Subterms
The year 2020 has started in the West as the year of maximum suspense. The various dramas of 2019 had built to a crescendo that seemed unrivaled in the sheer number of open questions with no obvious answer history had thrown into the arena. Everyone was aware of the conflicts and debates that would determine […] More
Yes, our infrastructure stinks, our schools are failing, this country’s a nightmare of inequality and there’s a self-promoting madman in the White House. So, isn’t it time to take pride in the rare institutional victories America has had in this century? Arguably, none has been more striking than the triumphal success of the American war system. Oh, you’re going […] More
As vice president to Barack Obama, whose proudest claim to honor and presidential stature was the assassination of Osama bin Laden in 2011, Joe Biden understands what it means — at least in terms of political marketing — to fulfill the requirements of justice. Commenting on the US drone strike on January 3 that killed […] More
Scott Morrison is the prime minister of Australia. Over the past few months, parts of his country have gone up in flames. Hundreds of homes have been lost in widespread bushfires, and a number of Australians have lost their lives in the inferno. Apparently, the catastrophe at home did not trouble the prime minister. He spent his vacation […] More
When people live (and die) with a binary vision of the world, the same object may end up with two opposite meanings. This tends to be the norm in wartime, but the trend toward reducing everything to a binary opposition has increased radically in recent years, even in times of peace. The instinct to label […] More
China’s incredible rise as a global power over the past 30 years has really only been possible because of the liberal world order that America helped create, which Beijing used to its maximum advantage. China has embedded itself into the world order economically, diplomatically, technologically, in business and in so many other ways as a […] More
History is constructed out of symbolic moments. As the year 2020 and a new decade begin, US President Donald Trump has provided the iconic gesture destined to ensure that future memories of both the year and the decade will be focused on his towering personality. How Will Iran Respond to the Assassination of Qassem Soleimani? […] More
The year 2019 has ended. Traditions abound to celebrate the coming of a new year, and this time around a new decade. There seems to be some notion that celebrating the coming year will wash away all of the detritus of the year just ended and provide a clean slate for the new year. Nothing could be further […] More
