Departments

;

imperialism

  • SOURCE: The Century Foundation
    3/7/2023

    America Broke Iraq, and Itself

    by Thanassis Cambanis

    "The U.S. occupation of Iraq normalized torture, impunity, manipulation of intelligence, and a new level of official mendacity."

  • SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
    3/10/2023

    Iraq War at 20: What the Neocons Got Wrong

    by Max Boot

    "I desperately wanted to believe that spreading freedom could solve the security dilemmas confronting the United States—that by doing good in the world, it could also serve its national security interests."

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    2/22/2023

    Drawing the Line between Assigning and Endorsing

    by Steve Mintz

    Controversies about recent books about the history and legacy of colonialism raise questions about what it means to assign – or refuse to – a book for students to read, discuss, and potentially critique, and how provocation works in the liberal model of inquiry. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    1/23/2023

    Why We Went to War on Iraq

    by Melvyn P. Leffler`

    One foreign policy historian argues that the decision to invade Iraq was made out of genuine concern for thwarting attacks on Americans and preserving the United States' ability to use military power in the Middle East. 

  • 12/4/2022

    Can the World Stop Imperialist War?

    by Lawrence Wittner

    It's past time to finish the halting progress made a century ago to rally international cooperation against imperial aggression. The stakes are too high to leave peace in the hands of individual nations. 

  • SOURCE: The Baffler
    8/18/2022

    Ailing Empires: The Rhetoric of Decline in Britain and the US

    by Jed Esty

    If the US is following behind Great Britain in experiencing the strains of a collapsing empire, can Americans, their leaders, and their thinkers learn any lessons from the comparison and make a post-imperial society that is more humane and less nasty? 

  • SOURCE: Public Books
    6/7/2022

    The Best Classroom is the Struggle: Teaching Imperialism

    by Joshua Sooter

    Even students who are able to overcome the cognitive dissonance provoked by learning about American imperialism struggle to imagine how knowledge can support work for a more just and democratic world order. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    5/22/2022

    Can We Condemn One Empire Without Affirming Another?

    by Moon-Ho Jung

    The experience of left-wing Japanese Americans, who rejected Japanese imperialism while being oppressed by American nationalism, shows that war forces an artificial binary of national allegiance. 

  • 5/8/2022

    The Dangerous Trend of Imperial Nostalgia – It's not Just Russia

    by Lawrence Wittner

    The embrace of the belief that nations are entitled to reclaim their past dominance underlies Russia's invasion of Ukraine but also is influencing the politics of Britain, France, China, and the United States. A renewed commitment to international cooperation is needed to thwart this dangerous turn. 

  • SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
    4/18/2022

    Is this the End of the Russian Empire?

    by Walter Russell Mead

    Historic empires have all ultimately faced a moment of reckoning when the reality of their fading power overcomes triumphal myths. The next phase of fighting in Ukraine will determine if that moment has come for Putin's Russia. 

  • SOURCE: Slate
    3/30/2022

    You Can't Teach "Pros and Cons" When it Comes to Empire

    by Priya Satia

    Far from encouraging critical thinking, the "balance sheet" approach to teaching historical atrocities like slavery or imperialism flatters the mythologies created by the powerful to excuse violence against others, says a historian of empire and parent of a high school student. 

  • SOURCE: New Statesman
    3/9/2022

    A Tale of Two Dictators: Putin's Relationship to Stalin's Legacy

    by Simon Sebag Montefiore

    Despite their ideological incompatibility, Putin's nationalism depends on the cult of fear and repressive apparatus of the Stalinist era, which was never comprehensively demolished after the fall of Communism. 

  • SOURCE: Dissent
    3/2/2022

    The Seeds of War

    by Gregory Afinogenov

    Putin's actions belie the argument that Russia was provoked by NATO expansion; Russian imperialism is driving neighbors toward the western alliance, not the other way around.