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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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Post #498: Unexpected Gifts: Beijing and Moscow Gain from Trump’s War

I have previously commented about the strategic blunders the Trump regime has made in its war on Iran. Add this…

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9Mar 2026
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ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW PUBLICATION

China Inside and Out: Politics and Policies in a Turbulent World (Bloomsbury Academic). THIS BOOK OF FOCUSED READINGS AND DOCUMENTS…

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7Mar 2026
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Post #497: Aggression in Iran

Conduct that Defies Logic, Law, or Sound Purposes As the invasion of Iran grinds on and its boundaries expand, the…

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American Politics and the World…

Post #118: Cowgirl Diplomacy? Foreign Policy Under Hillary Clinton

24 May 201627 Feb 2017
America’s mainstream media, ever attracted to the splashy rather than the serious, has a new topic to occupy the time until Election Day: President Trump.  What will he do first? …
BLOG…

Post #117: Evaluating Obama’s Foreign Policy Record

15 May 201627 Feb 2017
So you’re not excited by Donald Trump’s announcement of his first foreign-policy acts as president: building the Mexico Wall, the No-Muslims Wall, the End-of-NATO Wall, and the China Trade Wall. …
BLOG…

Post #116: Sanctions and Defiance in North Korea (Part 2)

3 May 201627 Feb 2017
(This is the second of two posts; the first appeared as #115. The two together have also been published in the Asia-Pacific Journal, http://apjjf.org/2016/09/Gurtov.html.) Part 2: North Korea’s New Weapons:…
BLOG…

Post #115: Sanctions and Defiance in North Korea

23 Apr 201627 Feb 2017
Part 1: Sanctions—A Failed Strategy (Note: This is the first of a two-part commentary on North Korea.  The second part will discuss the North’s latest weapons programs, which have evidently…
BLOG…

Post #114: The Panama Papers and the 1%

15 Apr 201627 Feb 2017
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…
American Politics and the World…

Post #113: Nuclear Insecurity

5 Apr 201627 Feb 2017
The fourth Nuclear Security Summit, hosted by President Obama, has just ended.  The focus was on terrorism, a perfectly reasonable topic.  But the larger question, not taken up by the…
American Politics and the World…

Post #112—The Republicans: Cowardice in High Places

27 Mar 201627 Feb 2017
Jeb Bush endorses Ted Cruz.  So do Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney. Chris Christie endorses—in fact, practically fawns all over—Donald Trump. Ben Carson suddenly thinks Trump would make a great…
BLOG…

Post #111: China–Broken Rice Bowls, Stifled Voices

23 Mar 201627 Feb 2017
Amidst the economic downturn in China, two developments that are not “in the human interest” stand out: rising unemployment among workers in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and repression of criticism of…
American Politics and the World…

Post #110: Trump and China

15 Mar 201627 Feb 2017
Donald Trump says he “knows” China. He “likes” China, in fact “loves” China.  And so long as the Chinese do exactly as he wants, he’ll continue loving China.  And that’s…
American Politics and the World…

Post #109: Donald Trump—From One Tyrant to Another

3 Mar 201627 Feb 2017
One thing I discovered long ago about tyrants: they love other tyrants. They’re a mutual admiration/suffering society.  When one succeeds by extinguishing dissent, the others applaud; and when one falls,…
BLOG…

Post #108: Dark Spots, Light Spots, and Apple’s Protest

23 Feb 201627 Feb 2017
  How’s this for bad choices?  A recent study by a Harvard group contended with the position of US intelligence agencies that tracking possible terrorists was becoming more difficult because…
BLOG…

Post #107 – Is US-Russia Engagement Still Possible?

11 Feb 201627 Feb 2017
President Obama’s failed attempt to “reset” US-Russia relations raises the question whether or not engaging Russia in the fullest sense is still possible. I think not, at least for the…

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bombless's avatarbombless on ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW PUBLICATION
Mel Gurtov's avatarMel Gurtov on Post #497: Aggression in Iran
Mel Gurtov's avatarMel Gurtov on Post #492: TACO Time or Wartim…
chiefbeardf273823bee's avatarchiefbeardf273823bee on Post #492: TACO Time or Wartim…
Unknown's avatarPortland State Unive… on Post #219: Is China a “Respons…

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  • Post #498: Unexpected Gifts: Beijing and Moscow Gain from Trump’s War
  • ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW PUBLICATION
  • Post #497: Aggression in Iran
  • Post #496: War on Iran
  • Post #495: Trumped on Tariffs

Recent Comments

bombless's avatarbombless on ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW PUBLICATION
Mel Gurtov's avatarMel Gurtov on Post #497: Aggression in Iran
Mel Gurtov's avatarMel Gurtov on Post #492: TACO Time or Wartim…
chiefbeardf273823bee's avatarchiefbeardf273823bee on Post #492: TACO Time or Wartim…
Unknown's avatarPortland State Unive… on Post #219: Is China a “Respons…

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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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