Subterms
If the United States had quick-thinking and efficient leadership, the pandemic would have infected about 100,000 people and killed only a couple thousand. That’s the experience of South Korea, times seven to account for the difference in population. If the United States had overwhelmed but reasonably sensible leadership, the coronavirus pandemic would have racked up […] More
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, dispenses with illusions in his reading of the likely historical consequences of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s move to annex up to 30% of the occupied West Bank. Israel is expected to unilaterally proceed with the announced annexations of Palestinian territory in the name of implementing the Trump […] More
As the joke goes, when confronted by a grizzly, you don’t have to outrun the bear — you just need to outrun your camping partner. With the bear symbolizing every form of headwind that both candidates in the 2020 US election face — from COVID-19, ongoing protests and the US economy to a dozen-odd domestic and […] More
Dear Americans, Allow me to welcome you in your steady evolution into our world. According to your leaders, Democrats and Republicans, you are either “lowlifes” or “deplorables.” There is bipartisan agreement on this. That’s a very good start. Where I come from, the Arab world, we have gone beyond that. Long ago. We are not […] More
Uncertainty hangs over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pending decision on whether to annex as much a 30% of the West Bank, including the possibility of all existing Israeli settlements there and the entire Jordan Valley. Should he proceed, the proposal will go before the Israeli cabinet and the Knesset, where it will likely win […] More
Unreliable narrators are a staple of literature. Consider the delusional, self-serving narrator of Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” or the way Humbert Humbert used his cultured references and gorgeous prose to dress up his crimes in Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita.” Now along comes John Bolton and his account of time served in the Trump administration as national security adviser. Bolton’s […] More
Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC, is one of these institutions of higher learning that prides itself on being close to the locus of power, particularly to the who is who of American foreign policymaking. Or, at least, that was the case in the past. I should […] More
If the Trump administration follows through on its threat to restart nuclear tests, it will complete the unraveling of more than 50 years of arms control agreements, taking the world back to the days when school children practiced “duck and cover” and people built backyard bomb shelters. It will certainly be the death knell for the Comprehensive […] More
