All Commentaries
Activist Listeners
Operating from Delhi since the early 1990s, Raqs Media Collective has developed a multifaceted body of work with a unique take on globalized culture. Mixing contemporary art with historical and philosophical theory, their diverse work consists of a wide range of old and new media techniques, including image-text collages, installations, performances, and media objects.
Rethinking Iran
This is part of a strategic dialogue on Iran. You can read Bernd Kaussler’s piece here.
Obama and State Secrets
Among other legacies of the Bush administration, President Obama must confront his predecessor’s use of the state secrets privilege. The state secrets doctrine protects information from disclosure when “there is a reasonable danger that compulsion of the evidence will expose matters which, in the interests of national security, should not be divulged.” It is typically applied during litigation, when one party seeks to obtain documents from its adversary though the discovery process and the government objects on national security grounds.
Setting Out the Conditions for ‘Success’ in Afghanistan
President Obama is right to be deliberate in contemplating General Stanley McChrystal’s request for a troop surge in Afghanistan, as that decision may determine the outcome of the eight-year U.S. engagement in Afghanistan and perhaps even the broader state-building process.
Lords of Misrule
The heads of major corporations won’t suddenly do the right thing even if someone — somehow, somewhere, some day — manages to reveal to them the errors of their ways.
The Struggle Against Free Trade Continues
On October 15th, La Mesa Nacional Frente a La Minería Metálica en El Salvador, also known as El Salvador’s National Roundtable on Mining, won the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award awarded by the Institute for Policy Studies for their fight against mining in El Salvador.
60-Second Expert: Torture and the Bomb
In 1945, the Truman administration’s historic decision to unleash atomic bombs on Japan challenged America’s values and shocked the world’s conscience. More recently, the Bush administration’s use of torture in the "war on terror" presents similar controversies. Despite the difference in era and method, the two stories reveal several disturbing parallels in how the U.S. government made and justified such landmark decisions.
A Shift in Focus: Changes in the Missile Defense Program
Author’s Note: On September 17th, President Barack Obama announced changes in the American missile defense program seeking a more proven and cost-effective system than that introduced by the Bush administration. Such changes are part of Obama’s new comprehensive foreign policy based on an assessment of actual threats and towards more diplomatic solutions. FPIF spoke with Kingston Reif, Deputy Director of Nuclear Non-Proliferation at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, to understand the reasons for the changes and its effects on American foreign policy. His work focuses on arms control, nuclear nonproliferation, nuclear weapons, and preventing nuclear terrorism.
Engaging with the Muslim World Will Require More than a Special Representative
A key facet of the Obama administration’s broader foreign policy strategy has been engaging with the Muslim world. This administration’s willingness to do so was welcomed as a beacon of hope across the globe and Obama’s speeches in the Middle East this spring brought long awaited overtures between America and Muslim communities.
Mexico’s Union Bust Reveals Flaws in NAFTA
Fernando Lopez woke up on a Sunday morning out of a job. For the electrical worker, the feeling was terrifying. "From one day to the next, they left us with no job — nothing," Lopez said, as he marched alongside some 200,000 fellow workers and their supporters...