nationalism

Juan Cole, “International Liberation and Nonviolent Noncooperation: Martin Luther King and Afro-Asia” (Video)

The nonviolent activism of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is associated in the minds of many primarily with the Civil Rights Movement against institutionalized racism in Jim Crow America. King was, however, a keen observer of decolonization and the awakening of colonized peoples in Afro-Asia to aspirations for self-determination. This anti-colonial perspective led to […]

nationalism

The Geopolitics of Walls: The Sense of Security is an Illusion

John Feffer

The wall addresses a core psychological insecurity. Trump supporters — and many others — feel as if their own privileges are evaporating.

Climate Change

All our Dystopias Now: Climate Crisis, Plutocracy and Hyper-Nationalism

John Feffer

(Tomdispatch.com) – The mid-term elections are over, and the Democrats have regained the House, but the rest of American political reality remains intact. Meanwhile, the campaigns barely touched on the most important issues of our time: war, climate change, and the fracturing of the international community. So, let’s consider these larger issues from a different […]

Featured

Macron’s Slam of Nationalism got it Right, but didn’t note Dehumanization

Juan Cole

The old demons are resurging

Featured

The Lessons of World War I– Don’t Trust Hateful Politicians like Trump

Juan Cole

Trump is in Paris to commemorate the end of World War I, about which he knows almost nothing. The outbreak of that war in 1914 took many contemporaries by surprise. That it would last four years, when leaders promised a quick victory, was a another shock. That advanced machine guns and artillery would make mincemeat […]

Featured

As World warns of WW I-Style Nationalisms, Top 5 Nations Trump Demonizes

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – French President Emmanuel Macron warned, as Europe prepares to commemorate the end of World War I a century ago on November 11, that the world is entering a new age of destructive nationalism. Virulent nationalism roiled Europe and killed over 80 million people in the two world wars. That is […]

Antisemitism

Right’s ban on phrase “Polish Death Camps” Backfires on Warsaw

Juan Cole

Sławomir Sierakowski | (Project Syndicate) | – – A new Polish law criminalizes blaming Poles for any wrongdoing against other nations. But the move only serves to highlight the fact that some Poles were complicit in crimes against Jews, while jeopardizing the country’s relationship with its three most important allies: the US, Germany, and Ukraine. […]

Iraq

Alarmed Kurdistan forces Mobilized at Kirkuk as Iraqi troops said to Mass on Border

contributors

Kurds say Shiite militias heading for Kirkuk

Iraq

Iraq: How Saddam Hussein’s Ghost haunts Kurdish Referendum

contributors

Mustafa Habib | (Baghdad) | (Niqash.org) | – – Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein tried to exterminate the Kurds in Iraq. Now Iraqis angry about the Kurdish desire to secede are bringing back bad memories online. Saddam Hussein is making a comeback in Iraq – well, at least on Iraqi social media he is. Despite […]