International Politics and Economy

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new Alliance of Democracies Poll conducted around the world with 50,000 people in 53 countries earlier this year finds that “Nearly half (44%) of respondents in the 53 countries surveyed are concerned that the US threatens democracy in their country; fear of Chinese influence is 38%, and fear of […]

Democratic Socialists of America

How ‘socialism’ stopped being a dirty word for some voters – and started winning elections across America

The Conversation

By Joshua Kluever | – The leftist Democratic Socialists of America, which helped congressional star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez get elected in 2018, looks to be a big political player again in New York City’s 2021 municipal elections. The group has not yet endorsed anyone for mayor – the top prize in New York’s June 22 Democratic […]

African-Americans

Amid Chauvin trial and more police killings, we need to stress Boycotts and the ‘Noncooperation’ in ‘Nonviolent Noncooperation’

Waging Nonviolence

By Maria J. Stephan | – ( Waging Nonviolence) – In his March 1956 sermon “When Peace Becomes Obnoxious,” Martin Luther King, Jr. responded to a headline in a local Alabama newspaper that read, “Things are quiet in Tuscaloosa today. There is peace on the campus of the University of Alabama.” The headline was referring […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan pullout: Nato betrays its own values if interpreters and other local staff are left at risk

The Conversation

By Sara de Jong | – The announcement of the US and Nato military withdrawal from Afghanistan later this year has elicited many responses, not least expressions of concern about the plight of interpreters and other local staff employed by western military forces. These concerns are not new but now have renewed urgency. The release […]

Arms Sales

US Resuming Arms Sales to United Arab Emirates is Disastrous, Given its Wars on Yemen, Libya

Human Rights Watch

By Afrah Nasser | – Yemen Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division | – ( Human Rights Watch) – United States President Joe Biden called in early February for “ending all American support for offensive operations in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.” At the time, I, like many human rights advocates who have been […]

Archaeology

The Catholic Reconquista in Spain outlawed Islam in 1502, but Secret Muslims kept their culture — and Cuisine — Going

The Conversation

By Aleks Pluskowski, Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz, and Marcos García García | – Granada, in southern Spain’s Andalusia region, was the final remnant of Islamic Iberia known as al-Andalus – a territory that once stretched across most of Spain and Portugal. In 1492, the city fell to the Catholic conquest. In the aftermath, native Andalusians, who […]

Arms Sales

Empire of Killing Machines: America’s Arsenal for Sale

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – By the time you read this piece, it will already be out of date. The reason’s simple enough. No matter what mayhem I describe, with so much all-American weaponry in this world of ours, there’s no way to keep up. Often, despite the headlines that go with mass killings here, there’s almost […]

Mental Health

In our Time of Insurrection and Divisive Violence, can Psychedelics help in Peace-Building?

Thomas Buonomo

Washington, DC (Special to Informed Comment) – In July 2020 the US Institute of Peace published a report titled “Violent Extremist Engagement and Reconciliation: A Peace-Building Approach”. In the wake of riots in several cities across the country that summer and the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection that the House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump […]