( Foreign Policy in Focus) – We all think that climate change is somebody else’s problem. We have to be persuaded otherwise. There is an astonishing statistic in a Pew research study released in 2020 on perceptions of how different countries handled COVID-19. Only 15 percent of people in a dozen countries around the world […]
Is America’s Political Dysfunction harming Democracy around the World?
Congressional paralysis, voter suppression, and widespread political polarization all suggest that American democracy is far from exemplary.
Not all Wars are Planned: China and the U.S. need to Stop Playing Chicken in the Taiwan Strait
( Foreign Policy in Focus) – When he was running for office in 2008, Barack Obama wanted to put an end to the war in Iraq in order to focus U.S. troops and resources on the conflict in Afghanistan. This August, the Biden administration finally withdrew the remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan. It’s hard not […]
Make them Pay Up: Pandora Leaks show that the Super-Rich rob Public of $200 bn a year in lost Tax Revenues
( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The rich have always flaunted their wealth. It was rarely good enough to enjoy financial success, you had to be conspicuous about it. They build enormous homes for everyone to gawk at. They throw lavish parties. They commission paintings, statues, biographies. They endow institutions so that their names […]
The military stood up to Donald Trump. Who will now stand up to the military?
( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – When he was trying to win the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon famously told his chief of staff that he wanted Communist leaders—in the Soviet Union, in North Vietnam—to think that the U.S. president was a mad man, that he was capable of doing pretty much anything up to […]
The Trump Albatross around Joe Biden’s Neck
( Foreign Policy in Focus) – The far right would like to impeach Joe Biden, kick him out of the White House, perhaps even throw him in jail. “Lock him up” has been a predictable chant at Trump rallies going back to before the 2020 election. Even Republicans in Congress have joined this chorus. Bipartisanship? […]
How can America Promote Democracy When the GOP Half of the Country Doesn’t Believe in it?
( Foreign Policy in Focus) – America desperately needs a dose of its own medicine of democracy promotion. By John Feffer | August 25, 2021 Arizona’s Maricopa County is ground zero in the continuing debate over election integrity in the United States. The so-called audit of the 2.1 million votes cast in that county in […]
Afghanistan is not the only place at risk of takeover by extremists: US has Dangerous Homegrown Radicals trying to Overthrow our Government
( Foreign Policy in Focus) – It’s as if a sudden natural disaster has just struck Afghanistan. The scenes from the capital Kabul reflect the kind of panic that comes when a Category 5 hurricane makes landfall, when the waters rise and the levees are breached, when a forest fire jumps over a fuel break […]
An Outbreak of Populist Stupidity: Why is the Global Right Wing jumping on the anti-Vaccination Bandwagon?
( Foreign Policy in Focus) – You’d think that the whole world could unite against a deadly virus. COVID-19 has already sickened over 200 million people around the world and killed over 4 million. It has now mutated into more contagious forms that threaten to plunge the globe into another spin cycle of lockdown. Avoiding […]