Departments

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international relations

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    3/22/2021

    Does Biden Really Want to End the Forever Wars?

    by Jack Goldsmith and Samuel Moyn

    Recent presidents, including Joe Biden, have relied on an expansive view of presidential powers under Article II of the Constitution to conduct military action outside of the framework of declared war. 

  • SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
    3/17/2021

    The Quintessential Institutionalist

    by Donald Alexander Downs

    Walter LaFeber's legacy goes beyond scholarship to his work as a champion of academic freedom and open debate, writes his former colleague political theorist Donald Alexander Downs. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    3/12/2021

    Congress May Have To Act To Punish Saudi Arabia

    by David M. Wight

    Political pressures have made US presidents less disposed than Congress to impose limits on the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia. If arms sales are to be a lever for change in the kingdom, it will probably be up to Congress to make it happen. 

  • SOURCE: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
    3/1/2021

    A Rapidly Globalizing World Needs Strengthened Global Governance

    by Lawrence Wittner

    "The world is currently engulfed in crises—most prominently, a disease pandemic, a climate catastrophe, and the prevalence of war—while individual nations are encountering enormous difficulties in coping with them."

  • SOURCE: University of California Press
    2/9/2021

    Who Gets to Govern the Global Economy?

    by Christy Thornton

    Johns Hopkins Latin Americanist Christy Thornton describes her book "Revolution In Development" and its contribution to understanding how Mexican officials fought against dismissive treatment from the world's leading economic powers as they sought a voice in shaping the international economic order. 

  • SOURCE: Public Books
    1/25/2021

    How Versailles Still Haunts the World

    by Joanne Randa Nucho

    Anthropologist Joanne Randa Nucho and Public Books present a virtual forum on the ongoing legacies and impacts of the Treaty of Versailles. 

  • SOURCE: The Guardian
    12/22/2020

    Biden Wants to Convene an International 'Summit for Democracy'. He Shouldn't

    by David Adler and Stephen Wertheim

    Joe Biden has proposed a summit of democratic nations; this would be an unfortunate exercise in dividing the world into camps of nations following the US and those opposed, without strict regard for whether those nations actually practice democracy. Instead, the authors argue, the US must lead by example: close tax shelters, put the wealthy under the rule of law, and help other nations to control their oligarchs. 

  • 12/20/2020

    Peace is Good. But are More Peace Deals Necessarily Better?

    by Catherine Baylin Duryea

    The recent normalization of relations between Israel and Morocco extends longstanding covert cooperation between the two nations, but troublingly reflects Mideast politics that are increasingly aimed at isolating Iran. It also includes concessions that  contribute to the marginalization of the people of Western Sahara.

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    12/15/2020

    The World’s Most Important Body of Water

    by Daniel Yergin

    The author of a book on the dispute over control of the South China sea examines four critical decisionmakers whose actions shaped the present conflict. 

  • SOURCE: Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
    12/5/2020

    Wrestling With Woodrow Wilson’s Complicated Legacy

    A longtime Virginia political observer suggests that there is more to learn by considering Woodrow Wilson's complex social views and political legacy than by taking his clear racism as reason to hide him from sight. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    11/18/2020

    The World Is Never Going Back to Normal

    by Anne Applebaum

    American allies can read the newspapers, and have adjusted their expectations of American leadership accordingly in the last four years. It's unlikely a Biden administration can restore American leadership. 

  • SOURCE: American Conservative
    11/11/2020

    The Origins Of U.S. Global Dominance

    by Daniel Larison

    A conservative historian reviews a new book on the history of American interventionism and advocates for reorganizing foreign policy without the imperative to dominate the world. 

  • SOURCE: London Review of Books
    11/1/2020

    Warfare State (Review Essay)

    by Thomas Meaney

    Two new books articulate a critique from a conservative perspective of American military intervention abroad. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
    9/28/2020

    The forgotten alliance between Black activists and China

    by Chang Che

    Black activists have long leveraged American desires for international legitimacy to forge antiracist alliances with China. Today, the Black Lives Matter movement has received support from Beijing, but must consider the costs of an alliance with a regime with its own human rights issues.