US Foreign Policy

Former PM Olmert calls on Biden to Boycott this Extremist Israeli Government, as Generals and Nat’l Union Also Shun It

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Biden hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House on Tuesday. Herzog is addressing a joint session of Congress today, which a handful of progressive Democrats are boycotting. The same members of Congress also boycotted the address of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a far right Hindu nationalist […]

Central America

The Crimes and Dangers of Elliott Abrams: Why Biden Should not Appoint Him

Waging Nonviolence

Ariel Gold and Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler ( Waging Nonviolence ) – It was a bright sunny March morning in 1980. Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was saying mass at a church hospital in San Salvador when a bullet from a sniper rifle ripped through his heart. He stumbled and fell to the ground, […]

Far Right

Israel Moves toward “Dictatorship” and Polarization, as one Likud Activist lauds the Targeting of Ashkenazi Jews in the Holocaust

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On the eve of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s controversial visit to the United States, which several members of Congress say they will boycott, Israeli society is coming apart at the seams. The presidency in Israel is a purely symbolic post. Power resides with the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu and his […]

Featured

Is Turkey abandoning Russia to turn back toward the West?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Given the decisions announced by Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, some have speculated that Turkey is “turning back toward the West” after a long period of estrangement and flirtation with Russia. Erdogan finally dropped his opposition to Sweden joining NATO. He backed NATO membership […]

military

Turkey’s Erdogan abruptly lifts veto on Sweden in NATO: What it means for the Alliance and Ukraine War

The Conversation

Simon J Smith, Staffordshire University and Jordan Becker, United States Military Academy West Point | – In a surprise move, Turkey has ended its veto on Sweden joining Nato, thereby removing all the barriers to its membership of the military alliance. Hungary quickly followed suit and, as a result of the two countries’ support, a […]

China

Will China Leapfrog America in the Middle East Using its Green Technology and EVs?

Neil Thompson

Over the past decade, since Xi Jinping became the General-Secretary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012, he has accelerated China’s return to political prominence. In turn, China’s ambitious global programme of economic, diplomatic and political expansion has pushed the world back towards a state of multipolarity. As well as developing China’s domestic […]

China

China as a Mediator in Israel-Palestine

Middle East Monitor

Nor Aishah Hanifa ( Middle East Monitor ) – China’s rise in the 20th century and its advancement in the 21st create what is called a realist security dilemma, and a power struggle in international relations, especially with the baton holder of superpower status, the United States. China’s steady growth as an economic powerhouse and […]

Bush

Iraq’s Climate Crisis: America’s War for Oil and the Great Mesopotamian Dustbowl

Juan Cole

( Tomdispatch.com ) – It was one of the fabled rivers of history and the Marines needed to cross it. In early April 2003, as American forces sought to wrap up their conquest of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and take strongholds to its north, the Marine Corps formed “Task Force Tripoli.” It was commanded by […]

Featured

Turkiye’s Erdogan Urges NATO membership for Ukraine, but Stiff-Arms Sweden over Kurdish Issue

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan invited Ukraine’s leader, Volodomir Zelensky, to Istanbul for consultations. Zelensky arrived late on Friday and met for two and a half hours with Erdogan at the Vahidettin Palace, the old residence of the last Ottoman emperor. In remarks after the meeting, Erdogan deplored the continuing war […]