US Foreign Policy

By William D. Hartung | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – These are good times to be an arms maker. Not only are tens of billions of dollars in new military spending headed for the coffers of this country’s largest weapons contractors, but they’re being praised as defenders of freedom and democracy, thanks to their role in […]

Authoritarianism

Iran: Arrests Amid Economic Protests: Attempt to Suppress Growing Social Movements

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Iranian authorities have arrested several prominent activists on baseless accusations amid labor union strikes and ongoing protests against rising prices, since May 6, 2022, in dozens of small towns, Human Rights Watch said today. Those arrested include a prominent sociologist and four labor rights defenders. News outlets close to […]

Featured

Saudi Arabia Snubs US, Rejects Russia Boycott, as Rumors Fly Biden may meet with the Crown Prince

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Even as the possibility of a visit to Riyadh by President Joe Biden after his upcoming trip to Israel is being rumored, Saudi Arabia is signalling that it cannot be brought on board with the NATO effort to sanction Russia. Last week the Saudi Minister of Energy, Abdul Aziz bin […]

Iran

The Geopolitics and Diplomacy of US–Iran Relations by Monshipouri – Review

Marc Martorell Junyent

Book Review – Mahmood Monshipouri, In the Shadow of Mistrust: (London: Hurst and Co., 2022). Bonn (Special to Informed Comment) – Sixteen months have passed since the inauguration of Joseph Biden as the 46th President of the United States. As of now, negotiations to revive the agreement signed in July 2015 between the members of […]

Climate Crisis

Is the Climate Emergency being Turbocharged by the Ukraine War?

Michael T. Klare

By Michael Klare | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – The war in Ukraine has already caused massive death and destruction, with more undoubtedly to come as the fighting intensifies in the country’s east and south. Many thousands of soldiers and civilians have already been killed or wounded, some 13 million Ukrainians have been forced from […]

Kurds

Why Turkey isn’t on board with Finland, Sweden joining NATO – and why that matters

The Conversation

By Ronald Suny, University of Michigan | – After decades of neutrality, the two Scandinavian states that have to date remained out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have reacted to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by declaring an intention to join the American-led alliance. But there is a major obstacle in their way: Turkey. The […]

Afghanistan

Our Compassion for Ukrainian Victims of War was not on Offer to Iraqis or Afghans when We Invaded

Tomdispatch

By Nan Levinson | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – I’ve been watching this country at war for many years now and, after 9/11, began spending time with American veterans who came to disdain and actively oppose the very conflicts they were sent to fight. The paths they followed to get there and the courage it […]

Featured

Jared Kushner to invest Saudi Funds in Israeli Tech: Is MBS sidestepping his father King Salman on Palestine?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dion Nissenbaum and Rory Jones at the Wall Street Journal got the scoop that Affinity, Jared Kushner’s investment firm, will invest some of the $2 billion it got from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in Israel. Kushner told the WSJ that he sees building investment and business ties between the […]

National Security State

The Last Good Guys? Five Reasons Why Washington Can’t Break Its War Addiction

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Why has the United States already become so heavily invested in the Russia-Ukraine war? And why has it so regularly gotten involved, in some fashion, in so many other wars on this planet since it invaded Afghanistan in 2001? Those with long memories might echo the conclusion reached more than a […]