News Abroad

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• Israel and Palestine Have a Way Forward. Will They Choose It?

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  It is time for Israel and the Palestinians to face the bittersweet truth and accept certain realities on the ground that neither side can change short of a calamity. These inescapable realities will frame the contours of a peace agreement in the context of an Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian confederation.  

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• 3/26/2023
  

  An American Witness to the European Movement Against the Iraq Invasion

  by Brian Sandberg

  The European Social Forum, held in Florence in November 2002, didn't stop the US invasion of Iraq. But it did usher in an era of pan-european civic action that remains powerful today. 

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• 3/19/2023
  

  Censoring History Education Goes Hand in Hand with Democratic Backsliding

  by Julia Boechat Machado and Ruben Zeeman

  Regimes in the Philippines, India and Brazil have recently tried to censor the teaching of history in service of their poltical goals and claims to power. The pushback by scholars in these countries should inspire historians in Florida and elsewhere to resist the political censorship of research and teaching. 

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• 3/12/2023
  

  Irish Legend Should Inspire the Fight Against Famine Today

  by William Lambers

  The Irish show Riverdance has incorporated elements of legend derived from the Irish experience of famine, and raised funds to help victims of hunger around the world, an example to follow at St. Patrick's Day. 

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• 3/5/2023
  

  Don't Forget the Private Sorrows of Ukraine

  by Walter G. Moss

  In Ukraine, as with all wars, statistical accounts of death and destruction risk depersonalizing the killing and obscuring the humanity of the victims. 

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• 3/5/2023
  

  Youth Failed by Their Leaders: How the Palestinians Lost Their Way

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  Four generations of Palestinian leadership have failed their youth through intransigence and a failure to distinguish between Israel and the occupation. 

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• 3/5/2023
  

  Whose "Red Lines"?

  by Lawrence Wittner

  Far from promoting clarity and stability, when powerful nations declare "red lines" in their dealings with the world they declare their intentions to impose their will on others. Peace-promoting red lines must be drawn by more robust international cooperation. 

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• 2/26/2023
  

  Suppression of Public Commemoration is an Early Warning of Authoritarian Abuse of History

  by Ruben Zeeman

  While several laws pertaining to historical memory have been passed under nationalist regimes in Europe, other authoritarian societies actively use other laws as an excuse to suppress inconvenient historic commemorations, reflecting a broad and growing pattern of subordinating history to power.

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• 2/22/2023
  

  1918's Armistice Offers an Unsettling Model for Ending the Ukraine Conflict

  by James Thornton Harris

  Marshal Foch of France described the Treaty of Versailles as a "an armistice for 20 years." In Ukraine, the end of the shooting war will be only the first step in securing peace. 

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• 2/22/2023
  

  How Israel Lost its Way

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  After Israel has raised several generations as warriors and occupiers, has the nation lost sight of the toll on its own youth and the consequences for peace? 

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• 2/12/2023
  

  Russia's Courageous War Resisters

  by Lawrence Wittner

  While most Russians have chosen silence in the wake of Putin's harsh anti-dissent measures, and many military-aged men have opted to leave the country, a core of protesters have braved violence and imprisonment to denounce the Ukraine invasion. 

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• 2/6/2023
  

  Historians are Being Asked to Spin Simple Stories of Nationalism; The Past Won't Cooperate

  by Joe Djordjevski

  Nationalist forces in both Bulgaria and North Macedonia want to use historians to reach a definitive conclusion to debates over the territory's ethnic and national identity. But from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire to the fall of Communism, those questions have been complex, difficult, and ambiguous. 

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• 2/6/2023
  

  Can the Ukraine Crisis Push the UN To the Reforms it Needs to Remain Relevant?

  by Gary B. Ostrower

  The United Nations' power to prevent war has long been subordinated to the protection of traditional national sovereignty. Will instability push the powerful nations on the Security Council to accept change? 

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• 1/29/2023
  

  50 Years After the Paris Accords: How the US Lost, then Won, in Vietnam

  by Robert Buzzanco

  As Vietnam becomes increasingly integrated into global capitalism, the temptation to identify a long-term victory for American interests in southeast Asia should be tempered by awareness of the massive human cost paid by the Vietnamese. 

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• 1/29/2023
  

  A Portrait of Carlos Franqui

  by Ken Weisbrode

  The autodidact poet, journalist and propagandist Carlos Franqui was instrumental in making the Cuban revolution chic. He was also one of the first of the revolutionary generation to abandon it. 

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• 1/29/2023
  

  On Ukraine, International Law is Against Russia—But to What Consequence?

  by Lawrence Wittner

  If the United Nations can define the rules of international relations, but sufficiently powerful nations can flout them without consequence, it's time for a change in global governance. 

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• 1/22/2023
  

  Do Sanctions on Russia Portend a Return to the Interwar Order of Trade Blocs?

  by Carl J. Strikwerda

  The economic response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine has raised the specter of a new Cold War. But a better—and scarier—analogy might be the drastic contraction of global trade and the rise of colonial and imperial trade blocs between the World Wars. 

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• 1/22/2023
  

  What's Hiding in Putin's Family History?

  by Chris Monday

  The details of Vladimir Putin's personal and family life are surprisingly (and by design) difficult to pin down. A historian suggests that his grandfather was more powerful, and more influential on the future Russian leader's fortunes, than Putin's common man mythology suggests. 

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• 1/15/2023
  

  Resisting Nationalism in Education

  by Jacob Goodwin

  "Countering the pull toward nationalistic authoritarianism requires intellectual openness and curiosity.  This is a challenge in the time of recovery from the global pandemic, environmental catastrophe and jagged economic turbulence."

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• 1/8/2022
  

  Two Unlikely Champions of Fundamentalist Parties Show it's More about Power than Faith

  by Donne Levy

  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns to power after embracing religious fundamentalist parties in a coalition. Like his friend Donald Trump, he seems an unlikely leader for a faith-based constituency to embrace.