International Politics and Economy

The good news is that The American Spectator reviewed my new book about the beginnings of Islam and the centrality to it of peace, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires. The bad news is that Andrew Harrod, the reviewer, appears not actually to have read the book. He just attended a talk […]

Corruption

Trump is now an Unindicted Felon: US Att’y for Southern District of New York

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Mueller sentencing document for Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, is not nearly as important as that from the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Robert Khuzami, Thomas McKay and their colleagues not only laid out 5 major crimes committed […]

Nonviolence

Why Gandhi’s ideas on Nonviolence continue to thrive, even in the post-truth era

The Conversation

By Tom Shillam | – (The Conversation) Gandhi is still relevant – and can inspire a new form of politics today Seventy years after Gandhi’s assassination on the streets of New Delhi, Ramachandra Guha’s new book, Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-48, reopens a familiar debate around his legacy. What was Gandhi’s message? […]

Corruption

‘Blue Wave’ Dems in House to Probe Trump Money ties to Saudis & Russians

AFP

Washington (AFP) – Democrats intend to probe US President Donald Trump’s financial ties to determine whether they are the “hidden hand” driving US foreign policy on Russia and Saudi Arabia, the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday. Adam Schiff, currently the ranking Democrat on that committee, accused Trump of being “dishonest” about […]

Sexual Assault

Trump tries but fails to block UN #MeToo Resolution against Sexual Harassment

AFP

United Nations (United States) (AFP) – The United States failed on Monday to water down a UN resolution on combatting sexual harassment and violence against women despite backing from Russia, China, India, several Muslim countries and the Vatican. President Donald Trump’s administration sought to scrap language in the non-binding resolution on access to reproductive health […]

Islamophobia

On How Everything Sam Harris Says about Islam is Wrong (1)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sam Harris’s error-ridden and bigoted “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Religion” (Norton, 2005) singles out Islam for special opprobrium. Although Harris lambastes politicians of the Religious Right for having no special knowledge or credentials, the fact is that he himself has no credentials to write […]

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 […]

Peace

Why Women’s Peace Activism in World War I Matters Now

The Conversation

By Anya Jabour | – (The Conversation) – A hundred years ago, soon after winning reelection on the campaign slogan “He kept us out of war,” President Woodrow Wilson called on the U.S. Congress to authorize “a war to end all wars.” The U.S. entry into World War I abruptly ended a different campaign to […]

Featured

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

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Emmanuel Macron’s extraordinary rebuke of Donald Trump from the podium at the commemoration of the end of World War I was more than mere rhetoric. Macron, an educated man, knows that modern social science distinguishes between patriotism, which is considered healthy, and nationalism, which has a pathological dimension. As Trump […]