Scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the U.S. a more responsible global partner.
Commentaries
Defeating Hitler and Saving Israel

Defeating Hitler and Saving Israel

by , | Sep 28, 2009

Avraham Burg, author of The Holocaust is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes (Palgrave Macmillan 2008), is a left-leaning dissident Israeli whose views on issues such as Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians are well-known but hardly mainstream. Burg comes from a distinguished Israeli political family, and was himself speaker of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, from 1999-2003 as a member of the Labor Party. He served as a paratroop officer in Israel’s Defense Forces, opposed the 1982 war on Lebanon, and was wounded in a 1983 grenade attack by an Israeli right-winger on a demonstration sponsored by Peace Now, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that supports a just peace and conciliation with the Palestinians. He also has been Chairman of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. His mother, born in what’s now the Israeli-occupied West Bank, survived the Hebron massacre of 1929; his father was a refugee from Nazi Germany in 1939.

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The Goldstone Report

by , | Sep 23, 2009

Judge Richard Goldstone’s report on the war in Gaza threatens the Obama administration’s global public diplomacy options and its scrupulously graduated approach to whatever passes for a Middle East Peace process. State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly complained that Goldstone opted for "cookie-cutter conclusions" about Israel’s actions, while keeping "the deplorable actions of Hamas to generalized remarks." However, Kelly urged the Israeli government to investigate further.

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Book Review: ‘IraqiGirl’

Book Review: ‘IraqiGirl’

by , | Sep 23, 2009

After nearly seven years of ongoing war and occupation, many in the United States are resigned to wait for December 2011—the promised date for final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraqi soil. It’s been easier for Americans to ignore the Iraq War as headlines have faded as the war in Afghanistan becomes more prominent. But in Iraq, the war and occupation remain central to the lives of Iraqis where they are living with feeble security; a lack of basic services including electricity, water, and sanitary services; inadequate access to health care; and, a devastated economy.

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Oil Nationalism in Latin America

by , | Sep 21, 2009

Latin America is endowed with 132 billion barrels of “proven” oil. Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, and Ecuador have significant reserves and strong state involvement in the exploration and production of oil through their nationalized companies PetrÛleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), Petrobras, Pemex, and Petroecuador, respectively. There have been several notable legal developments this year in all four nations, which will have consequences for U.S. energy policy and thus its relations with oil providers overseas.

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Afghanistan and the German Peace Movement

by , | Sep 18, 2009

On September 4, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force conducted an airstrike on a fuel tank hijacked by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan. The attack killed dozens of people including civilians, according to NATO sources. However the German Minister of Defense, Franz Josef Jung, has stubbornly denied that the attack harmed civilians, insisting instead that “only Taliban were killed.” Jung even verbally attacked NATO and EU statements on the topic, saying that “other countries should not interfere.”

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The Global Health Debate

by , | Sep 18, 2009

With controversy still raging over national health reform in the United States, the media is paying little attention to an international debate on global health policy that is of major importance to the world’s poorest people. Both debates revolve around a similar theme, which President Barack Obama neatly summarized in his recent landmark address to Congress as "the appropriate size and role of government" in the provision of health services.

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