international affairs

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• 2/2/20
  

  If the Pentagon is worried by climate change, shouldn’t we be worried too?  

  by David Carlin

  As the world warms, Syria offers a cautionary tale about how climate change may destabilize societies and sow global chaos.

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• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  1/9/20
  

  The Global War of Error

  by Tom Engelhardt

  Failure is the new success and that applies as well to the “industrial” part of the military-industrial complex. 

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• SOURCE: Politico
  10/26/19
  

  Russia’s Long and Mostly Unsuccessful History of Election Interference

  by Casey Michel

  Trump’s willingness to allow foreign governments to influence American elections is historically unprecedented. Just how unprecedented becomes clear when you look back at the long history of attempts by foreign powers (almost always Russia) to tip an outcome to their advantage.

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• SOURCE: NY Times
  10/21/19
  

  This Is the True End Of Pax Americana

  by Ian Buruma

  Mr. Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the world order.

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• SOURCE: The New York Times
  October 2, 2019
  

  History Museum Explores Germans’ View of Britain

  by The Associated Press

  As Brexit looms, one of Germany’s main history museums is examining Germans’ views of the British, complete with a countdown clock that may be reset if Britain’s departure from the European Union is delayed.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/19/19
  

  The State Department is weak and getting weaker. That puts us all at risk.

  by Mark Edwards

  We need a robust diplomatic engine at the heart of our foreign policy.

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• SOURCE: NY Times
  September 3, 2019
  

  Around the World with Mao Zedong

  by Ian Johnson

  Julia Lovell's "Maoism: A Global History" traces the surprisingly wide influence of Chinese Communism. 

• 
• 8/18/19
  

  Many Historians Got It Wrong on Obama's Foreign Policy

  by Jeremy Kuzmarov

  Many historians appear to have been so mesmerized by Obama’s charisma and progressive domestic policies that they cannot properly criticize the foreign policy of Obama.

• 
• 8/18/19
  

  When Clowns Rule the World

  by Michael A. Genovese

  Why are so many world leaders today literal or figurative clowns? Our century has ushered in the Age of the Clown Politician.

• 
• SOURCE: Politico Magazine
  7/5/19
  

  How Fake News Could Lead to Real War

  by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon

  We think of false information as a domestic problem. It’s much more dangerous than that.

• 
• SOURCE: Reuters
  7/8/19
  

  Japan, South Korea raise stakes in dispute over forced labor. History helps explain the conflict.

  The countries share a bitter history dating to Japan’s colonization of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, which saw forced use of labor by Japanese companies and the use of “comfort women”, a Japanese euphemism for girls and women, many of them Korean, forced to work in its wartime brothels.

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• SOURCE: NY Times
  7/3/19
  

  The Surprising History of Nationalist Internationalism

  by David Motadel

  Internationalism, a concept that, after all, implicitly presumes the existence of the nation, and extreme nationalism are not necessarily incompatible. The far right is less parochial than we think — and that’s dangerous.

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• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  5/21/19
  

  Living in a Nation of Political Narcissists

  by Tom Engelhardt

  American election exceptionalism from 1945-2019.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/25/19
  

  If China wants to lead the global order, it will need more than the Belt and Road Initiative

  by Gregory Mitrovich

  The program falls well short of the world-changing Marshall Plan.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/17/19
  

  Why President Trump’s hard-line approach to Cuba is a mistake

  by John Ermer

  It opens the door to increased Russian influence on the island.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/12/19
  

  Why women led the uprising in Sudan

  by Nasredeen Abdulbari

  Throughout Sudan’s history, women have played a central role in society.

• 
• 4/14/19
  

  Is the Western World Declining and Russia Rising?

  by Walter G. Moss

  Yes, according to Glenn Diesen’s 2018 book The Decay of Western Civilization and Resurgence of Russia. But this isn't the first time scholars have made such a prediction and been wrong. 

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  2/26/19
  

  2020 Will See a Monumental Clash Over America’s Place in the World

  by Stephen Wertheim

  Is it time for the U.S. to confront other great powers — or to retreat?