BLOG Post #337: It’s “Now or Never” on Climate Change 17 May 20226 Jun 2022 The audio version of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/59656/45-its-now-or-never-on-climate-change.mp3 On Track for Disaster The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group report gives us until 2030 to stop…
BLOG Post #326: Employing Confidence Building Measures in the Ukraine Crisis 18 Feb 2022 The audio of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/52277/35-confidence-building-measures-in-the-ukraine-crisis.mp3. Last week a tiny back-page item in the New York Times reported that the president of Ukraine had come to believe…
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 #249: Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and the Insecurity of China’s Leadership 5 Dec 20195 Dec 2019 Hong Kong is in chaos, with no sign that the protesters will yield on their demands. Mass incarceration and indoctrination of Uyghurs and other Chinese Muslims has become so widely…
BLOG Post #217: Waiting For Hitler 11 Oct 201819 Oct 2018 If there is one thing I have learned as a political analyst, it is that there is no such thing as "never again." Use of weapons of mass destruction against…
BLOG Post #214: Saving Democracy 15 Aug 2018 Writing on democracy, I’m reminded of a great old Stevie Wonder song, “Love’s In Need of Love Today.” Democracy is in need of love today: It is taking a beating…
BLOG Post #212: Some Dare Call It Treason 19 Jul 201819 Jul 2018 Is Donald Trump not merely gullible, uninformed, and indifferent but actually treasonous when it comes to Russia? More and more high-profile people are saying so. He’s acting like “a Russian…
BLOG Post #146: How to Make Enemies 26 Jan 201727 Feb 2017 About two weeks ago I wrote a blog, “Unfit to Command,” which argues that Donald Trump lacks the temperament, intelligence, and leadership qualities to be in charge of US…
BLOG… Post #138: Food Politics: The GMO Conspiracy 3 Dec 201627 Feb 2017 One of the longest-standing tricks of the corporate trade is to produce an item that is dangerous, breakable, or soon to be obsolete and then produce another item that will…
BLOG… Post #121: Unintended Consequences and the Warfare State 7 Jul 201627 Feb 2017 “The danger is, as ever with these things, unintended consequences.” So wrote Prime Minister Tony Blair to President George W. Bush in 2002, as Bush prepared to invade Iraq (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/07/06/full-text-annotated-tony-blairs-2002-iraq-memo-to-george-bush). …
BLOG… Post #119 – Too Close for Comfort: The Dangerous US-China Maritime Dispute 11 Jun 201627 Feb 2017 The Background Two recent close encounters between US spy planes and Chinese jets spell trouble for relations between Washington and Beijing. The first occurred over the South China Sea…
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…
BLOG… Post #99: After Paris, What? 21 Nov 201527 Feb 2017 In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, the community of security experts in the US and abroad seems already to have formed a consensus about what happened, why it…
American Politics and the World… Post #94: Manipulating Reality: Facebook Is Listening to You 7 Oct 201527 Feb 2017 One thing our generation has become all too used to is how reality can be manipulated to create the appearance of something else entirely. Invading another country is defensive, rigged…
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 #66 – Playing “Chicken” in Ukraine 6 Feb 201527 Feb 2017 Should the US dramatically increase military support to Ukraine as it faces defiant separatists in the east who are backed by Russian intelligence, advisers, and heavy weapons? Key members of…
BLOG… Post #65 – Give Greece a Chance 1 Feb 201527 Feb 2017 The electoral victory of Alexis Tzipras may provide new hope for the overwhelming majority of Greeks, who are living in Third World-like conditions as the economy deteriorates and external debt…
BLOG… Post #64 – Welcome Back, George Orwell 27 Jan 201527 Feb 2017 I think most of us knew, or feared, that the wonders of the Internet might also become a weapon in the wrong hands, whether of our own government, criminals, dictators,…
In the Human Interest - Mel Gurtov 