All Commentaries
What the Zapatistas Can Teach us About the Climate Crisis
With their 1994 battle cry, “Ya basta!” (“Enough already!”) Mexico’s Zapatista uprising became the spearhead of two convergent movements: Mexico’s movement for indigenous rights and the international movement against corporate globalization.
“WikiLeaks is a criminal enterprise”
Hawks are not above calling for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be apprehended on the territory of close U.S. allies, even without their consent.
Review: ‘Fixing Fractured Nations’
In their book, Fixing Fractured Nations: The Challenge of Ethnic Separatism in the Asia-Pacific, editors Robert G. Wirsing and Ehsan Ahari compiled essays on several of the major ethnic conflicts that have plagued the Asian continent over the past several decades. The book provides a comprehensive study of major ethnic conflict throughout Asia with sections on Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific Islands (with a focus on Papua New Guinea). In the concluding chapter, Ehrari places each of the essays into a geopolitical context shaped by the Cold War and by 9/11.
“Countdown to Zero” Eclipses Those on the Frontlines of Disarmament
Who or what mounts the frontlines of disarmament? Countdown to Zero, disarmament groups, the Obama administration?
Recent Colombian Mass Grave Discovery May Be “False-Positives”
“False positive” is the Colombian armed forces operation that murdered civilians and dressed them up in insurgent uniforms to fake the success of the army’s counterinsurgency strategy.
Israel Playing With a Fire It Expects the U.S. to Put Out
American neocons openly express the hope that any Iranian response to the Israeli attack would trigger full-scale U.S. war against Iran.
The Srebrenica Massacre, After Fifteen Years
The massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, in July 1995, is now being remembered worldwide, as this grim event reaches its fifteenth anniversary. This was the largest single mass killing of the entire Bosnian war, and indeed, it was the worst massacre that Europe has seen since the 1940s.
Uribe’s Parting Shot
The rupture of diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Colombia after a special session of the Organization of American States (OAS) on July 22 marks increased animosity between the outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez.
A Solution to Congolese Violence — or Empty Gesture?
As part of the sweeping financial reform bill signed into law this past week by President Barack Obama, a surprising legislative rider took effect seeking an end to the internal conflict plaguing Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The provision, which resulted largely from intensive lobbying efforts by the Enough Project to stop genocide, is designed to prevent destabilizing elements within the DRC from feeding off the country’s lucrative trade in precious metals. The DRC boasts rich deposits of tungsten, tantalum, and tin—metals commonly found in cell phones, laptops, video game consoles and other electronic devices—profits from which have long been seen to fuel the activities of non-state combatants there.
NorK “Coup-Proofed” From Both Within and Without
Regime change in North Korea not likely due to Kim Jong-il’s ingenuity as well as a lack of international consensus on how to proceed.