Global Geopolitics

Special Economic Zones: A Nod Towards Capitalism in Venezuela

By Humberto Márquez
Venezuela is preparing to replicate the experience of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), a mechanism with which more than 60 countries have tried to draw investment and accelerate economic growth, while under its avowedly socialist government a "silent neoliberalism" is gaining ground.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the Last Statesman

By Roberto Savio
With the death of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last great statesman, and an entire epoch, disappears.

Will the Diplomat, Accused of Rape, be Prosecuted at Home?

By Thalif Deen
When UN diplomats are charged with civil or criminal offenses – from traffic violations to sexual abuse -- they avoid prosecution and civil law suits under cover of diplomatic immunity. It’s a privilege exercised by diplomats worldwide—including US diplomats in overseas postings.

How NOT to Win Friends and Influence People

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
After four years of Trump’s ‘America first’ isolationism, US President Joe Biden announced “America is back”. His White House has since tried to find allies against China and Russia. But it has not found many, especially in the Global South. His summit with Southeast Asian leaders was well attended, but promised little. Worse, his Summit of the Americas revealed fading US influence in its long-time backyard.

Grassroots Organizing Should Dump Biden and Clear Path for a Better Nominee in 2024

By Norman Solomon
Pundits are focused on Joe Biden’s tanking poll numbers, while progressives continue to be alarmed by his dismal job performance. Under the apt headline “President Biden Is Not Cutting the Mustard,” last week The American Prospect summed up: “Young people are abandoning him in droves because he won’t fight for their rights and freedom.”

A New Mideast Peace Plan: A Confederation of Israel, Palestine & Jordan

By Thalif Deen
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which dates back to the mid-1940s, is one of the longest military confrontations defying a permanent solution – even as it continues to be on the agenda of the United Nations whose primary mandate is the maintenance of international peace and security.

Sanctions Are a Boomerang

By Humberto Márquez
Economic sanctions against countries whose behavior is reproached by the West operate as punishment although they fail in their declared political objectives, and in cases such as Venezuela the contrast is clearly on display in the windows of high-end stores that sell imported goods.

The Camel, the Needle– and the UN’s first Woman Secretary-General

By Thalif Deen
A 2.0 version of an ancient Biblical saying reads: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a woman to become the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The male/female ratio for the Secretary-General stands at 9 vs zero. And the Presidency of the General Assembly (PGA), the highest policy-making body at the UN, is not far behind either.

New World Records: More Weapons than Ever. And a Hunger Crisis Like No Other

By Baher Kamal
While the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Summit ended in Madrid on 30 June with net commitments to double spending on weapons and to increase by eight-fold the number of troops in Europe, the total of hungry people worldwide now marks an unprecedented record.

NATO Summit Set to Further Militarise Europe, Expand in Africa?

By Baher Kamal
The three-day North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-NATO Summit in Madrid (28,29, 30 June 2022) is expected to agree to considerably increase Europe’s military power, heavily weaponise Russia’s border, and further expand its presence in Africa, according to a diplomatic source.

Nuclear-Armed Powers Squander $156.000 Every Minute on Their ‘MAD’ Policy

By Baher Kamal
They call it MAD: Mutual Assured Destruction. It is about the nuclear-armed powers' doctrine of military strategy and national security policy. And they spent on their MAD policy more than 156.000 US dollars, every single minute, in just one year–2021.

Who Should Be the Next UN Climate Change Head?

By Felix Dodds and Chris Spence
Patricia Espinosa’s six years as Executive Secretary of the UN’s climate change secretariat ends on July 15th. During her time in charge, she has led efforts to operationalize the 2015 Paris Agreement and inject greater urgency into the diplomatic process. Although progress has been difficult, COP26 in Glasgow added some momentum and arguably brought the UN process to the start of its next stage: implementation.

War in Ukraine Triggers New International Non-Alignment Trend

By Humberto Márquez
Numerous countries of the developing South are distancing themselves from the contenders in the war in Ukraine, using the debate on the conflict to underscore their independence and pave the way for a kind of new de facto non-alignment with regard to the main axes of world power.

Iran’s Economy Hostage to its Foreign Policy

By Ghazal Vaisi
The Islamic Republic of Iran faces widespread anti-government protests amid an economic crisis while doing little to ease tensions with the international community as it becomes a nuclear threshold state.

Countering Hate Speech Through Media: A Young Caribbean Woman’s Perspective

By Isheba Cornwall
Hate speech is a phenomenon that can be defined as threatening speech or writing expressing prejudice towards a specific group, primarily based on race, religion, or sexual orientation.

A Treasonous President and a Nation in Peril

By Alon Ben-Meir
I am at a loss for words to express my horror as I watched the first segment of the public hearing of the Congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. As long as the Republican Party denies what happened that infamous day and Trump remains free, this country faces unprecedented peril.

US President Biden Refuses to Mention Worsening Dangers of Nuclear War While Media & Congress Enable His Silence

By Norman Solomon
I’ve just finished going through the more than 60 presidential statements, documents and communiques about the war in Ukraine that the White House has released and posted on its website since Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in early March.

The UN Security Council is in Desperate Need of Comprehensive Reforms

By Alon Ben-Meir
Any fair analysis of the United Nations strongly suggests that the UN of today is not the same UN that was established in 1945. The United Nations Security Council in particular, which was intended to maintain international peace and security, has sadly outlived its usefulness in its current makeup.

Has the UN Transformed itself into a Vast Humanitarian Relief Organization?

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations, which has failed to help resolve some of the world’s ongoing and longstanding civil wars and military conflicts—including Palestine, Afghanistan, Yemen, Western Sahara, Myanmar, Syria, and most recently, Ukraine—was rightfully challenged by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his riveting address to the Security Council last April.

“Gun Control” at the Pentagon? Don’t Even Think About It

By Norman Solomon
New outcries for gun control have followed the horrible tragedies of mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo. “Evil came to that elementary school classroom in Texas, to that grocery store in New York, to far too many places where innocents have died,” President Biden declared over the weekend during a university commencement address.

So, Germany’s to Blame for Putin. Really?

By George Pagoulatos
Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has sparked a new introspection in the West. A number of commentators, most of them writing from the US and the UK, have come up with their latest scapegoat: Germany’s to blame, they say, with its decades-long policy of appeasing Russia. Really?
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