US Foreign Policy

By Andrew Latham, Macalester College | – On Oct. 30, 2023, reports began to circulate that Israel was missing from from the mapping services provided by Chinese tech companies Baidu and Alibaba, effectively signaling – or so some believed – that Beijing was siding with Hamas over Israel in the ongoing war. Within hours, Chinese […]

Featured

Gaza and the Deepening Crisis of Western Democracy

Marwa Fikry Abdel Samei

Cairo (Special to Informed Comment) – Western democracy is under strain, and we have been observing the symptoms of its decline for some time now. These symptoms include the rise of far-right extremism, increasing rate of xenophobia, a widening gap between the haves and have-nots, and its questionable efficacy in handling crises. In addition to […]

Afghanistan

A Reflexive Act of Military Revenge Burdened the US – and May do the Same for Israel

The Conversation

By Peter Mansoor, The Ohio State University | – In the wake of the shocking invasion of southern Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy Hamas. “We are fighting a cruel enemy, worse than ISIS,” Netanyahu proclaimed four days after the invasion, comparing Hamas with the […]

Featured

Biden’s Historically Illiterate and Hypocritical Speech on Ukraine and Gaza

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Biden administration’s foreign policy is a mess and lacks any real consistency. This messiness was on full display in the president’s brief address on Thursday evening, a plea for Congressional funding of both the US struggle to get Russia back out of Ukraine and of support for the extremist […]

Africa

The Other Imperialism: Russia’s Mercenaries Abroad

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – One of modern history’s major empires is falling apart right now, right before our eyes. Yet precious few in the media have reported on this extraordinary event, much less offered any analysis of its implications for the fast-changing shape of global power. Over the past 60 years, France has used every […]

Artificial Intelligence

Swarms vs. Swarms: How Intelligent, Artificial or Otherwise, is any of This?

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – A war with China may not be inevitable, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks observed recently, but it’s a genuine possibility and so this country must be prepared to fight and win. But victory in such a conflict will not, she suggested, come easily. China enjoys an advantage in certain measures of […]

Central Intelligence Agency

The Real U.S. Intelligence Failure in Gaza: For years, U.S. officials have known that dire Conditions in Gaza could lead to violence

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Edward Hunt ( FPIF ) – As officials in Washington scramble to address the rapid outbreak of war in Israel and Palestine, they are sidestepping the fact that they believed that such a dramatic outburst of violence was likely. Since May 2021, when Hamas and Israel clashed in a brief war that left more […]

Eastern Europe

Israel-Gaza Conflict: An Opportunity for Putin in Ukraine while the World is Distracted

The Conversation

By Robert M. Dover, University of Hull | – Time is an ally of Russia in the Ukrainian conflict. Russia needs to reduce its rate of battlefield deaths and remain militarily active in Ukraine for as long as possible. A great aid to Vladimir Putin would be a disruption in the supply of weapons to […]