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In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

Critical appraisals of foreign affairs and politics from a global-citizen perspective

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22Sep 202021 Sep 2020
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Post #274: Defeating a Demagogue: A Reminder from History

It may be small comfort as we watch Donald Trump try to cheat and bully his way to a second…

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12Sep 202011 Sep 2020
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Post #273: Trump’s China Diversion

The Trump administration’s orchestrated attack on China is commonly assumed to stem from upset over China’s human rights violations and…

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26Aug 202025 Aug 2020
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Post #271: The Israel-UAE Agreement: Good for a Few, Bad for Most

The Real Deal Commentators evidently desperate for good news are touting the Israel-United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreement as a welcome…

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APB

APB: Derelict Leadership on Health Security

21 Mar 202021 Mar 2020
If one event shows both Trump’s flawed character and his ineptitude, it would have to be his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. It is all about him, claiming superior knowledge…
BLOG

Post #257: NUKES: The Unmentionable Election Issue (Part 2)

17 Mar 202015 Mar 2020
Getting to Zero Where are the Democrats? Why isn’t the present nuclear danger front and center in the Democrats’ presidential debates?  I can think of a few reasons.  First, Democrats…
BLOG

Post #256: NUKES: The Unmentionable Election Issue (Part 1)

9 Mar 20208 Mar 2020
Overkill More is Better One of these days, national security policy will get a few minutes of campaign debate time. And when that day occurs, perhaps—just perhaps—attention will turn to…
APB

APB: Embarrassing Moments from Trump’s Visit to India

25 Feb 2020
Donald Trump abroad never ceases to entertain with his ignorance and misstatements. As India’s leaders learned from Trump’s previous visits to Saudi Arabia and China, all it takes is pomp…
APB

APB: Thanks to Trump, Iran Has the Upper Hand

8 Jan 20208 Jan 2020
The assassination of General Soleimani is proving to be a resounding success for Iran. It accomplished what the ayatollah could not: common ground between Iran and Iraq, Iraq’s invitation to…
BLOG

Post #247: From President to Autocrat

6 Nov 20195 Nov 2019
An Autocrat Like All Others A recent special issue of Foreign Affairs is devoted to profiling some of the world’s most prominent autocrats: Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,…
BLOG

Post #244: Listen to the Children

23 Sep 201922 Sep 2019
The Republicans are on the sidelines on the climate crisis.  Government scientists are muzzled.  Leading Democrats—though not all—are cautious.  CEOs of some of America’s biggest corporations are pledging action while…
BLOG

Post #243: No War for Saudi Oil!

17 Sep 201922 Sep 2019
Even if US intelligence decisively shows that some of the drones and cruise missiles used in the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields originated in Iran, a decision to go…
BLOG…

Post #240: Our Racist President

31 Jul 201930 Jul 2019
"Donald Trump lost the election because he veered so far off course from what it means to be a decent person, to be a leader, and to be an American.…
APB…

APB: The Caging of Human Rights

13 Jul 2019
At a hearing yesterday (July 12) on the Trump administration’s immigration policies, Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia was appropriately livid: "I never thought as a member of Congress — as…
BLOG

Post #272: The Election: Concerns, Confidence, Candidates

31 Aug 202031 Aug 2020
Five things that worry me about the election: • Biden’s declining support among Latinos; • Trump’s law-and-order appeal amidst violence and destruction of property in protest marches; • Domination of…
BLOG

Post #270: The World Bank’s Poverty Illusion

12 Aug 202016 Aug 2020
What would you estimate is the minimum amount of money you need to get by every day? $100? $50? The figure, of course, depends very much on where you live…
BLOG

Post #269: Falling Behind: COVID, Climate Change, and Chaos

2 Aug 20205 Aug 2020
Multiple Crises, Multiple Obstacles COVID-19 and the protests for racial justice have drawn attention away from the mostly bad news about the environment. Yes, the skies in most parts of…
BLOG

Post #268: The Trump Nightmare

23 Jul 202023 Jul 2020
By now it is an established fact that Donald Trump may, or may not, accept the results of the presidential election. He will definitely accept a win, and he “will…
APB

APB: Trump’s Occupy Portland Gambit

17 Jul 202019 Jul 2020
Federal troops in camouflage, without identification, heavily armed, uncommunicative, roving in unmarked cars, seizing and incarcerating peaceful protesters without charging them. Acting without invitation. No reporting of this deployment to…
BLOG

Post #267: In China, Your DNA Belongs to the State

7 Jul 202019 Jul 2020
The roundup and incarceration of hundreds of thousands of people of a specific ethnic or religious group has all too many precedents in modern history. The fact that the group…
BLOG

Post #266: Banana Republic or Constitutional Democracy? The US Military May Decide

24 Jun 202023 Jun 2020
Donald Trump’s appearance at the West Point graduation ceremonies a few weeks ago reminded some observers of the Class of 1986. That one class included several Trump appointees: Mark Esper…
BLOG

Post #265: Voting for the Human Interest: An Invitation to Readers

12 Jun 2020
We’re in a new and dangerous era now, described by Stephen Heintz, CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, as one in which capitalism, the nation-state, and representative democracy have all…
BLOG

Post #264: America’s Tiananmen?

5 Jun 20206 Jun 2020
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."--Sinclair Lewis Yesterday, June 4, is usually best remembered for the 1989 suppression in Beijing…
BLOG

Post #263: Donald Trump’s Stealth Attack on America

2 Jun 20201 Jun 2020
Donald Trump has made the calculated decision to let the pandemic play out without need of a federal plan for disease treatment and economic recovery. Over 100,000 deaths mean nothing…
APB

APB: “Standing Up” for Hong Kong

24 May 2020
Has Xi Jinping finally overplayed his hand? The new security law for Hong Kong may be just that. Whereas the “cultural genocide” in Xinjiang, the roundup of lawyers and journalists…
BLOG

Post #262: Weaponizing the Virus

22 May 202021 May 2020
China is “the central threat of our times,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in January 2020. Since then, the Trump administration has done everything it can to pump up…
BLOG

Post #261: For Trump, It’s Mission Accomplished

12 May 2020
“We have met the moment and we have prevailed,” Donald Trump said at a news briefing May 11. “The moment” is quite a departure from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s idea that…
BLOG

Post 260: The Coming New World Disorder

3 May 20202 May 2020
After the demise of the Soviet Union and the US intervention that crushed Saddam Hussein’s attack on Kuwait in 1991, President George H. W. Bush pronounced a new world order.…
BLOG

Post #259: AWOL: Trump’s Disappearing Leadership

19 Apr 202019 Apr 2020
Who's In Charge? Donald Trump’s political strategy during the coronavirus pandemic is simple: insist the federal government only plays a backup role when it comes to providing needed services and…

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Journals with my recent articles

  • Asian Perspective Comments on the “Open Letter to the President and Congress on China Policy”
  • China-US Focus Chinese domestic and foreign policy
  • Counterpunch critical commentary from my blog on current affairs
  • Foreign Policy in Focus COVID-19 has contributed to US-China tensions instead of to cooperation.
  • Global Asia China’s flouting of human rights warrants US criticism, but not abandonment of engagement possibilities.
  • The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Articles on US-China relations and the End-of-Poverty Illusion in East Asia

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