Articles by Foreign Policy in Focus
We found 155 results.
The Toxic Legacy of U.S. Foreign Policy in Puerto Rico
Monisha Ríos, Ph.D. | Foreign Policy In Focus - TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2023
23 Apr 2023 – The women of Vieques, an island off the east coast of Puerto Rico, have been on the front lines of the generations-long struggle for peace and justice to end the havoc wrought by U.S. foreign policy on their island, in their homes, and on their bodies.
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A Call to Cancel RIMPAC in Hawaiʻi
Kim Compoc and Joy Lehuanani Enomoto | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2022
26 Jul 2022 – The movement to demilitarize and deoccupy Hawai‘i is guided by kapu aloha, a code of conduct grounded in nonviolent resistance and Hawai’ian values.
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The Racist Underpinnings of the American Way of War
Walden Bello | Foreign Policy In Focus - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jul 2020
1 Jul 2020 – The deadly interplay of racism, genocide, and denial at the heart of American white society has been reproduced in the country’s wars. The political economy of the U.S. is built on two “original sins:” genocide of Native Americans to clear the ground for capitalist relations of production, and slave labor of African Americans. The reproduction and expansion of U.S. capitalism over time have consistently reproduced its racial structures.
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The Race to Replace a Dying Neoliberalism
Walden Bello | Foreign Policy In Focus - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 May 2020
13 May 2020 – The world’s prevailing socio-political models aren’t going to survive this pandemic. What’s going to replace them? In response to the cataclysm occasioned by the coronavirus, three lines of thinking are emerging.
→ read full articleDuterte Does the Right Thing for a Change
Walden Bello | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Feb 2020
19 Feb 2020 – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s termination of a key military pact with the United States, the Visiting Forces Agreement, which governed the deployment of US troops in the country, has evoked varied responses. He might be the devil incarnate, but Duterte is beginning the process of ending over 120 years of colonial subjugation.
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Goodbye to All That: The UK after Brexit
John Feffer | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Feb 2020
5 Feb 2020 – If I were the EU, I’d be wiping my hands, sighing in relief, and slamming the door after the UK’s long-delayed departure. Britain had been a noisy, pushy houseguest for 47 years, and it was only growing ruder. Even as it steps out the door it’s trying to negotiate the terms: all rights with no responsibilities. Brexit could see the UK eventually lose Scotland, Northern Ireland, and a great deal of its prosperity.
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Burning Down the House
John Feffer | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Sep 2019
4 Sep 2019 – Doesn’t idiocy ever take a vacation? Three different attempts at national self-destruction by far-right governments–Johnson in the UK, Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Trump in the US– are laying bare their nihilistic roots. Bolsonaro, at least, is only interested in trashing a rainforest (albeit a large one). Boris Johnson is content to trash a country (albeit a rich one). Donald Trump, with that ego of his, aspires to trash an entire planet.
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This Time, the World Is Watching in Kashmir
Shubh Mathur | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Sep 2019
22 Aug 2019 – How India is shooting itself in the foot by taking over Kashmir at gunpoint; it has set itself up to reap the whirlwind. This time, the world will be watching.
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Drifting Away from Peace
Sajjad Hussain | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2018
According to a new study, peaceful countries are getting more peaceful while the violent are getting more violent.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Yemen Policy Is Creating More Terrorists
Adil E. Shamoo and Bonnie Bricker | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jul 2017
18 Jul 2017 – Just as the invasion of Iraq eventually produced the Islamic State (ISIS or IS), the killing of innocent Yemenis for no moral reason at all is providing a recruitment tool for terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East and Africa.
→ read full articleIt’s Not only Necessary to Develop an Alternative to Globalization — It’s Entirely Possible
Walden Bello | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jul 2017
It was the left who diagnosed the ills of globalization. So why is the right eating our lunch?
→ read full articleAmerica’s Violent Century
John Feffer| Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jul 2017
The last near-century of American dominance was extraordinarily violent. Is it coming to an end?
→ read full articleThese Nuclear Breakthroughs Are Endangering the World
Conn Hallinan | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 May 2017
How a growing technology gap between the U.S. and its nuclear-armed rivals could lead to the unraveling of arms control agreements — and even nuclear war.
→ read full articleNorth Korea: The Cyberwar of All against All
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
20 Mar 2017
They hack us. We hack them. It’s a recipe for catastrophe. The U.S. pioneered this kind of warfare when it inserted malware into the Iranian nuclear complex that destroyed centrifuges and set back the program. The latest revelations of cyberware involve North Korea. At least some of the many mishaps and failures associated with their missile program were the result of a secret U.S. program to thwart launches through electronic means.
→ read full articleThe U.S. Should Back Russia’s Syria Ceasefire
Christopher Bolan | Foreign Policy In Focus – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2017
For all its shortcomings, Obama’s seemingly improvised Syria strategy has taken advantage of unexpected opportunities. This could be the latest.
→ read full articleYOLO Economics
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
19 Sep 2016
“Sustainable growth” just won’t cut it. We have to come up with something that redefines growth, emphasizes the importance of equity and dignity, and ensures that innovation works for us all. In the end, coming up with this new economic model should be on everyone’s bucket list.
→ read full articleThe Deep Colonial Roots of France’s Unveiling of Muslim Women
Jeanne Kay – Foreign Policy In Focus,
12 Sep 2016
If the burkini is incompatible with fundamental French values, it is those fundamental values that have to change.
→ read full articleThe ‘American Century’ Has Plunged the World into Crisis – What Happens Now?
Conn Hallinan and Leon Wofsy – Foreign Policy In Focus,
22 Aug 2016
U.S. foreign policy is dangerous, undemocratic, deeply out of sync with real global challenges, full of corruption, and has not done the world well. Continuous war is inevitable if we continue to follow these same policies. Can we change this for the better?
→ read full articleFrom Brexit in the UK to Austerity in Spain, Europe is on the Edge
Conn Hallinan – Foreign Policy In Focus,
18 Jul 2016
European elites are blaming “stupid” voters for turning against an economic system that hasn’t worked for them.
→ read full articleA Very Brazilian Coup
Conn Hallinan – Foreign Policy In Focus,
6 Jun 2016
Brazil’s elites can’t win an election, but they can engineer an impeachment.
→ read full articleA Pox on the House of Nuclear Weapons
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
30 May 2016
In effect, the nuclear ban treaty will put a curse on nuclear weapons. A ban treaty imposes nothing on anybody, but demands, through its undeniable political and legal reality, that everyone re-evaluate and re-conceptualize nuclear weapons… Nuclear weapons become a collective international liability rather than an individual national asset.
→ read full articleThe Music of Hopelessness
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
30 May 2016
From the comfortable alt-rock of PJ Harvey to the hypnotic antagonism of Anohni, new protest music offers a relief from the official rhythms of war and peace.
→ read full articleThe Scope for Parallel Diplomacy Has Never Been Greater
David Richmond – Foreign Policy In Focus,
30 May 2016
One of the great diplomatic breakthroughs for which the Obama presidency will undoubtedly be remembered is the re-establishment of relations with Cuba. The role of the Vatican in this rapprochement serves as a reminder that even in the era of systematised diplomacy, significant benefit can be derived from an informal process that takes place away from the limelight.
→ read full articlePeople Are Likening the Next Philippine President to Donald Trump. Here’s Why.
Walden Bello – Foreign Policy In Focus,
23 May 2016
A hapless elite, an angry electorate, and a brash front-runner with little regard for democratic norms: The latest Philippine election sounds a lot like America’s.
→ read full articleRealizing Peace
Heath Mitchell – Foreign Policy In Focus,
23 May 2016
A new book on conflict resolution provides a history of the subject and a counterfactual history of recent events.
→ read full articleThe U.S. Is Militarizing the Pacific — And Not Taking Questions
Jon Letman – Foreign Policy In Focus,
4 Apr 2016
30 Mar 2016 – The biggest U.S. military re-alignment in a generation may be underway in the Asia-Pacific. But most Americans know nothing about it. Hawaii’s members of Congress sit at the linchpin of a huge realignment of U.S. military power. Good luck getting them to talk about it.
→ read full articleHow a Little Pink Flower Defeated the World’s Sole Superpower
Alfred McCoy – Foreign Policy In Focus,
7 Mar 2016
24 Feb 2016 – After fighting the longest war in its history, the United States stands at the brink of defeat in Afghanistan. How can this be possible? American military technology transformed remote, landlocked Afghanistan into the world’s first true narco-state.
→ read full articleHow Corporations Killed Medicine
Fran Quigley – Foreign Policy In Focus,
15 Feb 2016
For most of human history, life-saving drugs were a public good. Now they’re only good for shareholders.
→ read full articleAfrica’s Success Story
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
18 Jan 2016
Diamond-rich Botswana avoided the dreaded resource curse and established a prosperous, stable democracy. But political turmoil has begun to roil the traditionally placid society.
→ read full articleHow U.S. Interventions Dismembered the Middle East
Adil E. Shamoo – Foreign Policy In Focus,
14 Dec 2015
Despite everything, hawks are still pushing President Obama to send ground troops to Syria. He would be wise to reject their advice.
→ read full articleA Radical Win-Win Solution for Syria
Don Kraus – Foreign Policy In Focus,
9 Nov 2015
The United Nations works best when nations are united. To date, divided national priorities have not allowed the 70-year-old institution to play a significant role to end war in Syria. Promoting a new Trusteeship System to address this problem could be a way to bring nations together to focus on the limits of sovereignty and the responsibility to protect civilian populations.
→ read full articleGross National Happiness, Like the Gross National Product, Can Be Tracked by Data
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
26 Oct 2015
Gross National Happiness, which had its origins in Bhutan, has caught on with political scientists. … “We are not interested in deciding what happiness is – an undeniably difficult problem – but only in knowing if people are happy. … how much people find their lives to be positive and rewarding – in Einstein’s phrase, ‘satisfying’.”
→ read full articleWhy Should the U.S. Accept Syrian Refugees? Because It Helped Displace Them.
Laith Shakir – Foreign Policy In Focus,
26 Oct 2015
Washington is one of the most active players in Syria’s civil war, but it’s accepted effectively 0 percent of the conflict’s refugees.
→ read full articlePortugal: Europe’s Left Batting 1.000
Conn Hallinan – Foreign Policy In Focus,
19 Oct 2015
In Portugal’s elections, Left parties garnered more than 50 percent of the vote and austerity took a major hit. The EU is now the single most powerful alliance of capital on the planet, and it is not a bit shy about crushing anything it sees as a potential threat. However, the Troika’s efforts to scare—and bribe—Portugal failed.
→ read full articleMouth Wide Shut
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
12 Oct 2015
Under Obama, whistleblowers face a total of 751 months behind bars — compared to 24 months for all other whistleblowers combined since the American Revolution.
→ read full articleFinally, Nepal Gets a Constitution
Deepak Adhikari – Foreign Policy In Focus,
5 Oct 2015
First promised over a half a century ago, Nepal’s new constitution is surprisingly progressive. But it’s led to tensions with neighboring India and with underrepresented ethnic groups.
→ read full articleWhy Doesn’t the Foreign Policy Establishment Take World Peace Seriously?
Didier Jacobs – Foreign Policy In Focus,
5 Oct 2015
The faculty goes through a list of US “national interests.” The usual suspects are all there: preventing nuclear proliferation, strengthening democracy, and so on. I raise my hand to argue that protecting the Brazilian rainforest is also a vital U.S. national interest. The faculty’s reaction? “Er, so, if Brazilians keep chopping down their forest, should we bomb them?” Welcome to the establishment’s mindset!
→ read full articleThe Middle East’s New Nakba
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
5 Oct 2015
The chain of events set into motion by the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq is reaching its logical conclusion — the disintegration of multi-ethnic states and a great expulsion of innocents. Nationalist forces have squared off against religious extremists over not only who controls the states, but the very nature of the state institutions.
→ read full articleWhere’s There’s War, There’s Refugees
Leon Wofsy – Foreign Policy In Focus,
14 Sep 2015
The refugee disaster is the legacy of the war makers, those who authored the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and the military misadventure in Libya. It is a living legacy of policies aimed at forcing “regime change,” a preference for superpower might and war over negotiations and diplomacy.
→ read full articleFinally, Science Beginning to Prove Torture Doesn’t Work
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
31 Aug 2015
Expecting brutal interrogations to extract good intelligence is like “banging a hammer on a radio to get a better signal,” [Andy Morgan, a psychiatrist at the University of New Haven in Connecticut and a former intelligence officer with the CIA]. “It doesn’t enhance cognition. It only makes it worse.”
→ read full articleWant a More Democratic UN? Give It a Parliament
Jo Leinen and Andreas Bummel – Foreign Policy In Focus,
31 Aug 2015
Every democracy in the world has an elected legislature. Why not the UN? As we approach the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, we’re moving further into a new century with many of the old, deficient institutions of the last century left untouched.
→ read full articleWhat the Mainstream Media Got Wrong about Gaza
Qossay Alsattari – Foreign Policy In Focus,
10 Aug 2015
You may have heard that “both sides” committed abuses in last Gaza war. But there’s no comparison when it comes to the scale of the violations — or the body count. According to the investigators, the war killed 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians — over half of them women and children. By contrast, six Israeli civilians and 67 soldiers were killed.
→ read full articleAfghanistan: The Forever War
Rachelle Marshall – Foreign Policy In Focus,
10 Aug 2015
After the United States has been in Afghanistan for 14 years, 91,000 Afghans have been killed and 26,000 wounded.
→ read full articleDubai’s Skyline Is a Monument to Oppression, Not Prosperity
Laith Shakir – Foreign Policy In Focus,
10 Aug 2015
Visual artist Arko Datto combines satellite images and text to paint a picture of migrant workers’ lives in the Arabian Peninsula — and his findings aren’t pretty.
→ read full articleAre Foreign NGOs Rebuilding Haiti or Just Cashing In?
Nathalie Baptiste – Foreign Policy In Focus,
20 Jul 2015
Haiti plays host to over 10,000 NGOs, whose foreign workers make up an affluent class of their own. By spending exorbitant sums on incentives for non-locals, NGOs effectively undermine the work they’re supposedly trying to do in Haiti
→ read full articleCall for Sanity on 60th Anniversary of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto
Emanuel Pastreich – Foreign Policy In Focus,
13 Jul 2015
July 9, 2015 – Sixty years after Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell issued their manifesto about the growing threat of world war, the globe continues to face the prospect of nuclear annihilation — coupled with the looming threat of climate change.
→ read full article‘The American Century’ Has Plunged the World into Crisis. What Happens Now?
Conn Hallinan and Leon Wofsy – Foreign Policy In Focus,
29 Jun 2015
U.S. foreign policy is dangerous, undemocratic, and deeply out of sync with real global challenges. Is continuous war inevitable, or can we change course?
→ read full articleSlavery, Genocide, Abuse: The Dark Side of Asia’s ‘Tiger Economies’
Walden Bello – Foreign Policy In Focus,
29 Jun 2015
From declining worker protections to violent labor trafficking and ethnic cleansing, the dark underbelly of Southeast Asia’s “tiger economies” is on full display this year.
→ read full articleEcuador Puts Piketty into Practice
Josh Hoxie – Foreign Policy In Focus,
22 Jun 2015
This small South American country is taxing wealthy estates and distributing the proceeds directly to workers.
→ read full articleCelebrating Destruction
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
18 May 2015
Our wartime commemorations are the functional equivalent of mounting the heads of our victims on pikes. Are we surprised that others celebrate bloodshed when we do the same?
→ read full articleHow the U.S. Contributed to Yemen’s Crisis
Stephen Zunes – Foreign Policy In Focus,
27 Apr 2015
Washington’s support for Yemen’s former dictatorship — and of Saudi efforts to sideline the country’s nonviolent pro-democracy movement — helped create the current crisis.
→ read full articleWomen’s Delegation to Cross DMZ between Koreas
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
27 Apr 2015
For what it’s worth, I think a peace march by women across the DMZ is a splendid idea. We need symbolic acts that capture the world’s attention and help shift all the major players in the direction of negotiations. It’s mostly men – men from politics, men from business, men on both sides of the DMZ – who have been dealing with the Korean peninsula issue over the years. And we men haven’t achieved very much.
→ read full articleCaldicott Nuclear Disarmament Conference Frightening, but Inspiring
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
9 Mar 2015
Dr. Helen Caldicott’s nuclear disarmament seminar in New York City intrigued, educated — and scared the wits out of you.
→ read full articleComparing Atrocities
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
9 Mar 2015
It’s tempting to call ISIS “medieval” murderers. But from mass murder to drone strikes, atrocity is very much a part of our modern experience. The description of the death of Robert-Francois Damiens, the man who attempted to kill Louis XV, is not for the faint-hearted.
→ read full articleTurning the European Debt Myth Upside-Down
Conn Hallinan – Foreign Policy In Focus,
9 Mar 2015
The European debt crisis has little to do with poor budgeting and everything to do with crony capitalism. Myths are dangerous because they rely more on cultural memory and prejudice than facts.
→ read full articleUpdating German Thrift for the Age of Austerity
Stefan Haus – Foreign Policy In Focus,
2 Mar 2015
After World War II the Marshall Plan provided Germany immediate financial relief. While it rebuilt its economy from scratch, much of the incurred debt was forgiven and payments postponed. The result was a thriving economy. Perhaps it’s time for Germany to apply those lessons to Europe more generally.
→ read full articleHow the Left Failed France’s Muslims
Walden Bello, TeleSur – Foreign Policy In Focus,
16 Feb 2015
In a different world, Cherif and Said Kouachi might have become progressive activists. But where the left abdicated its outreach to marginalized communities, the Islamists moved in.
→ read full articleStopping the Biggest Corporate Power Grab Ever, the TPP
Arthur Stamoulis – Foreign Policy In Focus,
12 Jan 2015
How fighting back against one arcane, Nixon-era trade negotiating procedure could put a stop to a global corporate coup. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a corporate power grab clearly worthy of Seattle-caliber mobilization. But the fight against this reprehensible deal requires different types of tactics.
→ read full articleHow Liberal Democracy Promotes Inequality
Walden Bello – Foreign Policy In Focus,
15 Dec 2014
Western-style democracies — not the dictatorships they replaced — have allowed deeply undemocratic economic systems to flourish. So what’s to be done? The evidence from Thomas Piketty, the UN and other sources is quite conclusive: Neoliberalism is to blame. The old Marxist term “bourgeois democracy” is still the best description for this kind of democratic regime.
→ read full articleWhat “Free Trade” Has Done to Central America
Manuel Perez-Rocha and Julia Paley – Foreign Policy In Focus,
1 Dec 2014
Warnings about the human and environmental costs of “free trade” went unheeded. Now the most vulnerable Central Americans are paying the price.
→ read full articleResisting U.S. Bases in Okinawa
Ayano Ginoza, Michiko Hase and Gwyn Kirk – Foreign Policy In Focus,
27 Oct 2014
Despite intense crackdowns, activists on the Japanese island of Okinawa continue to resist the construction of new U.S. military bases.
→ read full articleWhat West Africa Can Teach the U.S. about Ebola
Kwei Quartey – Foreign Policy in Focus,
27 Oct 2014
Nigeria and Senegal have declared victory on Ebola even as healthcare workers in Texas contract it.
→ read full articleTerror, Repression, and Diaspora in Haiti: The Baby Doc Legacy
Nathalie Baptiste – Foreign Policy In Focus,
27 Oct 2014
Haiti’s late dictator leaves behind a 1-million-strong Diaspora unlikely to ever return home.
→ read full articleConflict Resolution and German Reunification
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
20 Oct 2014
East and West Germany were like a couple that had rushed into marriage with very little understanding of what it would be like to live together.
→ read full articleFor Airstrikes on the Islamic State, U.S. Relaxing Drone Strikes’ Burden of Proof
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
13 Oct 2014
The standards the U.S. purportedly used to prevent civilian deaths from drone strikes have been relaxed. If you’re appalled at civilian deaths from U.S. drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, prepare to be aghast at civilian deaths due to U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.
→ read full articleMove Over, NATO and IMF: Eurasia Is Coming
Conn Hallinan – Foreign Policy In Focus,
13 Oct 2014
A thousand poles are blooming as new international blocs like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS Development Bank emerge to challenge Western economic and military hegemony.
→ read full articleThe Khorasan Group Creation Myth
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
13 Oct 2014
Glenn Greenwald’s report that the Khorasan group was hyped to mobilize support for attacking the Islamic State sounds credible.
→ read full articleMilitarizing the Ebola Crisis
Joeva Rock – Foreign Policy In Focus,
6 Oct 2014
Few would oppose a robust U.S. response to Ebola, but the Obama administration’s deployment of 3,000 troops to Liberia comes amid a broader U.S.-led militarization in West Africa.
→ read full articleThe Fight to Keep Toxic Mining—and the World Bank—Out of El Salvador
Diana Anahi Torres-Valverde – Foreign Policy In Focus,
29 Sep 2014
Hundreds of protesters recently gathered at the World Bank to shame a gold mining firm’s shakedown of one of Central America’s poorest countries. For miners, investors, and artisans, few things are more precious than gold. But for human life itself, nothing is more precious than water.
→ read full articleKingdom of Slaves
Sam Badger and Giorgio Cafiero - Foreign Policy In Focus,
22 Sep 2014
In the smallest Gulf kingdoms, upwards of 90 percent of residents are immigrant laborers. Many face unspeakable abuse.
→ read full articleJapan Still Hobbled by Racism and Militarism
Michael Walker – Foreign Policy In Focus,
15 Sep 2014
Not only has Japan been unable to face its past, it’s weighed down by a staggering national debt.
→ read full articleMeet the Company Suing El Salvador for the Right to Poison Its Water
Robin Broad and John Cavanagh – Foreign Policy In Focus,
8 Sep 2014
In an obscure World Bank court, a multinational mining firm is suing El Salvador for attempting to protect its citizens from deadly mining pollution.
→ read full articleHow Western Aid Bungled Syria’s Opposition & Paved the Way for ISIS
Hisham Safi – Foreign Policy In Focus,
11 Aug 2014
The U.S. and its allies have funded a host of Syrian opposition councils that are more interested in seeking Western aid than serving the Syrian people.
→ read full articleWhat the World Cup Can Teach Progressives about Corruption
Walden Bello – Foreign Policy In Focus,
21 Jul 2014
Fighting corruption is a proven means to reduce inequality. But the issue has often been co-opted by elites looking to do just the opposite.
→ read full articleIn Kyrgyzstan Ethnic Hostility Shows Few Signs of Abating
Sufyan bin Uzayr – Foreign Policy In Focus,
14 Jul 2014
The underlying issues that led to violence in Kyrgyzstan four years ago remain.
→ read full articleMilitarized Humanitarianism in Africa
Joeva Rock – Foreign Policy In Focus,
19 May 2014
Africa is the U.S. military’s next frontier, and it’s using humanitarian missions to get there.
→ read full articleThe Free-Trade Regime: Oligarchy in Action
Moritz Laurer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
19 May 2014
Economic elites and special interest groups enjoy tremendous sway in Washington, while “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
→ read full articleThe Right Rises Again in Europe
Stefan Haus – Foreign Policy In Focus,
5 May 2014
This May’s [2014] European Parliament elections are expected to bring about a new all-time record—not in voter turnout, not in enthusiasm for European institutions, but in support for right-wing, anti-immigrant, and anti-EU fringe parties. In many countries on the old continent, extremist parties have been on the rise and radical ideas are gaining traction.
→ read full articleObama in Asia: Washington Extracts Rent-free Basing from the Philippines
Walden Bello – Foreign Policy In Focus,
5 May 2014
What the agreement boils down to is that the Philippines will give the United States the right to operate bases in the country—for no rent—without the guarantee of U.S. protection of the country’s island territories.
→ read full articleIsrael Projects Its Own Nuclear Behavior on to Iran
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
5 May 2014
As they say in support groups, you’re only as sick as your secrets. To play armchair psychoanalyst, it’s as if by forcing Iran to admit that it tried to develop nuclear weapons, Israel will absolve itself of its nuclear lies. The fly in the ointment, of course, is that Israel has a nuclear-weapons program and Iran none.
→ read full articleDunya Mikhail: Politics in Service of Poetry
Solmaz Sharif – Foreign Policy In Focus,
5 May 2014
Iraqi-American poet Dunya Mikhail talks about her experiences writing provocative poetry in two different countries.
What good luck!
She has found his bones.
The skull is also in the bag
the bag in her hand
like all other bags
in all other hands.
American Media Distorts Venezuelan Protests
Nathalie Baptiste – Foreign Policy In Focus,
7 Apr 2014
Anti-government protests are being conducted by wealthier, right-wing Venezuelans, who have caused more deaths than security officials.
→ read full articleIt’s Not Just Uganda: Behind the Christian Right’s Onslaught on Africa’s Gays
Nathalie Baptiste – Foreign Policy In Focus,
7 Apr 2014
For years now, evangelical activists from the United States have been speaking out against homosexuality and cheering on antigay legislation all over Africa. In Uganda, being gay can now earn you a lifetime in prison. Pat Robertson’s entanglements in Africa go well beyond Zimbabwe and Kenya.
→ read full articleThe Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: Preserving Western Domination
Ibrahim Kazerooni and Rob Prince – Foreign Policy In Focus,
24 Mar 2014
Despite the Western claim that the dispute with Iran over nuclear research rests on it, the NPT is largely a means of maintaining Western nuclear-weapons superiority.
→ read full articleDisaster Militarism: Rethinking U.S. Relief in the Asia-Pacific
Foreign Policy In Focus - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Mar 2014
Disaster relief has increasingly become part of the justification for increased U.S. troop deployments in the Asia-Pacific region.
→ read full articleU.S. Foreign Assistance: More Guns than Butter
James Kennedy – Foreign Policy In Focus,
10 Mar 2014
Aid to foreign militaries is quickly eclipsing development assistance in the U.S. foreign aid budget. Even as President Obama has promised to get the country off a permanent war footing, the United States continues to deliver more and more money, guns, equipment, and training to foreign military and police forces around the globe.
→ read full articleDid Nonviolence Fail in Egypt?
Mark Engler and Paul Engler – Foreign Policy In Focus,
10 Mar 2014
The Egyptian Revolution is a perfect case study for both the power and the limits of nonviolent mass movements.
→ read full articleUkraine: Out of the Frying Pan
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
3 Mar 2014
In the end, the street triumphed over the elite. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych tried to hang on to power, and failed. Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to maintain Russian influence, and failed. The EU tried to mediate, and failed. And the United States tried to…well, I’ll get to that in a moment.
→ read full articleMilitary Humanitarian Intervention: The Shock Doctrine Applied to Syria
Rob Prince – Foreign Policy In Focus,
24 Feb 2014
What’s needed in Syria is not military intervention, but a global peace offensive. One must make a distinction between “humanitarian intervention” in times of war, and military intervention using humanitarian pretexts. The latter actually has a very long and sordid history going back several hundred years and has been used by virtually every colonial and neocolonial military intervention and massacre.
→ read full articleEver Wonder Exactly Why the U.S. Keeps Israel’s Nuclear Secret?
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy In Focus,
17 Feb 2014
Hint: it’s not just the Israel lobby.
→ read full articleBrazil’s World Cup Evictions: An Insult to Soccer
Nathalie Baptiste – Foreign Policy In Focus,
17 Feb 2014
Forced evictions are happening throughout Brazil in advance of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, exacerbating the country’s growing inequality.
→ read full articleObama’s Arms Sales Policy: Promotion or Restraint?
William D. Hartung – Foreign Policy In Focus,
17 Feb 2014
The United States is far and away the world’s leading arms trafficking nation, with $60 billion in arms transfer agreements last year [2013] alone. In 2011, the last year for which full global statistics are available, U.S. companies and the U.S. government controlled over three-quarters of the international weapons trade.
→ read full articleGypsies-Roma: The Greatest Threat to Europe
John Feffer – Foreign Policy In Focus,
17 Feb 2014
Europe will never fully democratize until the Roma enjoy the same rights, privileges, and opportunities as their European brethren.
→ read full articleCountering Boycott Calls with Anti-Semitism Accusations: A Sure Way to Lose the Argument
Doron Pely – Foreign Policy In Focus,
17 Feb 2014
Many Israelis view almost any call for a boycott of Israel as a manifestation of a new type of virulent anti-Semitism. A return to the old “the whole world is against us, and they all hate us because we’re Jews” argument may not be the best strategy, neither for Jews in general, nor as a response to the boycott movement.
→ read full articleAbe Road
Nancy Snow – Foreign Policy In Focus,
17 Feb 2014
Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s chauvinistic surge has inflicted unmistakable damage on its national brand image.
→ read full articleHow the UN Can Ignore 8,000 Deaths in Haiti
Nathalie Baptiste – Foreign Policy In Focus,
10 Feb 2014
Many more Haitians will die from cholera, a disease brought to their country by the very people who were supposed to be saving them from disaster.
→ read full articleSouth Sudan: Colonialism’s Dead Hand
Conn Hallinan – Foreign Policy In Focus,
10 Feb 2014
The United States now has troops in some 35 countries in Africa. Washington has deployed somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 troops in Djibouti on the horn of Africa and at least 100 Special Forces in Uganda and Niger. It is training Kenyans to fight the Shabab in Somalia, Ugandans to track the Lord’s Resistance Army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it is building a drone base in Niger.
→ read full articleThailand’s Deep Divide
Walden Bello – Foreign Policy In Focus,
3 Feb 2014
Thailand’s anti-corruption protesters appear to have lost faith in the key tenet of representative democracy: rule by people or parties elected by the majority of citizens.
→ read full articleHaiti: Billions in Aid, Pennies in Progress since Earthquake
Nathalie Baptiste – Foreign Policy In Focus,
3 Feb 2014
Four years since its devastating earthquake, progress in Haiti is slow and reconstruction efforts are lacking at best.
→ read full articleMissile Force: First Safety Violations, Then a Drunken Commander, Now Cheating
Russ Wellen – Foreign Policy in Focus,
27 Jan 2014
Yet another scandal for the ICBM launch force at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
→ read full article