International Politics and Economy

By John Strawson, University of East London (The Conversation) – The interesting thing about Benjamin Netanyahu’s call on Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, to pardon him for charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, is that he has not been found guilty on any of them. The trial is made up of three separate but […]

censorship

Labeling dissent as Terrorism: Trump’s NSPM-7 raises Constitutional Alarms

The Conversation

By Melinda Haas, University of Pittsburgh (The Conversation) – A largely overlooked directive issued by the Trump administration marks a major shift in U.S. counterterrorism policy, one that threatens bedrock free speech rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights. National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-7, issued on Sept. 25, 2025, is a presidential directive that for the […]

Arab Spring

Great Powers and the People: The Divergent Paths of the Egyptian and Syrian Revolutions

Mehmet Rakipoglu

Exeter, UK (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The Arab revolutionary wave that began in 2011 presents two of its most significant, yet fundamentally divergent, case studies: Egypt and Syria. While both nations experienced the overthrow of long-standing authoritarian regimes, the mechanisms, actors, and ultimate outcomes of their revolutions differed significantly. A comparative analysis reveals […]

Featured

Sorry, White Nationalists, Europeans were Black until the Rise of Rome, and Rome was Multiracial

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – We live in a time when a once level-headed anti-populist politician such as J. D. Vance has increasingly adopted the language of white nationalism, signing on to the Great Replacement theory that nefarious forces, often coded as Jewish, are bringing in immigrants to replace “white” Americans, attacking “multiculturalism” and aligning […]

Arms Sales

A 40-year Fight against Cluster Bombs offers Lessons to stop the US-Israel Weapons Pipeline

Waging Nonviolence

The Honeywell Project in Minneapolis showed how to beat a weapons maker: obstruct operations, recruit workers as allies, build camaraderie and persist no matter what. Joseph Mogul ( Waging Nonviolence ) – After more than two years of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, popular outrage has mounted against the weapons manufacturers enabling the slaughter. The antiwar […]

Democratic Socialists of America

Mamdani was Right to Handle Trump, but the Left must Remember that the President is Still a Toxic Nationalist

Norman Solomon

San Francisco (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) | – Across the political spectrum – with alarm on the right and delight on the left – the display of warmth from President Trump toward Zohran Mamdani last Friday set off shock waves. Trump’s lavish praise of New York’s mayor-elect in the Oval Office was a 180-degree […]

Arms Sales

The Ultimate Con: Arms Contractors are Making out Like Bandits

Tomdispatch

By Ashley Gate and William D. Hartung ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Kathryn Bigelow’s new nuclear thriller, A House of Dynamite, has been criticized by some experts for being unrealistic, most notably because it portrays an unlikely scenario in which an adversary chooses to attack the United States with just a single nuclear-armed missile. Such a […]

BDS

Imposing Sanctions on Israel with Love

Waging Nonviolence

Sanctions are required to get beyond the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, and love is required to transform the immense trauma in Israel that fuels the violence. Miki Kashtan ( Waging Nonviolence ) – None of us know how to stop what is happening in Gaza. Even within this brutal reality, each of us can […]

al-Qaeda

Former al-Qaeda leader invited to White House, Peaceful Muslim Mayor gets Cold Shoulder

The Conversation

By Amin Saikal, Australian National University; The University of Western Australia; Victoria University (The Conversation) – Two prominent young Muslim figures have had an exceptional rise to power this year: Ahmed al-Sharaa in Syria and Zohran Mamdani in New York City. While sharing a common religion, their political stories couldn’t be more different. As has […]