Opinion / Jan Lundius, PhD STOCKHOLM / ROME, May 22 2020 (IPS) – It is easy to generalize about migration. Populist politicians often portray migrants as strangers and ”our” homeland as a stable entity, rooted in an old agricultural society.… Continue Reading
By Sonali Kolhatkar* – Independent Media Institute A belief in far-fetched ideas that help us make sense of crises ultimately feed regressive and right-wing politics. A mysterious new video documentary, slickly produced, and offering answers to the coronavirus pandemic, has been… Continue Reading
By Jeet Heer* – The Nation A classic horror movie reveals how authoritarianism and scapegoating flourish during a plague None of us are going to the movie theater anytime soon. Fortunately, there are convenient substitutes for cinema addicts, perhaps most… Continue Reading
By George Friedman*- Geopolitical Futures A recession is an essential part of the business cycle. Among other things it culls the weaker businesses and redistributes capital and labor for better uses. It is painful but necessary and it ends as… Continue Reading
By Jan Lundius* Epidemic diseases are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning, on the contrary, every society produces its own specific vulnerabilities. To study them is to understand the importance of a society’s structure, its standard… Continue Reading
Boaventura de Sousa Santos* 6 April 2020 – Today’s cultural, political and ideological debates are imbued with a strange opacity, the result of their remove from the concrete day-to-day experience of the vast majority of people — ordinary citizens, or… Continue Reading
By Thalif Deen* UNITED NATIONS, Mar 20 2020 (IPS) – The devastating spread of the deadly coronavirus across every continent– with the exception of Antarctica– has triggered a conspiracy theory on social media: what if the virus was really a… Continue Reading
By George Friedman* – Geopolitical Futures, The global medical community appears to have devised a strategy for mitigating the coronavirus that depends largely on quarantine, or limiting contact among the infected and potentially infected, thereby limiting the virus’ spread. No… Continue Reading
By Saber Azam* GENEVA, Mar 16 2020 (IPS) – The fourth and last presidential election in Afghanistan on 28 September 2019 was yet another setback to the democratic process. Not only did it take months for the Independent Election Commission… Continue Reading
By Staffan de Mistura* I had the privilege of working under the leadership of Javier Perez de Cuellar when he was the Secretary General. He had some unique qualities which were not very visable during a long period because one… Continue Reading
The Economist Boris Johnson is busy accumulating power in Number 10 The emperor Nero was reportedly in the habit of dipping dissidents in tar and using them to light his dinner parties. Boris Johnson has not so far shown an inclination… Continue Reading
By Corey Robin* – New York Review of Books It has been more than two weeks since the Iowa caucuses, and we still don’t know who won. That should give us pause. We don’t know in part because of a… Continue Reading
By Madeleine Albright and Igor Ivanov (*) – The New York Times Two former diplomats, from Russia and America, call for extending the nuclear arms limitation pact called New START, to make the world more secure. The relationship between Russia… Continue Reading
By Amy Goodman – Democracy Now! (*) The Trump administration has expanded its contested travel ban to six additional countries — most of which are African nations. Under the new restrictions, nationals of Nigeria, Eritrea, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan will no… Continue Reading
By Ishaan Tharoor* – The Washington Post President Trump called his plan for Middle East “peace” an “unprecedented” development that swept past “even the most well-intentioned plans” of his predecessors. It is in keeping with the guiding animus of his… Continue Reading
By George Friedman* – Geopolitical Futures At the end of this week, the United Kingdom, the second-largest economy in Europe, will exit the European Union. Meanwhile, Poland is under intense attack by the bloc for violating EU regulations by attempting… Continue Reading
By Boaventura de Sousa Santos* Baruch de Spinoza, the great 17th century philosopher, wrote that the two basic human emotions (or “affections”, as he called them) are fear and hope, and he suggested that a balance needs to be struck… Continue Reading
By George Friedman* – Geopolitical Futures There are moments when the entire world seems to be coming apart, as if Armageddon itself were upon us. Public attention tends to be able to handle just one Armageddon at a time, and… Continue Reading
By Bonnie Honig* – Boston Review In linking the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Trump invokes a fantasy of poetic justice—positioning himself as Rambo, the avenger of American humiliation abroad. Last week, after ordering… Continue Reading
By George Friedman* – Geopolitical Futures In order to understand the current confrontation between Iran and the United States, we might begin with the Persian-Babylonian wars. Alternatively, we could begin with the decision of the United States to withdraw U.S.… Continue Reading
