Part Field Notes from a Catastrophe, part 1984, part World War Z, John Feffer’s striking new dystopian novel, takes us deep into the battered, shattered world of 2050. The European Union has broken apart. Multiethnic great powers like Russia and China have shriveled. America’s global military footprint has virtually disappeared and the United States remains… Continue reading Splinterlands
In 2012-13, as part of an Open Society Foundation fellowship, I re-interviewed many of the people I talked to in 1990 when I traveled for seven months through East-Central Europe. Twenty-three years later, I also interviewed a wide range of additional people in order to get as broad a picture as possible of what has… Continue reading Full Interview List
At the World Economic Forum this year, the audience of wealthy and powerful was treated to the kind of trash-talking that was once reserved for the likes of the Jerry Springer Show. Powerful leaders boasted, belittled, and threatened. Instead of infidelities and family secrets, the conversations at Davos took place against the backdrop of proposed land… Continue reading The Man Who Would Be King (of the World)
Restoring the Land The Movement to Address the Theft of Tribal Territory In the largest single land-back deal in California history, the Yurok Tribe reclaimed 73 square miles of ancestral territory on the eastern side of the lower Klamath River in June 2025. The size of the land transfer was certainly important for it… Continue reading Restoring the Land: The Movement to Address the Theft of Tribal Territory
When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, the secretary of Health and Human Services, wanted to change his agency’s dietary recommendations, he did something very simple. He took the food pyramid and turned it upside down. After years of promoting healthy grains, pulses, and vegetables, the agency was now favoring meat and dairy. It seemed like a… Continue reading Trump Tries to Overturn the World Order
The protests taking place in Iran, which have left thousands dead, have raised the possibility that the theocratic government is on the verge of collapse. “I assume that we are now witnessing the final days and weeks of this regime,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared this week. If this in fact happens, Iran would follow the examples… Continue reading Is Iran Next?
As a Christmas present to his evangelical base, Donald Trump ordered military strikes against an Islamic State offshoot in Nigeria on December 25. On a day usually reserved for celebrations of the birth of a man who urged his followers to “turn the other cheek,” Christian lawmakers like Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AK), and… Continue reading The Power Play President
I have always supported the idea of government. In a well-functioning democracy, voters elect their representatives to enact policies that reflect the priorities of the population. Ideally, such governments attend to the necessary functions of the state, like funding public education and maintaining the social safety net. Governments also uphold the constitutional order, ensuring that… Continue reading Trump Destroys Government
Donald Trump certainly has global ambitions. He is using tariffs to remake the global economy. He is withdrawing the United States from as many multinational organizations and agreements as possible in order to destroy the liberal international order. And he has alternated between confronting adversaries (like Iran) and brokering ceasefires (like the one in Gaza).… Continue reading The Geopolitics of Trump’s Venezuela Campaign
Here’s how oligarchs play their game of geopolitical three-card monte. They attract attention by promising the moon. Then they hide their real motivations in a duplicitous shuffle of the cards. The ensuing action is a razzle-dazzle of distraction. In the end, the oligarchs win, and everyone else loses. On the Russian side, oligarch-in-chief Vladimir Putin… Continue reading An Oligarch’s Guide to Ending the War in Ukraine
Ecuador, once one of the most peaceful countries in Latin America, is now one of its most dangerous. The murder rate in 2020 was 7.7 homicides per 100,000 people. That was roughly comparable to the United States where it was 6.4 that year. In nearby Brazil, on the other hand, it was 22.3. By 2023, Ecuador’s homicide… Continue reading US Military Is No Answer to Narcotraffickers
On his recent tour of Asia, Donald Trump picked up a number of gifts, including a golden replica of a Silla crown in South Korea and a golden golf club in Japan. Trump has a well-known penchant for gold: the Oval Office has been redecorated in gold complete with gold trophies and golden coasters with… Continue reading Trump Should Win the Nobel War Prize