international affairs 
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2/2/20
If the Pentagon is worried by climate change, shouldn’t we be worried too?
by David Carlin
As the world warms, Syria offers a cautionary tale about how climate change may destabilize societies and sow global chaos.
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SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
1/9/20
The Global War of Error
by Tom Engelhardt
Failure is the new success and that applies as well to the “industrial” part of the military-industrial complex.
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SOURCE: Politico
10/26/19
Russia’s Long and Mostly Unsuccessful History of Election Interference
by Casey Michel
Trump’s willingness to allow foreign governments to influence American elections is historically unprecedented. Just how unprecedented becomes clear when you look back at the long history of attempts by foreign powers (almost always Russia) to tip an outcome to their advantage.
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SOURCE: NY Times
10/21/19
This Is the True End Of Pax Americana
by Ian Buruma
Mr. Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the world order.
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SOURCE: The New York Times
October 2, 2019
History Museum Explores Germans’ View of Britain
by The Associated Press
As Brexit looms, one of Germany’s main history museums is examining Germans’ views of the British, complete with a countdown clock that may be reset if Britain’s departure from the European Union is delayed.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
9/19/19
The State Department is weak and getting weaker. That puts us all at risk.
by Mark Edwards
We need a robust diplomatic engine at the heart of our foreign policy.
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SOURCE: NY Times
September 3, 2019
Around the World with Mao Zedong
by Ian Johnson
Julia Lovell's "Maoism: A Global History" traces the surprisingly wide influence of Chinese Communism.
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8/18/19
Many Historians Got It Wrong on Obama's Foreign Policy
by Jeremy Kuzmarov
Many historians appear to have been so mesmerized by Obama’s charisma and progressive domestic policies that they cannot properly criticize the foreign policy of Obama.
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8/18/19
When Clowns Rule the World
by Michael A. Genovese
Why are so many world leaders today literal or figurative clowns? Our century has ushered in the Age of the Clown Politician.
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SOURCE: Politico Magazine
7/5/19
How Fake News Could Lead to Real War
by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon
We think of false information as a domestic problem. It’s much more dangerous than that.
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SOURCE: Reuters
7/8/19
Japan, South Korea raise stakes in dispute over forced labor. History helps explain the conflict.
The countries share a bitter history dating to Japan’s colonization of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, which saw forced use of labor by Japanese companies and the use of “comfort women”, a Japanese euphemism for girls and women, many of them Korean, forced to work in its wartime brothels.
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SOURCE: NY Times
7/3/19
The Surprising History of Nationalist Internationalism
by David Motadel
Internationalism, a concept that, after all, implicitly presumes the existence of the nation, and extreme nationalism are not necessarily incompatible. The far right is less parochial than we think — and that’s dangerous.
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SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
5/21/19
Living in a Nation of Political Narcissists
by Tom Engelhardt
American election exceptionalism from 1945-2019.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
4/25/19
If China wants to lead the global order, it will need more than the Belt and Road Initiative
by Gregory Mitrovich
The program falls well short of the world-changing Marshall Plan.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
4/17/19
Why President Trump’s hard-line approach to Cuba is a mistake
by John Ermer
It opens the door to increased Russian influence on the island.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
4/12/19
Why women led the uprising in Sudan
by Nasredeen Abdulbari
Throughout Sudan’s history, women have played a central role in society.
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4/14/19
Is the Western World Declining and Russia Rising?
by Walter G. Moss
Yes, according to Glenn Diesen’s 2018 book The Decay of Western Civilization and Resurgence of Russia. But this isn't the first time scholars have made such a prediction and been wrong.
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SOURCE: NY Times
2/26/19
2020 Will See a Monumental Clash Over America’s Place in the World
by Stephen Wertheim
Is it time for the U.S. to confront other great powers — or to retreat?
News
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- Strangelove on the Square: Secret USAF Films Showed Airmen What to Expect if Nuclear War Broke Out
- The Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
- New Books Force Consideration of Reconstruction's End from Black Perspective
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- Historian's Book on 1970s NBA Shows Racial Politics around Basketball Have Always Been Ugly
- Kendi: "Anti-woke" Part of Backlash Against Antiracist Protest Movements
- Monica Muñoz Martinez Honored for Truth-Telling in Texas History