Colonialism

Jessica Northey | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – Marine Le Pen’s declaration that colonialism was a positive thing is not only a denial of France’s painful history, but an example of the fascism that we now face in Europe. When we see or hear evil we have a moral imperative to call it out. Otherwise […]

Arab World

Mideast Partition Plans won’t Bring Peace, just Imperial Social Engineering

contributors

By Laura Robson | (Informed Comment) | – – The idea that partition and population exchange might represent “solutions” to Middle Eastern conflict, long advocated by a wide variety of observers and commentators, is being put to the test. Diplomats and pundits alike have proposed the sectarian partition of both Syria and Iraq for years. […]

art and photography

Photo of the Day: Sad Girl, Happy Girl, Iran 1900 (Sykes)

Juan Cole

British Museum | Sir Percy Sykes | – – Two rural Iranian girls of the Qajar era, 1900, one sad, one mischievous. Via British Museum Museum number: Sykes.453 Description: Lantern slide, showing two young girls posing. Iran. Producer name: Photographed by: Gen Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes KCIE Date: 1900 (circa) Materials: glass

Archaeology

Top Five ways Jesus was not White

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Given the alarming rise of white nationalism in the United States and the ways in which it is often entangled with Christian nationalism, it is worthwhile remembering whose birth, exactly, is being commemorated today. The association of Christianity with whiteness is relatively new in history, as […]

Arab World

Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

contributors

By Christopher M. Davidson | (Informed Comment) | – – Swept along on a tidal wave of euphoria, by spring 2011 many had cautiously begun to believe that the wave of Arab uprisings that had already managed to topple the regimes of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak would herald the dawn of […]

Colonialism

60 Years later, Suez Crisis looks a lot like Iraq War

contributors

By Nigel Ashton | (The Conversation) | – – Does history repeat itself? Never perfectly or precisely, but some of the parallels between Anthony Eden’s handling of the 1956 Suez Crisis and Tony Blair’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq are worth pondering. In both cases prime ministerial decision-making dictated the course of British […]

Colonialism

Colonial Slow Genocide: Palestinian Leader Abbas asks Britain for “Balfour” Apology

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Mahmoud Abbas, president of Palestine, is asking Britain for an apology for its having in 1917 issued the infamous “Balfour Declaration.” He won’t get one. The difference between the North Atlantic countries and the rest of the world is that the former are still committed to […]

Colonialism

Architects of Failure: 100 years of Sykes-Picot

contributors

By Akil N. Awan | ( History Today) | – – How an agreement signed in 1916 became shorthand for western treachery, greed and the impact of colonial machinations on the lives of local peoples. One of the most striking observations, when comparing a map of Europe with one of the Middle East or North […]

Colonialism

Britain should stop trying to pretend that its empire was benevolent

contributors

By Alan Lester | (The Conversation) | – – The recent debacle of David Cameron’s filmed condemnation of Nigerian and Afghan corruption and the Queen’s remark on Chinese officials’ rudeness highlights the persistence of imperial thinking in Britain. There seems to be a continuing assumption within the British establishment that it sets an example for […]