child Labor is Growing: Which Side Are Democracies On?
( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – This is the Year for the Elimination of Child Labor. What can democracies do to make this a reality? By Timothy Ryan | September 23, 2021 Two years ago, when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro favorably promoted the idea of labor for children as young as eight or nine, […]
September 11 and the Debacle of ‘Nation-Building’ in Iraq and Afghanistan
By Walden Bello | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – In one of his interviews before the Taliban retook Afghanistan, John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, blamed the American failure in Afghanistan on a change in Washington’s mission from anti-terrorism to “nation building.” In his view, Washington should just have held strategic […]
Will the End of the Afghanistan War provoke Reconsideration of American Militarism?
By David Bacon | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Many in the U.S. media continue to credit the good intentions of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, while belaboring its failure over 20 years to achieve any of them. But to say that the United States wanted a progressive, liberal democratic, and secular government […]
Biden wants to end America’s 20-Year War on the Middle East: But Can He?
By Walden Bello | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Next September, when the last C-130 cargo aircraft and Chinook transport helicopters take off from the infamous Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan that has doubled as a CIA torture center for suspected jihadists, they will not only be leaving behind the site […]
How the UN Can Help End Israeli Apartheid and Persecution
By Louis Charbonneau | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – The latest outbreak of violence in Gaza is depressingly familiar. Scores of civilians, including children, were killed and injured. As usual, Israeli airstrikes in heavily populated areas of Gaza claimed the most victims, although Hamas rockets launched into Israel also killed and injured civilians. […]
Fascism’s Global Spread is Real — As Real as the Spread of COVID-19
By Walden Bello | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – In the world’s largest democracies, far-right movements that embrace violence, reject democracy, and target the vulnerable are on the rise. By Walden Bello | May 5, 2021 The global spread of fascism is real, as real as the spread of COVID-19, and you better […]
Trump put the US on a War footing Iran: Biden must Reverse that Immediately
By Manon Dark | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – The current controversy over Iran’s nuclear program is one of Trump’s lingering foreign policy legacies that has proved particularly difficult for President Joe Biden to resolve. The U.S. withdrawal in May 2018 from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iran nuclear […]