Analysis

China’s Bad Day in Court

August 4, 2016

MEL GURTOV - As had been widely expected, the Permanent Court of Arbitration under the UN Convention on he Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) ruled on July 12 in favor of the Philippines’ suit to declare Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea (SCS) illegal. On every particular, the court found that...

Tags: Mel Gurtov, President Xi Jinping
Posted in Analysis, August 2016 | No Comments »

Obama Considering Nuclear Reductions Via Executive Order

July 28, 2016

RAMESH JAURA - Despite protests by Republican congressional leaders and the heads of Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, President Barack Obama is garnering wide support for his reported plan to implement at least a part of his cherished nuclear agenda through a series of executive actions during the next months before leaving...

Tags: Ben Rhodes, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation, Hiroshima, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Nagasaki, Ramesh Jaura, U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey, Vladimir Putin
Posted in Analysis, July 2016 | No Comments »

“No Conflict Has Ever Been Solved with Violence”

July 26, 2016

WINSLOW MYERS - Martin Luther King Jr., in his famous Riverside Church speech of 1967, “Beyond Vietnam,” cataloged the ingredients of the toxic brew we must acknowledge and eliminate if we really hope to make America great: rampant racism, materialism, and militarism.

Tags: Bernie Sanders, Martin Luther King Jr., Winslow Myers
Posted in Analysis, July 2016 | No Comments »

Abolish NATO

July 24, 2016

TOM MAYER - A passionate denunciation of NATO is given by Dennis J. Halliday, former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General (1994-98): “NATO as it expands today is absolutely not what the world of struggling economies and deprived populations require. It is nothing, but a negative force. It is undermining an already fragile United Nations. NATO...

Tags: NATO, Tom Mayer
Posted in Analysis, July 2016 | No Comments »

The Wars Have Come to U.S. Soil

July 22, 2016

PATRICK T. HILLER - The war that has come home is that of unchallenged U.S. militarism. While easily identifiable in wars abroad, the sometimes subtler forms of militarism played out in six ways over the last days.

Tags: Black Lives Matter, Patrick T. Hiller, Rush Limbaugh
Posted in Analysis, July 2016 | 1 Comment »

Time for a Woman to Lead U.N.

July 20, 2016

TRUDY RUBIN - When it comes to Western political leaders, we have definitely arrived at The Time of the Woman. Hillary Clinton is the first serious female candidate for U.S. president, Theresa May just took over as British prime minister, and Germany's Angela Merkel remains the most powerful European politician. Moreover, the nationalist Marine...

Tags: Ban Ki Moon, Trudy Rubin, UNESCO, Vladimir Putin
Posted in Analysis, July 2016 | No Comments »

U.S. Plans to Saturate Globe With Weapons

July 18, 2016

DAVID SWANSON - As the United States and NATO antagonize Russia, and pressure NATO members to buy more weapons, and showcase U.S. weapons in numerous wars, and use every carrot and stick in the State Department to market U.S. weapons, an "official" who happens to have been located at a giant weapons trade show...

Tags: Crimea, David Swanson, drone warfare, Hillary Clinton, NATO
Posted in Analysis, July 2016 | No Comments »

Democratic Socialism Returns to the U.S.

July 16, 2016

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER - It’s clear that democratic socialism has made a comeback in American life.

Tags: Bernie Sanders, Democratic Socialists of America, Eugene V. Debs, Hillary Clinton, Lawrence S. Wittner, Michael Harrington, New Deal
Posted in Analysis, July 2016 | No Comments »

Keep Your Guns But Repeal the Second Amendment

July 12, 2016

TOM H. HASTINGS - My real point on the Second Amendment is that it effectively blocks sane control of weaponry. Repealing the Second Amendment would not affect anything that most gun owners feel is desirable. But the Second Amendment as interpreted by the Supremes does make it possible for the gun industry, through its...

Tags: NRA, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, Tom H. Hastings
Posted in Analysis, July 2016 | No Comments »

What is Really Going on in China?

July 10, 2016

MEL GURTOV - Will the real China please stand up? In the US media, most stories about China raise questions that amount to threat-mongering. How can China’s “aggressiveness” in the South China Sea be stopped? Is China forming a new alliance with Putin’s Russia? Has China hacked its way into...

Tags: Cold War, International Monetary Fund, Mel Gurtov, South China Sea dispute, UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, World Bank
Posted in Analysis, July 2016 | No Comments »

Recruiting Child Soldiers in the United States

July 4, 2016

ROBERT C. KOEHLER - What’s the difference between education and obedience? If you see very little, you probably have no problem with the militarization of the American school system — or rather, the militarization of the impoverished schools . . . the ones that can’t afford new textbooks or functional plumbing, much less art...

Tags: Child Soldiers Prevention Act, Junior ROTC, Robert C. Koehler, Veterans for Peace
Posted in Analysis, July 2016 | No Comments »

We Shall Be Heard: Nonviolence is the Key to Social Gains

July 2, 2016

JOSE-ANTONIO OROSCO - Fifty years ago this past March, a small group of activists left Delano, California and began a march to Sacramento to raise national awareness about the plight of farmworkers. By the time the march made it to the state capitol, its ranks had swelled to over 10,000 people. California politicians and...

Tags: Cesar Chavez, Jose-Antonio Orosco
Posted in Analysis, July 2016 | No Comments »

Report Includes Recommendations for U.S. Fathers

June 18, 2016

ROB OKUN - Millions of men will wake up Sunday to handmade cards, neckties, and, maybe, a new electronic gadget. It’s Father’s Day 2016, a time to acknowledge dear old Dad. But beyond this increasingly commercialized day of purchasing manly presents lies a deeper, more important question: where is fatherhood in the U.S. going...

Tags: Family and Medical Leave Act, Rob Okun
Posted in Analysis, June 2016 | No Comments »

Time for a Nonviolent Assault on Our Blood-Stained Congress

June 16, 2016

TOM H. HASTINGS - After the horrific shooting in Orlando there are some facts we might want to consider.

Tags: NRA, Tom H. Hastings
Posted in Analysis, June 2016 | No Comments »

Why Tuition-Free College Makes Sense

June 12, 2016

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER - The major argument for free public college and university education is the same as for free public education in general: like the free public elementary and high schools already existing in the United States, free public higher education provides educational opportunity for all and strengthens the American workforce.

Tags: Andrew Cuomo, Bernie Sanders, Charles Koch, David Koch, Hillary Clinton, Lawrence S. Wittner
Posted in Analysis, June 2016 | No Comments »

Evaluating Obama’s Foreign Policy Record

June 10, 2016

MEL GURTOV - How should we evaluate Obama’s foreign policy record? Right-wing critics will of course excoriate Obama for all the usual things—weakness against adversaries like Russia and China, negotiating with instead of subverting Cuba and Iran, eviscerating the US military, undermining relations with Israel. On the left, Obama is already being...

Tags: Benjamin Netanyahu, Cold War, Crimea, Donald Trump, drone warfare, Edward Snowden, George W. Bush, Guantanamo, Hillary Clinton, Keystone XL, Mel Gurtov, President Rouhani, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping
Posted in Analysis, June 2016 | No Comments »

Obama in Hiroshima Paints a Peace Sign on a Bomb

June 6, 2016

DAVID SWANSON - President Obama went to Hiroshima, did not apologize, did not state the facts of the matter (that there was no justification for the bombings there and in Nagasaki), and did not announce any steps to reverse his pro-nuke policies (building more nukes, putting more nukes in Europe, defying the nonproliferation treaty,...

Tags: David Swanson, Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Posted in Analysis, June 2016 | No Comments »

North Korea, Following China and India, Pledges No-First-Use of Nuclear Weapons. So Could Obama

May 29, 2016

JOHN LAFORGE - North Korea’s May 7 declaration that it would not be first to use nuclear weapons was met with official derision instead of relief and applause. Not one report of the announcement I could find noted that the United States has never made such a no-first-use pledge. None of three dozen news...

Tags: Clinton’s Defense Secretary William J. Perry, Def. Sec. Dick Cheney, Hiroshima, John LaForge, nonproliferation treaty, Sec. of State James Baker, Secretary of State Colin Powell, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer
Posted in Analysis, May 2016 | No Comments »

Woman Describes How Street Abuse Feels

May 25, 2016

LAURA FINLEY - It wasn’t the first time. Like most women—84 percent across 22 countries, in fact-- I have been catcalled by random men many times. In a widely shared 2014 experiment, a woman in New York City received 100 catcalls in just ten hours. But last night was definitely the scariest I have...

Tags: Laura Finley
Posted in Analysis, May 2016 | No Comments »

Yes to Assertive, No to Aggressive

May 23, 2016

TOM H. HASTINGS - I teach and write in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies, with a special focus on strategic nonviolence. It is a rich field, growing in its scholarship and its widespread usage. I’m so enthused by this—the more we wage our conflicts with nonviolence the lower the costs. Counting the...

Tags: Donald Trump, Marcos, Nelson Mandela, Pinochet, Slobodan Milosevic, Tom H. Hastings
Posted in Analysis, May 2016 | No Comments »

Peace, Not Russia, Is Real Threat to US Power

May 21, 2016

FINIAN CUNNINGHAM - The monstrous US military budget is a classic illustration of the proverb about not seeing the woods for the trees. It is such an overwhelming outgrowth, all too often it is misperceived.

Tags: Cold War, Finian Cunningham, NATO, President Dwight Eisenhower, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Posted in Analysis, May 2016 | No Comments »

Nuclear Ground Zero Is Everywhere Now

May 19, 2016

WINSLOW MYERS - Torture and rape are unbearable enough, but a nuclear war anywhere could throw billions of people into the misery of worldwide starvation. It is a dangerous illusion to assume that our political leaders and foreign policy experts will magically prevent apocalypse—that the generals on the front lines in Pakistan or anywhere...

Tags: Abu Ghraib, Bashar al-Assad, Missile Crisis of 1962, Senator Bernie Sanders, Winslow Myers
Posted in Analysis, May 2016 | No Comments »

Panama Papers Reveal How the 1% Operate

May 15, 2016

MEL GURTOV - One of the many tools at the disposal of multinational corporations (MNCs) for maximizing profits and undermining state sovereignty is moving operations to low-tax countries. Global companies do not simply “go abroad”; they shift capital, as well as labor and technology, to wherever the advantages are greatest. This reality...

Tags: David Cameron, Iceland’s Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Mel Gurtov, Nawaz Sharif, Oxfam, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping
Posted in Analysis, May 2016 | No Comments »

Here’s What a U.S. Military “Mistake” Looks Like

May 11, 2016

ROBERT C. KOEHLER - “The people are being reduced to blood and dust. They are in pieces.” The doctor who uttered these words still thought the hospital itself was a safe zone. He was with Doctors Without Borders, working in Kunduz, Afghanistan, where the Taliban and government forces were engaged in hellish fighting and...

Tags: Doctors Without Borders, International Committee of the Red Cross, Robert C. Koehler, Talaban, The Guardian
Posted in Analysis, May 2016 | No Comments »

North Korea’s New Weapons: Full Speed Ahead

May 5, 2016

MEL GURTOV - North Korea is on a military tear. How and when any of the weapons the North claims to have might actually be operational is open to speculation. What does seem clear is that Kim Jong-un is pressing his weapons specialists to produce a reliable deterrent that will force the issue of...

Tags: Kim Jong-un, Mel Gurtov, Six-Party Talks, Vietnam war
Posted in Analysis, May 2016 | No Comments »

Remembering Daniel Berrigan with Gratitude

May 3, 2016

KEN BUTIGAN - Daniel Berrigan has died, and so we have lost our great teacher who, flinty and generous and relentlessly persistent, taught us how to live in a culture of death and madness: “Find some people you can pray with and march with.”

Tags: Flannery O'Connor, Ken Butigan
Posted in Analysis, May 2016 | No Comments »

Voices of Reason vs the Doomsday Lobby

April 29, 2016

JOHN LAFORGE - In 2010, three high-ranking military officials including Air Force Colonel B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of the US Air Force’s Strategic Plans and Policy Division who had worked directly for the Secretary of the Air Force, published a major policy paper suggesting that the US should unilaterally cut its nuclear arsenal by...

Tags: John LaForge
Posted in Analysis, April 2016 | No Comments »

30 Ways Chernobyl and the Dying Nuke Industry Threaten Our Survival

April 27, 2016

HARVEY WASSERMAN - The on-going radiation releases from jalopy nuclear reactors impact our health and undermine our eco-systems every day, threatening our future on this planet, and standing in the way of the Solartopian Revolution in renewables and efficiency that must ultimately save our planet from ecological and economic ruin.

Tags: Cherno, Friends of the Earth, Fukushima Nuclear plant, Greenpeace, Harvey Wasserman, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Riverkeeper, Three Mile Island, Union of Concerned Scientists
Posted in Analysis, April 2016 | No Comments »

President Obama Should Go to Hiroshima, But Not Empty-Handed

April 25, 2016

KEVIN MARTIN - There couldn’t be a better audience, the Hibakusha, atomic bomb survivors, nor a better time for a president whose days in office are dwindling, for Obama to announce concrete steps toward the goal he enunciated in his Prague speech in 2009, the security of a world free of nuclear weapons.

Tags: G-7 nations, Hiroshima’s Peace Park, Kevin Martin, Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, President Bill Clinton, President John Kennedy, Secretary of State John Kerry
Posted in Analysis, April 2016 | No Comments »

“Modernizing” the Opportunities for Nuclear War

April 19, 2016

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER - A fight now underway over newly-designed U.S. nuclear weapons highlights how far the Obama administration has strayed from its commitment to build a nuclear-free world. The fight, as a recent New York Times article indicates, concerns a variety of nuclear weapons that the U.S. military is currently in the process...

Tags: Lawrence S. Wittner
Posted in Analysis, April 2016 | No Comments »

Nonviolence is the Key to Bloodless Occupations

April 17, 2016

TOM HASTINGS - Video footage of the Oregon State Police shooting of armed occupier LaVoy Finicum following a vehicular chase is so very sad to watch. Finicum may have been quite stupid in his belief that American public lands should belong to private ranchers, but he did not deserve to die. Sadly, he arranged...

Tags: George W. Bush, LaVoy Finicum, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Senator Ron Wyden, Tom H. Hastings
Posted in Analysis, April 2016 | No Comments »

What Should We Conclude From the Sanders and Trump Victories?

April 13, 2016

WINSLOW MYERS - Trump and Sanders in their stark difference both from each other and from establishment candidates exemplify our national duality: fear-mongering and oversimplification from Trump, idealism and authenticity from Sanders. Every four years we have a fresh chance to look both for the real America and for the best possible America. Fifty-seven...

Tags: Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Martin Luther King Jr., Winslow Myers
Posted in Analysis, April 2016 | No Comments »

Repeal of the Death Penalty is a Step Toward Peace

April 11, 2016

RON STEINER - Antonyms for “peace” could be any of the following: War, disagreement, hate, discord, agitation, disharmony, distress, frustration, upset, worry, disturbance. We can add the “death penalty” as an antonym to “peace.”

Tags: Ron Steiner
Posted in Analysis, April 2016 | No Comments »

Dragging Our Feet Toward Nuclear Disaster

April 9, 2016

IRA HELFAND - A United Nations meeting in Geneva could have enormous implications for United States national security, but it is being ignored by most of the media and by America’s political leaders. It deserves serious attention. A new policy-making body called the Open Ended Working Group consider...

Tags: International Red Cross, Ira Helfand, Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970, United Nations Conference on Disarmament
Posted in Analysis, April 2016 | No Comments »

Stifling Academic Freedom the NRA Way

April 7, 2016

LAURA FINLEY - That conservative forces have long sought to squash dissent and curtail rigorous academic debate on campuses is far from a secret. From the militarization of many campuses, academic repression of faculty, excessive and difficult-to-navigate bureaucracies, limitations on free speech and more, college students, staff and faculty members today face many...

Tags: American Association of University Professors, American Federation of Teachers, Laura Finley, NRA
Posted in Analysis, April 2016 | No Comments »

The Trillion Dollar Question

April 3, 2016

LAWRENCWE WITTNER - Isn’t it rather odd that America’s largest single public expenditure scheduled for the coming decades has received no attention in the 2015-2016 presidential debates? The expenditure is for a thirty-year program to “modernize” the U.S. nuclear arsenal and production facilities. Although President Obama began his administration with a dramatic public commitment...

Tags: 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Lawrence Wittner, Marco Rubio, SANE Act, Ted Cruz
Posted in Analysis, April 2016 | 1 Comment »

Building New “Nonviolent Cities”

March 29, 2016

JOHN DEAR - If Carbondale, Illinois can seek to become a nonviolent city, any city can seek to become a nonviolent city. This is an idea whose time has come. This is an organizing strategy that should be tried around the nation and the world. The only way it can happen is through bottom-up,...

Tags: International Cities for Peace, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mayors for Peace, Rev. John Dear
Posted in Analysis, March 2016 | No Comments »

Zero-Sum in Brussels: the Savage Vision Driving a Terror-Ridden World

March 24, 2016

CHRIS FLOYD - The atrocities in Brussels — and they are horrific, criminal atrocities — are not occurring in a vacuum. They are not springing from some unfathomable abyss of motiveless malevolence. They are a response, in kind, to the atrocious violence being committed by Western powers on a regular basis in many countries...

Tags: Chris Floyd, Madeline Albright
Posted in Analysis, March 2016 | No Comments »

10 Things To Know About Nonviolent Struggle

March 20, 2016

RIVERA SUN - Learning the meaning and practices of nonviolent struggle makes it accessible to everyone.

Tags: Gandhian nonviolence, Rivera Sun
Posted in Analysis, March 2016 | No Comments »

Diplomacy Needed in Dealing with North Korea

March 10, 2016

MEL GURTOV - The longstanding US approach to North Korea’s nuclear weapons is way off the mark. The Obama administration’s strategy of “strategic patience” shows little attention to North Korean motivations. The US insistence that no change in policy is conceivable unless and until North Korea agrees to denuclearize ensures continuing tension, the...

Tags: Kim Jong-un, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mel Gurtov, President George W. Bush, Secretary of State John Kerry, Six-Party Talks
Posted in Analysis, March 2016 | No Comments »

More U.S. Troops Killed by Halliburton than by Iraqis

March 8, 2016

DAVID SWANSON - The geniuses running the U.S. military set up U.S. bases in Iraq at the sites of old chemical weapons piles, dug giant burn pits into the ground, and began burning the military's trash -- monumental quantities of trash, something like The Story of Stuff on steroids. They burned hundreds of tons...

Tags: Agent Orange, David Swanson, Dick Cheney, Halliburton, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Saddam Hussein
Posted in Analysis, March 2016 | No Comments »

We Must Confront Our Toxic Legacy

March 6, 2016

ROBERT C. kOEHLER - Maybe if we declared “war” on poison water, we’d find a way to invest money in its “defeat.” David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz make this point: “The price tag for replacing the lead pipes that contaminated its drinking water, thanks to the corrosive toxins found in the Flint River, is...

Tags: Agent Orange, David Rosner, Flint, Gerald Markowitz, Robert C. Koehler
Posted in Analysis, March 2016 | No Comments »

Why Brother Bernie Is Better for Black People Than Sister Hillary

February 25, 2016

CORNELL WEST - The future of American democracy depends on our response to the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. And that legacy is not just about defending civil rights; it’s also about fighting to fix our rigged economy, which yields grotesque wealth inequality; our narcissistic culture, which unleashes obscene greed; our market-driven media,...

Tags: Children's Defense Fund, Cornell West, Marian Wright Edelman, Martin Luther King Jr.
Posted in Analysis, February 2016 | No Comments »

It’s Time to Stop Tinkering with Broken Social Systems

February 21, 2016

LAURA FINLEY. PHD. - I wish only that the U.S. would be brave enough, strong enough, creative enough…all those qualities on which we pride ourselves, which are viewed as quintessentially American…to stop messing around with deeply broken systems and to pursue radical transformations that will make the U.S. a better country.

Tags: Laura Finley
Posted in Analysis, February 2016 | No Comments »

What Republicans Risk By Obstructing Obama’s Supreme Court Nomination

February 19, 2016

BILL SCHER - Seeing the madness that is the Republican presidential primary, one could see why the Republican Party’s first instinct is to reflexively obstruct. But after making a cold calculation, clear-headed Republicans will see that the logical move is to make a deal. The only question remains: How many clear-headed Republicans are left...

Tags: Bill Scher
Posted in Analysis, February 2016 | No Comments »

Put the Threat of Nuclear War Back on Your Radar

February 17, 2016

IRA HELFAND - Recently, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced it was keeping its famous Doomsday Clock at three minutes to midnight. In making this decision, their panel of experts, including 16 Nobel Laureates, cited the growing danger of nuclear war. The danger of nuclear war? For most people today, the threat...

Tags: Doomsday Clock, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Ira Helfand, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Posted in Analysis, February 2016 | No Comments »

Open Your Heart for Valentine’s Day

February 15, 2016

ARVIN PARANJPE - In the United States, St. Valentine's Day is celebrated widely with candy, flowers, and private expressions of affection. I proposed to my wife on Valentine's Day and my kindergartner daughter, who was born on its eve, observes it with heartfelt cards to friends and family. I never suspected that St. Valentine's...

Tags: Arvin Paranjpe
Posted in Analysis, January 2016 | No Comments »

If Only the Nuclear Arsenal Were Fool Proof

February 11, 2016

JOHN LAFORGE - What is the government waiting for? Is a self-inflicted nuclear weapon disaster the only way to force the military to turn the nuclear pistols away from our heads and put the safety on?

Tags: John LaForge
Posted in Analysis, January 2016 | No Comments »

WAAAHHHH…But We Don’t Wanna Get Arrested!

February 9, 2016

MIKE FERNER - As the macho, gun-toting, testosterone-addled cowboys who took over the wildlife refuge in Oregon call it quits, their pitiful whine can be heard all the way to Florida: “Waaahhh…but we don’t wanna get arrested…” So much for the rugged-individualists and badass proponents of personal responsibility. Let’s see what happens as their...

Tags: Ed Kinane, Eugene Debs, Kathy Kelly, Mary Anne Grady, Mike Ferner, Scott Olson
Posted in Analysis, January 2016 | No Comments »

Time for a Reset in US-Saudi Relations

February 7, 2016

MEL GURTOV - How long must a so-called ally be tolerated and coddled, with mountains of arms, when its actions contradict US policy and violate international norms? Indefinitely, since access to oil, support of Israel, and reliance on the authoritarian Middle East monarchies have been staples of US policy for many decades. Yet wouldn’t...

Tags: Mel Gurtov
Posted in Analysis, January 2016 | No Comments »

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