Subterms
Every democratic society takes pride in having open discussion and debate, even when their governments prefer to keep certain subjects off the table if not out of sight. Freedom of thought and expression stands as a fundamental precondition to keep people involved in the business of government. In most modern democracies, the only effective power […] 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
A few days ago, Quaker Oats announced it would retire its 130-year-old brand of pancake syrup and breakfast foods, Aunt Jemima. The company acknowledged that the Aunt Jemima character was based on a racial stereotype. In the aftermath of the decision, other companies, among them Mars Food, followed suit announcing that it was time to […] More
In a curious article for The New York Times, John Gans delves into an analysis of the perennially bizarre phenomenon known in Washington by the name of John Bolton. The article uses the case of Bolton, the former national security adviser, to examine what Gans calls “the anarchy” at the core of the Trump administration’s […] More
In their effort to transform their discomfort with the current #BlackLivesMatter protests into a superficially sophisticated critique, right-wing “intellectuals” in the United States and Europe have latched onto a dubious historical analogy. When former congressman Newt Gingrich, the National Review’s David Harsanyi, Breitbart’s Joel Pollak and other right-wingers look at the protests against police violence, they […] More
Let me rant for a moment. I don’t do it often, maybe ever. I’m not Donald Trump. Though I’m only two years older than him, I don’t even know how to tweet and that tells you everything you really need to know about Tom Engelhardt in a world clearly passing me by. Still, after years […] More
The term soft power was coined by Joseph Nye in the late 1980s as a country’s ability to influence others without the use of force. Soft power is established in culture and grounded in history, unlike hard power, which is based on coercion and the use of military and economic means. Soft power and hard […] More
The impact of the #MeToo movement has no doubt been useful in getting us to speak about the traumas we experience in various spaces. But there is more to be done. Every institution, ranging from private to public, which includes professional, religious, political, educational and social organizations, is not exempt from its reach. However, when […] More
