Articles by John Feffer
We found 27 results.
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.
→ read full article
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.
→ read full article
Lifeboat Earth: Is China or the Green New Deal the Answer to Climate Change?
John Feffer - TomDispatch,
5 Aug 2019
30 Jul 2019 – At its best, the earth was once likened to a spaceship that sails through the heavens with a crew working together for the common good. Thanks to climate change, this metaphor no longer works. Our planet is now more like a lifeboat that’s sprung a major leak. People onboard are beginning to panic and the clock is ticking. It is, however, the perfect environment to test out the best way to deal with life-and-death situations.
→ 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 articleResisting the Lure of Intervention – The Search for Terrestrial Intelligence
John Feffer - TomDispatch,
21 Sep 2015
The focus on setting up a colony on Mars, instead of getting serious about climate change on Earth, is the functional equivalent of devoting close to a trillion dollars a year to the U.S. military instead of using that money to fix all that is broken at home. Talk about an advanced case of attention-deficit disorder.
→ 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 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 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 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 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 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 articleInfantalizing North Korea
John Feffer - The Hankyoreh,
10 Jun 2013
It’s time for us to grow up in our assessments of North Korea.
→ read full articleDroning On
John Feffer – Foreign Policy in Focus,
28 Nov 2011
What’s happening today in Pakistan is beyond the law. It’s not even subject to the rules of war. The drone wars are conducted by the CIA. The spy agency doesn’t need to abide by the Geneva Conventions or acquire congressional approval for its actions. “The U.S. government simply cannot arrogate the right to wage an endless, global war against anyone it deems a threat to national security,” writes Paul Miller. “The prospect of such a war should trouble anyone who has the least acquaintance with history or political philosophy.” Miller was responsible for Afghanistan policy on the National Security council from 2007 to 2009. We thought that we would always be the hand on the joystick. But even in video games, tables turn, and the hunter becomes the hunted.
→ read full articleAfter Osama: China?
John Feffer – Foreign Policy in Focus,
16 May 2011
But perhaps the only country in the world that has benefited from the last decade of war against al-Qaeda is China, and it has benefitted big time. Beijing has watched the United States spend more than $3 trillion on the war on terrorism, devote its military resources to the Middle East, and neglect pretty much every other part of the globe (except where al-Qaeda and its friends hang out). The United States is now mired in debt, stuck in a recession, and paralyzed by partisan politics.
→ read full articleThe Lies of Islamophobia
John Feffer - TomDispatch,
8 Nov 2010
The Three Unfinished Wars of the West against the Rest
→ read full articlePACIFIC PUSHBACK: HAS THE U.S. EMPIRE OF BASES REACHED ITS HIGH-WATER MARK?
John Feffer – Tom Dispatch,
5 Mar 2010
For a country with a pacifist constitution, Japan is bristling with weaponry. Indeed, that Asian land has long functioned as a huge aircraft carrier and naval base for U.S. military power. We couldn’t have fought the Korean and Vietnam Wars without the nearly 90 military bases scattered around the islands of our major Pacific ally. […]
→ read full articleCARBON DISARMAMENT
John Feffer,
3 Oct 2009
I never much liked the idea of arms control. During the Cold War, we managed our nuclear arsenals rather than reduced them. We treated our nukes like huge, dangerous animals. We restricted their movements but gave them ample care and feeding. Until recently, getting rid of the animals altogether was not part of the political […]
→ read full articleKOREAN TRAGEDIES
John Feffer,
2 Jun 2009
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the Asia Chronicle. North Korea’s second nuclear test and the death of former South Korean president Roh Moo-Hyun have thrown the Korean peninsula into a period of acute crisis and mourning. Hopes for Korean reunification and regional peace have become very dim indeed. It would seem that the […]
→ read full articleTHE G-2 PARADOX
John Feffer,
2 Jun 2009
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in The Asia Chronicle on May 22, 2009. Future historians will view the Bush administration’s assertion of unilateral U.S. power and authority as the last gasp of the American empire. The imperial overstretch that historian Paul Kennedy diagnosed near the end of the Cold War is finally hitting us: […]
→ read full articleABOLITION FOLLIES
John Feffer,
13 May 2009
St. Augustine fooled around a lot as a young man. At one point during his philandering, according to his Confessions, the future Church Father uttered the immortal lines: "Give me chastity. But not yet." President Obama has taken a very Augustinian approach to nuclear weapons. He has identified a desired goal. But at the same […]
→ read full articleTHE RISK OF MILITARY KEYNESIANISM
John Feffer,
24 Mar 2009
The global economy is taking a beating from the latest crisis. The United States, EU, and Japan expect growth of only 1.5% or so in 2009. The International Labor Organization forecasts a "global jobs crisis" that will add 50 million people to the ranks of the unemployed and cast 200 million workers into extreme poverty […]
→ read full article