Peace

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The 2016 Global Peace Index has been released, with the bad news that the world is slightly more violent this year than last. But much of the increase of violence happened in the greater Middle East, in Syria, Libya, Turkey, etc. If you subtracted the Middle […]

Peace

Where are the Women? Syrian, other Peace Talks need female Representation

contributors

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS, Mar 17 2016 (IPS) – “When it comes to peace talks, women have a special stake,” said Gloria Steinem while discussing current peace talks in the Middle East. Steinem, a prominent activist, joined the 60th annual session of the UN Commission on the […]

Peace

The Choice: Fear & Militarization or Curing the Disease of Violence

contributors

By Mairead Maguire | (Inter Press Service) | – – BELFAST (IPS) – The World Health Organization has said that ‘Violence is a preventable disease’ and people are not born violent, rather we all live in cultures of violence. This can be changed through nonviolent peacemaking and the persuit of ‘just peace’ and nurturing of […]

Counter-Terrorism

8 Ways Nonviolence can Combat Terrorism

contributors

By George Lakey | ( Waging Non-Violence) | – – One of my most popular courses at Swarthmore College focused on the challenge of how to defend against terrorism, nonviolently. Events now unfolding in France make our course more relevant than ever. (The syllabus was published in “Peace, Justice, and Security Studies: A Curriculum Guide” […]

Middle East

From Canada as Hawk to Canada as Peacemaker in Mideast

contributors

By Richard Foltz | (Informed Comment) | – _ As midnight approached on October 19th Canadians staying up to watch the results of the federal election let out a huge collective sigh of relief as the Liberal party under 43- year-old pretty boy Justin Trudeau surged to an unexpected majority victory, putting an end to […]

Israel

Tel Aviv: Israelis Rally against Netanyahu’s Policies toward Palestinians

contributors

By IMEMC | – – Thousands of Israeli protesters have taken to the streets in Tel Aviv to denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies, which they blame for the recent wave of tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as in the besieged Gaza Strip. On Saturday night, the demonstrators held signs that read, […]

Dissent

Ankara bombs: Turkey is being torn apart by bad leaders and bad neighbors

contributors

By Alpaslan Ozerdem | (The Conversation) | – – It had already been a deadly summer of political instability in Turkey. And now this. Another bloody massacre – this time at the hand of twin bomb attacks on a peace rally in Ankara, which have killed at least 97 people. It is the worst terror […]

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 […]

Foreign Policy

American Workers need a Raise, & the Iran Deal, and Peace

contributors

By Michael Eisenscher | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | We’ll never rebuild this country if we keep wasting money on war. This Labor Day, like others before it, finds American workers squeezed on many fronts. Inequality is rising, union membership is dwindling, and wages aren’t keeping up with job growth. Naturally, addressing all those challenges […]