In the universe of far-right politics, the three members of the Axis of Evil are Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Viktor Orban. The first presides over the most powerful country in the world. The second launched the first major land invasion in Europe in over 75 years. The third has done his best to destroy… Continue reading The Axis of Evil Suffers a Big Loss
Before he became one of the great diplomats of the twentieth century, Henry Kissinger wrote his dissertation about the Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich. Kissinger closely studied how European diplomats like Metternich constructed a new regional order after the defeat of Napoleon. Metternich was an early expert in the art of herding cats, with the… Continue reading Negotiating with Bombs
The latest technology can prove decisive in war. Think of the atomic bomb in World War II. Or the stirrup in the Mongol conquest of Europe and the Middle East. More recently, after the two sides had been deadlocked for decades, Azerbaijan defeated Armenia in 2020 in a matter of days and took over the… Continue reading Artificial Intelligence vs. Human Stupidity
World War III will not start with an exchange of nuclear weapons. It won’t ignite from the jostling of great empires. Nor will it result from a single madman (or two) bent on taking over the world. It won’t be any of those things because World War III has already begun. The current global conflagration… Continue reading It’s Already a World War
An elected leader who tries to seize absolute power through a military coup commits the most serious political transgression that can take place in a democracy. In December 2024, Yoon Suk Yeol attempted just such a coup to overcome opposition in the National Assembly that he called “anti-state” and blamed for the country’s political paralysis.… Continue reading This Is What Accountability Looks Like
The Supreme Court’s decision is clear. The president did not have the authority to impose most of his tariffs. Trump argued that, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, his actions were justified because of a national emergency caused by a foreign threat. In the 6-3 ruling, the Court said that, on the contrary, that… Continue reading The Silver Lining Behind Trump’s Tariff Tantrum
A mere 15 years ago, during an epoch that now seems as distant as the Paleozoic era, an American president attempted to use military power to prevent a dictator from slaughtering his own citizens. Barack Obama billed the action in Libya as a humanitarian intervention, citing the new U.N. doctrine of “responsibility to protect” (R2P).… Continue reading Trump Goes Rogue as Globocop
By some measures, the Palestinian bid for statehood has never been stronger. By the end of last year, at least 157 countries had recognized the state of Palestine, which represents slightly more than 80 percent of the world’s nations. Some of those countries are quite powerful, such as China, India, Indonesia, the UK, France, Australia,… Continue reading The Disappearance of Palestine
China has been nipping at the heels of the United States for a quarter of a century. By some measures, the size of the Chinese economy exceeded that of the United States about a decade ago. China has a huge trade surplus thanks to the fact that it is the leading trade partner of 145… Continue reading Trump Delivers Lunch to Beijing
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
Donald Trump loves to pivot. He is restless, he has some form of attention deficit disorder, and he likes to keep his enemies and adversaries guessing. Sometimes he pivots so many times, as he has on the war in Ukraine, that he completes a full circle with his pirouette. This week, Trump is pirouetting through… Continue reading Trump’s Pacific Pivot
Under the Trump administration, the United States has taken a giant step backward on civil rights. The administration’s efforts have gone far beyond the cancellation of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts of the Biden years. By rolling back the enforcement of civil rights law—in employment, education, housing, and environment—the administration has effectively… Continue reading The Reparations Movement: Flourishing Amid Backlash
Donald Trump hates Antifa. He hates late-night TV hosts, Democratic-controlled cities, and anyone who has ever challenged him in court. As of October, he officially hates the Nobel committee for not giving him a peace prize, despite his efforts to strong-arm its members into voting for him. The president has gone after everyone he thinks… Continue reading The Multipolarism of Fools
The Trump administration aspires to deport a million people in its first year of office. The president has also spoken of the more ambitious goal of deporting 15-20 million undocumented people overall, even if that category probably covers only 14 million folks. The discrepancy of a couple million people shouldn’t bother Trump. He’s happy to… Continue reading America’s Disappeared
All the living hostages held by Hamas returned to Israel this week. The 20 men have been reunited with their ecstatic families. It’s extraordinary that they are still alive, more than two years after Hamas and its allies seized them along with around 230 others after the attacks of October 7. They survived two years… Continue reading Gaza: Deal or No Deal
Every autocrat needs an enemy who threatens the country—preferably from both sides of the border. Such an enemy can serve as the reason to suspend the rule of law and boost executive power. For Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it’s been the Kurds. For India’s Narendra Modi, it’s been the Muslims. For Russia’s Vladimir Putin, it… Continue reading Is American Carnage About to Spread to Venezuela?
World leaders meet every September for the UN General Assembly. There have been plenty of weird moments over the years: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe on the table in 1960 to stop the leader of another country from criticizing him, Fidel Castro going on for more than four hours in a speech that… Continue reading Trump at the UN: The Braggadocio of Evil
Jesters once had considerably more leeway than the average person to make fun of the king. If otherwise loyal subjects made light of their leader, they could lose their head. Jesters, however, could test the limits of the possible with relative impunity—until they crossed the line and lost their heads as well. Donald Trump hasn’t… Continue reading Trump: It’s Not Funny Anymore
In military coups, the generals take over from one day to the next. Civilian presidents, when they declare martial law, assume emergency powers and start immediately ruling like dictators. But the more common method of destroying a democracy these days is through death by a thousand cuts. Elected leaders only gradually undermine democratic institutions and… Continue reading Slow-Motion Authoritarianism
The Trump administration is currently attempting to rewrite American history by whitewashing the country’s negative legacy and scrubbing out references to anything connected to multiculturalism or diversity. Gone is Harvey Milk’s name from a Navy ship and Bea Arthur’s contributions to the Marine Corps from a Pentagon webpage. The administration attempted to remove Harriet Tubman… Continue reading The Geopolitics of the “Great Man”
Most Israelis are too focused on the atrocities that Hamas committed on October 7 to acknowledge, much less denounce, the atrocities their government is committing on an ongoing basis in Gaza. The Israeli public is desperate to save the 20 or so remaining Israeli hostages that are being hidden somewhere in that besieged strip. Israelis… Continue reading Is a State the Reward for Genocide?