US Foreign Policy

By Farrah Hassen | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – March 2023 will mark 12 years of war in Syria. No country should reach such a tragic milestone. What began in March 2011 as an uprising for Syrian dignity against President Bashar al-Assad’s corruption and authoritarian rule has since morphed into several, ongoing […]

NATO

Russia announces its suspension from last Nuclear Arms Agreement with the US, escalating Nuclear Tension

The Conversation

By Nina Srinivasan Rathbun, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences | – (The Conversation) – After decades of progress on limiting the buildup of nuclear weapons, Russia’s war on Ukraine has prompted renewed nuclear tensions between Russia and the United States. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his annual State of the Nation […]

Bernie Sanders

Sen. Bernie Sanders, “Embarrassed” by “racist” Israeli Government, Threatens to Withhold Aid

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) came on Face the Nation Sunday. In the course of the interview, Sanders lashed out at the new, extremist government in Israel, which includes a minister once convicted of incitement to racial violence and more than one figure belonging to Kahanist organizations of a sort that […]

China

China Dominates Solar and Wind Energy: Can the U.S. and Europe Finally Catch Up?

The Conversation

By Michael Jacobs, University of Sheffield | – Climate change policy has entered a new era. The growing row between the United States and the European Union over the impacts of the new American green subsidy regime makes that all too clear. Yet in many ways, this story is ultimately about China. For the last […]

European Union

Ukraine war has exposed the Folly – and unintended Consequences – of ‘Armed Missionaries’

Ronald Suny

By Ronald Suny, University of Michigan | – ( The Conversation) – The evening before Russia invaded Ukraine, it seemed to many observers – me included – nearly unimaginable that Putin would carry through with weeks of a threatened military attack. As I wrote at the time, Putin is not as erratic or rash as […]

China

Iran’s Raisi Visits Beijing, Signs 20 Agreements, as Iranian Lion and Chinese ‘Yellow Dragon’ seek to Outflank US Pressure

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited China on Tuesday in response to an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping. China is probably now Iran’s biggest trading partner, and the trade of the two countries increased by 30% in 2022. At the meeting, twenty economic commitments were signed by the two sides. […]

Russia

Annals of American Folly: Was Civilization Really at Stake in Iraq? Is it in Ukraine?

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com ) – “To defend civilization, defeat Russia.” Writing in the unfailingly bellicose Atlantic, an American academic of my acquaintance recently issued that dramatic call to arms. And lest there be any confusion about the stakes involved, the image accompanying his essay depicted Russian President Vladimir Putin with a Hitler mustache and haircut. Cast […]

Featured

With Thousands Dead or Wounded, Will earthquake Aid for Syria be Impeded by US Sanctions?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A 7.8 earthquake that struck south-central Turkey and northwest Syria early on Monday morning. Although over two thousand are being reported dead in Turkey at midnight on Monday and more than a thousand in Syria, the death toll will grow a great deal as the rubble is combed by rescue […]

China

Was the Chinese Spy Balloon a Sign of Infighting among China’s Power Elite?

Michael G. Roskin

Nashville (Special to Informed Comment) – China’s balloon incursion was no accident but an expression of both internal Chinese politics and of its foreign policy. Beijing is rumbling with important policy disputes and who has what kind of power. Under the uniform surface, China still has political quarrels. “No one in charge” was one explanation […]