Foreign Policy in Focus

Foreign Policy in Focus is a “Think Tank Without Walls” connecting the research and action of more than 600 scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the United States a more responsible global partner. It is a project of the Institute for Policy Studies. FPIF publishes timely commentaries on U.S. foreign policy, sharp analyses of global issues, and on-the-ground dispatches from around the world. We also are interested in pieces that explore the intersection of foreign policy and culture, and on dispatches from social movements involved in foreign policy.

Books

Citizen Pilgrim: Richard Falk’s Breakthrough against Israeli Apartheid toward Palestinians

A review of Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim, by Richard Falk. By Walden Bello | ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Richard Falk is universally regarded as one of the top minds when it comes to international law. Yet his views are not only unwelcome in establishment circles, but even among many […]

Climate Crisis

To end Fossil Fuels, take the Fight directly to the Corporations – That’s how Apartheid Fell

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Donna Katzin | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – On September 9, Harvard University President Larry Bacow heralded the university’s commitment to shift its $41.9 billion endowment — the largest in the world — to “a portfolio of investments that support the transition to the green economy.” Two weeks later, September 23, Boston […]

Afghanistan

Collective Punishment as War Crime: 90% of Afghan Families Lack enough Food because the West is Punishing the Taliban

Foreign Policy in Focus

By John Sifton | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation is spiraling into catastrophe. Millions of Afghans are now facing severe economic stress and food insecurity in the wake of the Taliban’s August takeover, set off by widespread lost income, cash shortages, and rising food costs. Officials with the UN […]

Afghanistan

For Afghan Women, the Frightening Return of ‘Vice and Virtue’

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Heather Barr | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – There is no better symbol for the disappearance of women’s rights in Afghanistan than the end of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the return of the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. When the Taliban on September 7 announced […]

Children

Child Labor is Growing: Which Side Are Democracies On?

Foreign Policy in Focus

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – This is the Year for the Elimination of Child Labor. What can democracies do to make this a reality? By Timothy Ryan | September 23, 2021 Two years ago, when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro favorably promoted the idea of labor for children as young as eight or nine, […]

Afghanistan

September 11 and the Debacle of ‘Nation-Building’ in Iraq and Afghanistan

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Walden Bello | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – In one of his interviews before the Taliban retook Afghanistan, John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, blamed the American failure in Afghanistan on a change in Washington’s mission from anti-terrorism to “nation building.” In his view, Washington should just have held strategic […]

Afghanistan

Will the End of the Afghanistan War provoke Reconsideration of American Militarism?

Foreign Policy in Focus

By David Bacon | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Many in the U.S. media continue to credit the good intentions of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, while belaboring its failure over 20 years to achieve any of them. But to say that the United States wanted a progressive, liberal democratic, and secular government […]

Arab World

Biden wants to end America’s 20-Year War on the Middle East: But Can He?

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Walden Bello | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Next September, when the last C-130 cargo aircraft and Chinook transport helicopters take off from the infamous Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan that has doubled as a CIA torture center for suspected jihadists, they will not only be leaving behind the site […]

Israel/ Palestine

How the UN Can Help End Israeli Apartheid and Persecution

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Louis Charbonneau | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – The latest outbreak of violence in Gaza is depressingly familiar. Scores of civilians, including children, were killed and injured. As usual, Israeli airstrikes in heavily populated areas of Gaza claimed the most victims, although Hamas rockets launched into Israel also killed and injured civilians. […]