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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 #395: The War in Israel: Costs and Consequences

28 Oct 202330 Oct 2023
The Victims Israel’s air war on Gaza is not only the most extensive ever carried out there; it is one of the largest bombardments anywhere in recent times—one that, according…
BLOG

Post #394: The Doubtful Future of the American Experiment

22 Oct 202322 Oct 2023
Signs of Decline             Peter Baker, the outstanding New York Times columnist, writes: “There was a time, not that long ago, when the United States presumed to teach the world…
BLOG

Post #393: The Hamas Attack on Israel

11 Oct 2023
Terror and Retribution Once again, Israel and the Palestinians are at war. Hundreds are dead, thousands are wounded, Hamas has killed men, women, and children, and taken over 100 hostages.…
BLOG

Post #392: A Crisis in the Palestinian Authority

7 Oct 202330 Oct 2023
Israel and Hamas are at war, with many deaths on both sides being reported. Meantime, another crisis is brewing, within the Palestinian Authority (PA). Mahmoud Abbas, president of the PA…
BLOG

Post #391: Alarm over Kim Jong Un’s Russia Trip

3 Oct 2023
Weapons Deals and Heightening Tensions             Alarm bells are ringing in Tokyo, Seoul, and Washington over Kim Jong Un’s transactions during his 6-day stay in Vladivostok. He visited a full…
BLOG

Post #390: Dealing with Iran After the Prisoner Exchange

23 Sep 2023
Small Steps Forward             Just a few months ago, we heard talk about revival of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, this time in the form of an unwritten agreement.…
BLOG

Post #389: Vietnam and the United States: A Transformed Relationship

18 Sep 2023
Strategic Rethinking Nearly fifty years after the Vietnam War, and over twenty-five years since the US and Vietnam established diplomatic relations, the two countries have entered into a “comprehensive strategic…
BLOG

Post #388: Evaluating Three Peace Plans for the Ukraine War

7 Sep 20233 Oct 2023
Ideas about how to end the Ukraine war abound. None come from Ukraine. None have gained traction. Here, nevertheless, are three examples of what knowledgeable people are thinking, along with…
BLOG

Post #387: China’s Rise Hits a Wall

31 Aug 2023
            Over the last decade or so, the tendency among China watchers has been to see China’s rise as an endless upward progression. Just as happened during the Cold War…
BLOG

Post #386: The Fukushima Tragedy Resurfaces

25 Aug 202325 Aug 2023
Releasing the Water             Just as all Americans remember 9/11, Japanese remember 3/11, the day in 2011 that an earthquake and tsunami overwhelmed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, destroying…
BLOG

Post #385: No Free Lunch: The Hidden Costs of EVs

20 Aug 202319 Aug 2023
The Hidden Costs             In his pathbreaking 1971 book, The Closing Circle, Barry Commoner proposed four laws of ecology: Everything is connected to everything else; Everything must go somewhere; Nature…
BLOG

Post #384: China’s (Un)popularity

4 Aug 2023
One of Xi Jinping’s signature initiatives is the idea of China’s renaissance—“the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” as he puts it. Part of that effort is to arouse the loyalty…

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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
  • Post #514: Out of Control
  • 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

  • A philanthropist makes a grand pledge for conservation
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