Categoria

militarization

Development

Stronger UN Leadership Needed to Cope with Coronavirus Threat

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram (*) SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 24 2020 (IPS) – The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic is hard to predict as events are still unfolding, and estimates vary dramatically. UNCTAD estimates lost output in the order of US$1…

Commerce

Elon Musk Is Acting Like a Neo-Conquistador for South America’s Lithium

By Vijay Prashad and Alejandro Bejarano (*) – Independent Media Institute Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, wants to build an electric car factory in Brazil. He was supposed to meet Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, in Miami in early March, but he was too busy; instead…

Armed conflicts

Courting War

Posen* – Boston Review Despite claims to the contrary, the Trump administration wants regime change in Iran and is risking a full-scale war in order to get it The Prussian strategic theorist Carl von Clausewitz once observed that “The aggressor is always peace-loving . . . he…

Commerce

A Multi-Billion Dollar US Mideast Arms Market May be in Jeopardy

By Thalif Deen* UNITED NATIONS, Feb 17 2020 (IPS) – When President Saddam Hussein ran one of the world’s most authoritarian regimes in the militarily-volatile Middle East during 1979-2003, US newspapers routinely described him as “the strongman of Iraq” — as most journalists…

Economy / Finance

Are Military-Funded Jobs a Key to Election 2020?

By William Hartung*  – TomDispatch.com When it came to war, this year’s State of the Union Address, given by a president who had, at least in part, been voted into office for criticizing America’s “endless wars” and the military high command that fought them, was eerie…

History

A Plea to Save the Last Nuclear Arms Treaty

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 and the United States has been mired…

Armed conflicts

The Iraq War Has Cost the US Nearly $2 Trillion

CRAWFORD*  – THE CONVERSATION The figure includes $838 billion in “emergency” and “overseas contingency operation” funding and $59 billion spent by the State Department and USAID on Iraq and Syria Even if the U.S. administration decided to leave —…