International Politics and Economy

Written by John Lubbock | ( Globalvoices.org Twin bombings hit a peace rally organised by leftist groups in Ankara on the morning of October 10 in what has proven the deadliest bomb attack in Turkish history. The interior ministry initially announced a death toll of 30 people. The health ministry updated the figure to 86 […]

Featured

Tunisian Nobel Recognizes role of Labor Unions, the Left in Democratic Transition

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – How many American news reports about the Nobel Peace Prize given to the Tunisian Quartet that pushed the country toward democracy and compromise will mention that two of the four organizations so honored are national labor unions of workers? A third was an attorneys’ guild. The […]

Drones

How Syria is becoming a test bed for high-tech weapons of electronic warfare

contributors

David Stupples | (The Conversation) | – – The relationship between Russia and the West is becoming increasingly dangerous with potential flashpoints developing in both eastern Europe and Syria. After repeated incursions into Turkish airspace by Russian warplanes on bombing raids over Syria, NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg warned Moscow that it stands ready to […]

Islamophobia

The Colonial roots of Hating on Muslims, & of Muslim Nationalism

contributors

Sami Zubaida | (Open Democracy) | – – The presence of growing Muslim populations in Europe at the same time as the rise of political Islam and the inception of Israel, was largely a legacy of twentieth century colonial history. ‘Islamophobia’ – fear, hostility or negative sentiments with regard to Islam and Muslims – comes […]

Dissent

Iranian Activists Call On Iran To End Support For Syria’s Assad

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/ RL ) Scores of Iranian political activists and intellectuals have launched an online campaign calling on Iran to end its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and take in Syrian refugees fleeing violence there. The more than 70 activists, who include several former political prisoners, blame Assad and his […]

Elections

Dark Money Surge: Conservatives Buoyed by Historic Flood of Contributions

contributors

By Sarah Lazare, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org) – – A new report from Center for Responsive Politics finds single-candidate groups have spent $16.2 million total so far—- over 55 times levels seen in 2012—- and conservatives disproportionately benefit. Political spending by outside groups seeking to the influence the 2016 presidential election is already dramatically […]

censorship

Can Digital India flourish without Freedom of Speech? PM Modi in Silicon Valley

contributors

Priya Satia | (Huffington Post) | – – The Indian community of Silicon Valley is preparing to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with open arms next week, in a route stop that has outshined the PM’s ultimate U.S. destination–his meeting with President Obama. Mr. Modi comes to promote Digital India, and local Indians are […]

Dissent

A Guru for Our Time: Eqbal Ahmad and the life of Dissent from Empire

contributors

By Stuart Schaar | (Informed Comment) | – – In the early 1960s I was living in Rabat while researching my doctoral dissertation for Princeton University. My friend, the Pakistani Eqbal Ahmad (d. 1999), who was living in Tunisia and also researching his dissertation, had just driven through Algeria as the Algerians celebrated their victory […]

Egypt

Mexican Tour Organizers, Buddhist Healers, Baffled by Egyptian Army Attack

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Gabriela Bejarano Rangel, the sister and daughter of the Mexican organizers of the tour to Egypt that met with tragedy Sunday, has been interviewed at Excelsior.com. The Egyptian military mistook the tourist convoy in the western desert near Siwa Oasis for terrorists and attacked them, killing […]