The Korean Peninsula: The Future of a Geopolitical Nexus
Korea has returned to the world stage as a crucial geopolitical nexus in the coming decade. It will affect in important ways the future of China, Japan, the United States, and perhaps Russia as well....
View ArticleU.S. Foreign Policy and American Public Opinion
As the U.S. elections approach, U.S. foreign policy is gingerly becoming one of the issues. It is no secret that over the past half-century, there has been a certain long-term consistency to U.S....
View ArticleMali: The Next Afghanistan?
Up to very recently, very, very few persons, outside of its immediate neighbors and its former colonial power (France) had even heard of Mali, much less knew anything about its history and its...
View ArticleObama Won: What Will Happen Now?
Obama won the U.S. elections with a significant margin both in the popular vote and in the Electoral College. The Democrats won every closely contested seat for the Senate except one. This relieved the...
View ArticleThe Latest Palestinian Skirmish: A New Ballgame?
The whole world watched the latest violent conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Everyone held their breath to watch Pres. Morsi of Egypt broker the truce, which for the moment is lasting. And...
View ArticleAusterity – At Whose Cost?
Everywhere, austerity is the demand of the day. To be sure, there are seeming exceptions for the moment in a few countries – China, Brazil, the Gulf states, and possibly a few others. But these are...
View ArticleGlobal Turmoil in the Middle Run
Making predictions in the short run (the coming year or two) is a fool’s game. There are too many unpredictable twists and turns in the real political/economic/cultural world. But we can attempt to...
View ArticleThe Structural Crisis: Middle-Run Imponderables
I have previously laid out why I think the capitalist world-system is in a structural crisis, and why this leads to a worldwide political struggle over which of two alternative outcomes will prevail:...
View ArticleThe Very Risky Bet of Hollande in Mali: The Probable Long-Term Disaster
On January 11, France’s President François Hollande sent in troops to Mali, a few immediately but then 3500, a sizeable number. The stated objective was to fight against the various Islamic...
View ArticleTurmoil in Tunisia and Egypt: Beginning or End of the Revolutions?
In Tunisia in December 2010, a single individual ignited a popular revolution against a venal autocrat, an uprising that was followed promptly by a similar eruption in Egypt against a similar venal...
View ArticleShould Non-Catholics Care Who is Named Pope?
Of course. The Vatican is a major geopolitical actor. Just as everyone around the world may feel concerned who becomes the leader of the United States, Germany, Russia, China, or Brazil, so we all feel...
View ArticleAfter a Charismatic Leader, What?
Pres. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has died. The world press and the Internet have been swamped with assessments of his achievements, ranging from endless praise to endless denunciation, with a certain...
View ArticleThe World Social Forum: Still Meeting Its Challenge
The World Social Forum (WSF) has just ended its now biennial meeting, held this time in Tunis. It was very largely ignored by the world’s mainstream press. It was attended by many skeptics who...
View ArticleEnd of the Road for Runaway Factories?
Ever since there has been a capitalist world-economy, one essential mechanism of its successful functioning has been the runaway factory. After a period of significant accumulation of capital by...
View ArticleWhose Interests are Served by the BRICS?
In 2001, Jim O’Neill, then chair of Goldman Sachs Assets Management, wrote an article for their subscribers entitled “The World Needs Better Economic BRICs.” O’Neill invented the acronym to describe...
View ArticleSyria: No Win for the West
Nothing illustrates more the limitations of Western power than the internal controversy its elites are having in public about what the United States in particular and western European states should be...
View ArticleBritain’s Search for a Post-Hegemonic Identity
Once upon a time, the sun never set on the British Empire. No more! In 1945, Winston Churchill famously said: “I have not become the King’s First Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British...
View ArticleTurkey: Dilemma of the Kurds
The world’s attention is focused at the moment on Taksim Square in Istanbul and the popular uprising against the government of Recip Tayyip Erdogan. Everyone is saying that the anti-authoritarian...
View ArticleUprisings Here, There, and Everywhere
The now persistent uprising in Turkey has been followed by an even larger uprising in Brazil, which in turn has been followed by a less noticed, but no less real, uprising in Bulgaria. Of course, these...
View ArticleThe World Left and Turmoil in Egypt
The very title of this commentary poses a question. What or who is the left? There is little agreement on this subject. I shall use the term to include any group that claims it is part of the left or...
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