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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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20Sep 202620 Sep 2026
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Post #527: The Crimes of the Trump Regime

(Note to the Reader: This is the fifth iteration of a blog originally posted after the first two weeks of…

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17Sep 202617 Sep 2026
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APB: The US Denies Visas to Palestinian UN Delegation

For a second consecutive year, the US State Department has denied visas to members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and…

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16Sep 2026
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Post #526: Is Xi Coming, and Will AI and Human Rights be on the Agenda?

Xi Jinping has indicated that if the US approves a second major arms shipment to Taiwan, it would cross a…

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BLOG…

Post #87: The Number One Global Security Issue? Climate Change

12 Aug 201527 Feb 2017
In my very first blog posted in February 2014, I noted that US leaders were finally categorizing climate change as a global threat on the order of weapons of mass…
BLOG…

Post #86: With Friends Like These

6 Aug 201527 Feb 2017
The Pentagon Papers record a last-minute conversation between President Dwight Eisenhower and President-elect John F. Kennedy on Inauguration Day. The subject was the war in Indochina, which already was going…
BLOG…

Post #85: We Apologize

23 Jul 201527 Feb 2017
The following article originally appeared in Global Asia, vol. 10, No. 2 (Summer 2015), pp. 112-117, under the title “'We Apologize': Two Words to Embrace to Right Injustices." Apologies are never easy—not between…
BLOG…

Post #84: The Engagement Critics

15 Jul 201527 Feb 2017
One of the predictable outcomes of any US effort to reset relations with an adversary is that allies start whining about their vulnerability and demanding some sort of compensation for…
BLOG…

Post #83: Saving the Iran Nuclear Deal

7 Jul 201527 Feb 2017
A US-Iran agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and US sanctions appears to be slowly nearing completion.  President Obama wants to add to his legacy of engaging adversaries with an agreement…
BLOG…

Post #82—Man on the Run, and South Africa’s Failure to Detain Him

25 Jun 201527 Feb 2017
Margaret Thatcher once advised those delegates to the United Nations who criticize the organization for being weak to look in the mirror for the explanation.  International law is much the…
BLOG…

Post #81 – A Human-Interest Agenda for US-China Relations

16 Jun 201527 Feb 2017
I have just published the following article in China-US Focus, June 16: www.chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/creating-a-human-interest-agenda-for-u-s-china-relations/. For anyone interested in reading the longer version of Post #80 on the South China Sea dispute, please…
BLOG…

Post #80: The Looming US-China Crisis in the South China Sea

10 Jun 201527 Feb 2017
The long-running, multi-party dispute over control of islets in the South China Sea (SCS) is worsening both in rhetoric and provocative activity.  (For background, see my posts #23 and 41.)…
American Politics and the World…

Post #79: The Pentagon Slush Fund

1 Jun 201527 Feb 2017
Back in 1959, President Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Khrushchev took a break from their summit and walked in the woods around Camp David.  Khrushchev, in his memoirs, relates a conversation…
BLOG…

Post #78: The Middle East Quagmire: Give Peacemaking a Chance

23 May 201527 Feb 2017
The desperate state of US policy in the Middle East became apparent once again with the ISIS rout of the Iraqi army at Ramadi. It was another setback for US-supported…
American Politics and the World…

Post #77: Keep It in the Ground

13 May 201527 Feb 2017
On January 17 the New York Times reported that, to appease environmentalists, the Obama administration would “ban drilling in portions of the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.”  But in…
American Politics and the World…

Post #76 – TPP: A Deeply Flawed Partnership

4 May 201527 Feb 2017
(Note: A longer version of this post was subsequently published at http://japanfocus.org/-Mel-Gurtov/4318/article.html.) The American people have become used to government trickery in foreign affairs—wars and interventions based on lies and…

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  • Post #527: The Crimes of the Trump Regime
  • APB: The US Denies Visas to Palestinian UN Delegation
  • Post #526: Is Xi Coming, and Will AI and Human Rights be on the Agenda?
  • Post #525: Losing Hand in the Iran War
  • Post #524: The Arsenal

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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
  • Making China a U.S. enemy is counterproductive
  • BLOG ARCHIVE
  • Canada’s PM Sets an Independent Course
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