Departments

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international relations

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    7/20/2021

    Is the US Ready to Stop Being the World's Policeman?

    Historians Daniel Immerwahr and Stephen Wertheim are among the experts quoted on the rise of the idea of American interventionism and its reconsideration after twenty years of the War on Terror. 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    7/13/2021

    On the Brink in 2026 U.S.-China Near-War Status Report

    by Michael Klare

    The Pentagon's call for more funding to strengthen deterrence against China portends an escalation of tensions that could, in five years, plausibly put the two superpowers on the verge of war.

  • SOURCE: Dissent
    7/13/2021

    The Ethics of Coalition-Building

    by Samuel Moyn

    Can progressives justify alliances with the America-First right to push Biden to stop America's "forever wars"? 

  • SOURCE: Boston Review
    5/27/2021

    Beyond the Nation-State

    by Claire Vergerio

    Much of what has been told about the rise of the nation-state from the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 is wrong. Reevaluating the history of the nation-state is essential for conceptualizing solutions to local and global problems that defy the logic of the nation-state.

  • 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.