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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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20Jul 2026
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Post #517: Armed Conflict is Surging, Peacemaking is Flagging

A Record-Setting Pace Wars in Iran, Ukraine, and Israel have drawn attention away from a stark fact: armed conflict is…

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16Jul 202616 Jul 2026
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Post #516: The Retreat from Global Warming and Environmental Protection

Walking It Back We once took for granted that everyone concerned with global warming outside the Trump administration’s orbit accepted…

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12Jul 202616 Jul 2026
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Post #515: Putin’s Predicament

Three Policy Directions President Vladimir Putin’s increasingly problematic position in the war with Ukraine would seem to lead Russia in…

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Post #407: Global Debt is Beyond Control

2 Jan 20244 Jan 2024
The Washington Consensus             The debt of developing countries is at “crisis” levels, the World Bank has just said. Supporting that view is a New York Times story December 16…
BLOG

Post #406: Bombing Gaza–Disturbing Comparisons with Vietnam

28 Dec 202327 Dec 2023
Indiscriminate Bombing             Investigations into Israel’s use of 2000-pound bombs in its Gaza campaign have determined that you have to go back to Vietnam to compare the brutality and mindlessness…
BLOG

Post #405: Europe is Moving Farther to the Right on Energy and Immigration

22 Dec 202322 Dec 2023
Self-Preservation Over Principle             Politics in the European Union provides a good example of how the best intentions in dealing with climate change can be thwarted. A European Green Deal…
BLOG

Post #404: Myanmar’s Junta is in Trouble

17 Dec 2023
A Badly Weakened Dictatorship Myanmar’s (Burma) military dictatorship, which seized power in 2021, suddenly is vulnerable to attack from the hodgepodge resistance forces loosely aligned under a National Unity Government.…
BLOG

Post #403: COP28–Doing Less While Pretending to Do More

10 Dec 2023
Following the Script             International conferences almost always fall well short of meeting ambitious reform goals because the large number and variety of participants ensure hard bargaining over policy ideas…
BLOG

Post #402: Israel’s Intelligence Failure: Worse Than We Thought

2 Dec 20232 Dec 2023
Turns out that over a year before the Hamas attack, Israeli intelligence secured multiple documentation that gave a detailed account on what Hamas would do Oct. 7. But the Israelis…
BLOG

Post #401: When Will It End? Some Might Prefer It Didn’t

29 Nov 202328 Nov 2023
Netanyahu, the Main Obstacle             In an opinion article published in the Washington Post November 18, President Biden described how far his ambitions stretch beyond the four-day pause in fighting…
BLOG

Post #400: Israel’s Al-Shifa Operation– A Critical Examination

20 Nov 202314 Dec 2023
Note to Readers: Larry Kirsch is co-author of this blog. Israel’s attack on the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City has become both the reality and the symbol of all that…
BLOG

Post #399: Biden and Xi Seek Coexistence

16 Nov 2023
            The first face-to-face meeting in a year between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping went about as expected: some potentially meaningful agreements, some continuing disagreements, some controversies unexplored, and…
BLOG

Post #398:Cease Fire? Obstacles and Opportunities

11 Nov 202311 Nov 2023
            Appeals for a cease fire in Israel’s war with Hamas are growing louder. Along with many governments and international and nongovernmental organizations, the UN General Assembly, by a 120-14…
BLOG

Post #397: Biden’s Choices

6 Nov 2023
Contradictions Presidents always face uncomfortable choices: supporting human rights versus providing weapons to governments that consistently violate human rights; adding to the nuclear weapons stockpile versus spending money on social…
BLOG

Post #396: Close Encounters Require US-China Military Talks

3 Nov 2023
Near Misses US officials have announced that the President will meet Xi Jinping in San Francisco later this month, the first such meeting in a year. No issue is more…

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  • Post #517: Armed Conflict is Surging, Peacemaking is Flagging
  • Post #516: The Retreat from Global Warming and Environmental Protection
  • Post #515: Putin’s Predicament
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  • Post #513: The Missing Art of the Deal with Iran

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Listen to my "Global Citizen" commentaries every Tuesday, 5:25 pm, on KBOO.fm (Portland area) and Wednesdays on KXCR.net (Florence, OR area). The Global Citizen International Digest of the week's news is on KBOO Thursdays at 5:30 pm and is also on SUBSTACK, free, via https://melgurtov.substack.com

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