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
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
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?
Sometimes, when the electricity goes out in a city, everyone works together to maintain order, help the most vulnerable residents, and find ways of coping with the temporary disruption. Every so often, however, a blackout leads to anarchy: looting, violence, and all against all. To many observers, the world is currently experiencing a blackout with… Continue reading Is the World Order Collapsing?
He promised to end the war in 24 hours. He made nice with Russian President Vladimir Putin and parroted Kremlin talking points. He humiliated Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in front of the cameras in the Oval Office. He refused to send more weapons to Ukraine. But that was the old Donald Trump. The new Donald… Continue reading Trump’s About-Face on Ukraine
There are always worse political figures waiting in the wings. In Israel, for instance, Benjamin Netanyahu is a relative moderate compared to some members of his cabinet, like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who believes that letting two million Palestinians die of hunger in Gaza is “justified and moral.” In Russia, ultranationalists to the right of Putin espouse racist… Continue reading A New Far Right American Party?
A spate of break-ins has been taking place in your neighborhood. Armed thugs associated with a crime syndicate have been knocking down doors and grabbing what they can. The police show up only after the assaults, which have led to injuries and even a few deaths. Under-resourced and overstretched, they haven’t been able to thwart… Continue reading Iran and the Nuclear Order
“We’re back,” I tell the room. It’s January 21, 2029, and I can barely contain my excitement. “America is back!” I expect applause, but there is none. I try again, louder this time. “After four long years, America is finally back! We’re ready to resume our international obligations!” The members of the U.N. Human Rights… Continue reading Approaching the End of Liberal Internationalism
The Trump administration has sidelined Congress, violated the U.S. Constitution, and taken an axe to both the U.S. and the global economies. Trump has issued executive orders that give him unprecedented presidential powers. The courts have blocked many of his policies, but in the budget bill pending in the Senate, there is a clause buried in… Continue reading Martial Law in the United States
The falling out between Donald Trump and Elon Musk would make a grand opera. Two titans of business who entered a political marriage of convenience have had a predictable clash of egos and, instead of parting company privately, have flung mud at each other in public. Coming to the Met in 2026: Philip Glass’ monumental Musk… Continue reading War at the Top
Beginning in the late 1980s, Eastern Europe shifted from being a political backwater to a political bellwether. By shrugging off the Soviet yoke and exiting communism, the region pointed toward the future collapse of the Soviet Union and the cresting of a third wave of democratization. The fast-track liberalizations of Eastern Europe in the 1990s… Continue reading The Far Right’s Tipping Point
The clean energy transition that the Biden administration touted as the focus of its industrial policy required large amounts of mineral inputs. Batteries for electric vehicles depend on lithium, solar panels contain gallium and molybdenum, and powerful magnets in wind turbines can’t be built without rare earth elements. Biden’s landmark legislation, such as the 2022… Continue reading Trump Dreams of Minerals: in Ukraine and Greenland
It’s always been something of a shock to return to the United States after a stay in Europe or northeast Asia. Things just run better in those parts of the world. The public transportation is fast and efficient. The medical services provide universal care. Infrastructure isn’t in a state of decline. Green spaces are well… Continue reading Department of Government Chaos, Revenge, and Patronage
Donald Trump is a polarizing figure in the United States. He has also succeeded in dividing the world. Particularly with the tariffs he instituted on “Liberation Day,” Trump has transformed the political landscape in countries around the world. In the recent Canadian elections, for instance, the candidate most like Trump saw his popularity crater after… Continue reading The Trump Effect on Elections Globally
Maybe you remember an incident like this from your schooldays. Someone in your class has done something wrong, like pass around a caricature of the principal, and the teacher decides to punish the whole class by taking away your recess. Maybe this is done to force the culprit to confess, or to pressure you and… Continue reading The Obscenity of Collective Punishment in Gaza
Let me be clear about my preferences. I would very much like to see Ukraine regain all of its territory, including Crimea. Russia should decisively lose the war that it started. In the best of all possible worlds, Vladimir Putin would be deposed and transferred to The Hague to face charges of war crimes. A… Continue reading Ending the War in Ukraine
The best way of preventing authoritarian leaders from overthrowing democracies is to make sure that they never get into power in the first place. That’s what the French did last year when parties on the left united and then made a second-round pact with the centrists to prevent Marine Le Pen and her far-right National Rally from… Continue reading How to Stop an Autocrat
Almost exactly 30 years ago, Canadian Bacon depicted a U.S. president picking on his neighbor to the north to boost his sagging approval ratings. Starring Alan Alda, John Candy, and Rhea Perlman, the film was supposed to be a comedy. Director Michael Moore was trying to satirize the U.S. penchant for invading other countries. Taking that notion… Continue reading The Disintegration of North America
Dictators defend their rule with guns. Democrats defend their rule with paper. Of course, the constitution that upholds democracy is not just any piece of paper. It is a document backed up by political institutions, by courts, and by the public will. In a normal situation, this paper is stronger than military force or police… Continue reading Ripping Up Constitutions
The news of Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest surprised me. It’s not that I doubted the former leader of the Philippines was guilty of the horrific crimes detailed in his International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant. Duterte himself boasted quite openly of the mass killings he’s been accused of. But I always thought that the prospects of… Continue reading Can Europe Stop Putin and Trump?
Israel has resumed its aerial bombardment of Gaza. The latest ceasefire, which lasted two months and led to the release of 33 Israeli hostages and 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, never made it out of its first stage. The Israeli government has now adopted a strategy of inflicting overwhelming violence until Hamas capitulates by releasing… Continue reading The Illusion of Ceasefires
The Trump administration objected so strenuously to a recent speech by South Africa’s ambassador that it expelled him from the United States. What did Ebrahim Rasool say that was so objectionable? Honestly, the speech he made at a webinar sponsored by a South African research institute was rather boring. But embedded in his remarks is… Continue reading It’s Time: Boycott America
Back in 2021, Donald Trump called cryptocurrency “a disaster waiting to happen” and a “scam.” Takes one to know one, right? As he got closer to regaining the White House, however, Trump changed his mind about this “scam,” probably as a result of the millions of dollars that flowed into his campaign coffers from industry… Continue reading Crypto and the Far Right
During the Cold War, the United States waged a war of ideas with the Soviet Union to capture the hearts and minds of the rest of the world. It was in many ways a lop-sided contest, at least in terms of popular appeal. The United States had pop songs, Pop art, Pop-Tarts, not to mention… Continue reading The End of U.S. Soft Power?