When Joe Biden selected Antony Blinken to be his Secretary of State, Stephen Zunes, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, worried that the selection represented, not a correction, but a continuation of past interventionism and incompetence. As...
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s snide comment about the Russian-led military intervention in Kazakhstan at the invitation of that country’s beleaguered government to help quell the mounting violence there backfired quickly. The initial White House reaction to the...
"Impasse, Deadlock" says The Washington Post describing the outcome of the high-level U.S.-Russia talks Monday, with a tone of self-congratulation (we told you so), tinged with wishful thinking. Yes, wishful thinking. Given the very high stakes, the media is...
The Pentagon has finally published its first Airpower Summary since President Biden took office nearly a year ago. These monthly reports have been published since 2007 to document the number of bombs and missiles dropped by U.S.-led air forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and...
After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Warsaw Pact dissolved, the breakup of the USSR began. But the dissolution did not stop with the 14 Soviet "republics" declaring their independence of Moscow. Decomposition had only just begun. Transnistria broke...
The US and Russia are talking again today, but this time focused on Ukraine. The two sides are discussing President Vladimir Putin’s demand that America and NATO respect Moscow’s security interests. Having treated Russia as of no account since the collapse of the...
Originally posted at TomDispatch. Yes, it’s true. After 20 years of war – actually, more like 30 years if you count American involvement in the Russian version of that conflict in the 1980s – the U.S. has finally waved goodbye to Afghanistan (at least for now). Its...
On January 3, 2022, Emma Watson, a famous English actress, posted an image of a pro-Palestinian rally, with the words "Solidarity is a verb" written across it. It was accompanied by the following quote about the meaning of solidarity from the academic Sara...
An American Russia expert recently observed that diplomacy is not a reward for good behavior. Rather diplomacy is a necessary activity required for averting war. Skilled diplomacy requires one to understand the perceived interests of the other side and what shapes...
