Scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the U.S. a more responsible global partner.
Human Rights

The Great Myth: Counterinsurgency

by | Jul 22, 2010

There are moments that define a war. Just such a one occurred on June 21, when Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry helicoptered into Marjah for a photo op with the locals. It was to be a capstone event, the fruit of a four-month counterinsurgency offensive by Marines, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, and the newly minted Afghan National Army (ANA) to drive the Taliban out of the area and bring in good government.

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60 Second Expert: Sudan

by , | Jul 19, 2010

With widespread allegations of fraud, voter intimidation, and the withdrawal of nearly all opposition candidates, the conclusion of Sudan’s elections is unsurprising. Receiving 68 percent of the national vote, indicted war criminal Omar al-Bashir has maintained his grip on the presidency. Post-election Sudan appears very similar to pre-election Sudan.

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Social Forum Moments to Combat Cynicism

by | Jul 18, 2010

Whenever the social forum speaks of itself as the future of the U.S. Left, vexing issues arise: Can any coherent political program emerge from an amorphous, multi-issue assembly? Can we formulate a vision of the Left without more serious participation from key progressive constituencies such as organized labor? Can the collection of radicals and community-based organizations that are present here become a political force with mainstream reach, or are they too self-marginalizing? The answers are not easy to come by, and non-starry-eyed attendees can easily grow wary in contemplating such imposing matters.

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Review: ‘I Go to the Ruined Place’

Review: ‘I Go to the Ruined Place’

by | Jul 16, 2010

The infamous torture photos from Abu Ghraib were first released to the public in 2003. The horrific images of prisoners hog-tied and beaten naked, leashed like dogs with bags over their heads, and posed in forced sexual positions — all with grinning U.S soldiers in the background — rode with us on the morning commute, made their way onto our computers at lunchtime, and sat with us during the six o’clock news.  The pictures were a challenge as well as a revelation. As editors Melissa Kwasny and M.L Smoker write in their introduction of I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights: “We suddenly seem[ed] to be asked to decide to what extent we will stand up and speak out for human rights.”

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Look to Women to End Conflict in Kyrgyzstan

by | Jul 9, 2010

By bringing together local women of different ethnicities in Kyrgyzstan to collaborate on rebuilding their communities, women are addressing the root causes of the violence in their region: years of unaddressed mistrust and separation among ethnic groups, as well as crumbling social infrastructure and welfare systems.

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Congo’s Quest for Liberation Continues

Congo’s Quest for Liberation Continues

by , | Jun 30, 2010

Congo has long been the focus of resource exploitation. The first era of colonization in Africa, beginning in the mid-1880s, was most pronounced in this central African country. Belgium’s King Leopold brutalized the population in his quest for rubber and riches, leaving a legacy of natural resource exploitation by white Europeans in the heart of Africa.

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U.S. Hijacks ICC conference

by | Jun 29, 2010

The United States managed to foil the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) adoption of the crime of aggression as part of its mandate during this month’s review conference in Kampala, Uganda. But the U.S. presence at the conference demonstrates a new engagement with the ICC, and the Obama administration’s interest in helping to shape international law.

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