"The island closest to paradise has become the island closest to hell."
International Relations
Those who curb real trade and expand financial sanctions don’t seem to understand the likeliness of a destructive outcome for all. The West is wrecking the foundations of its prosperity. The United States has struck another blow at free trade. This week, US President Joe Biden announced wide-ranging tariff increases, including to 100 per cent Continue reading »
The claim by Paris officials that ‘foreign interference’ is behind the civil turmoil in New Caledonia not only attempts to deflect responsibility from France for the crisis but is also an insult to the Kanak peoples’ long struggle for independence. The French Minister of the Interior’s claim that Azerbaijan is stoking the violence denies agency Continue reading »
Why has Egypt confirmed that it will support South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide? The answer lies in the significance of the Philadelphi Corridor or the Salah Al-Din Axis. On May 12 Egypt confirmed that it has joined the South African lawsuit against Israel, becoming the sixth Arab Continue reading »
The late historian Paul Schroeder offered insights into how to bring Russia into a collective security arrangement. With the death of scholar Paul Schroeder, international historians lost one of their most innovative and distinguished practitioners. Schroeder’s approach to the study of international relations was ideational: it is not power or interests alone that shapes the Continue reading »
Western leaders like to talk about values, shared values, common values. They talk about this a lot. America itself is obsessed with two things: conflict resolution through violence and moral preening. Nowhere is this contradiction more glaringly on display than in the genocide being committed in Gaza. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) says Continue reading »
In the movie Apocalypse Now, Robert Duval’s character, Colonel Bill Kilgore, reflectively observes that, despite the smell of victory, ‘Someday this war’s gonna end’. So too, the war in Gaza is going to end. The only questions are how and when. Despite growing external pressure, the current Israeli cabinet is only inclined to end the Continue reading »
“[T]here was the man in his 50s, forgotten in a room, having had both legs amputated. He had lost his kids, his grandkids, his home . . . and he’s alone in the corner of this dark hospital, maggots going out of his wounds and he was screaming: ‘The worms are eating me alive please Continue reading »
Moscow would have us believe it is fighting a life and death struggle in the muddy trenches of Donbas. But what do we get to see on the inauguration of its president? Glittering gold chambers and goose-stepping soldiers. No doubt there is some deep cultural reason for this ostentation – something along the line that Continue reading »
As an increasing number of countries move to recognise Palestine and welcome its U.N. membership, the Israel lobby is being hit by a pincer movement. On the one side, American voters, especially young American voters, are aghast at Israel’s brutality. On the other side, America’s geopolitical position is crumbling. We owe an ironic debt of Continue reading »