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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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Tag: NGOs

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Post #303: Intervention in Haiti?

11 Jul 202120 Jul 2021
Available on podcast: https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/35814/intervention-in-haiti.mp3 "The poorest country in Latin America.”  Haiti is seemingly forever defined by that phrase.  No matter who is in power, no matter how much foreign aid…
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 #227: Game Over? Report Card on Our Planet’s Environment

24 Feb 201923 Feb 2019
Unrelenting Warming The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report for 2019 indicates that most experts point to environmental problems as being the most serious threats to global stability—just as they…
BLOG

Post #221: Weaponizing Humanitarian Aid

13 Dec 201813 Dec 2018
Long ago, US foreign aid programs honored the principle that humanitarian aid should be treated separately from economic and military assistance to governments. Public Law 480 (popularized as “Food for…
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…
APB

Another Week Under Trumpocracy

21 Aug 201820 Aug 2018
Some takeaways from another week under He Who Would Be Emperor: “All politics is local.” Speaking to local issues rather than echoing the official mantra may be the only way…
BLOG

Post #213: While Rome (and Most Everywhere Else) Burns

3 Aug 20182 Aug 2018
By now we’re accustomed to learning that every year brings record high temperatures around the world. Extreme weather, says Prof. Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University, “is the face of…
BLOG

Post #150: The Honeymoon is Over

14 Feb 201727 Feb 2017
President Trump is often depicted as “unconventional” and his actions “unprecedented.”  But his novelty exposes him and his administration to closer scrutiny than any previous presidency. Turns out the emperor…
American Politics and the World…

Post #149: Fighting Back

7 Feb 201727 Feb 2017
Since Inauguration Day, the streets of US cities have been filled with protesters. Major demonstrations are being planned to follow up on the hugely successful Women’s March. Environmental, science, human…
BLOG…

Post #128: The Dark Side of United Nations Peacekeeping

15 Sep 201627 Feb 2017
  United Nations peacekeeping operations (PKOs) involve over 125,000 soldiers deployed in sixteen countries, with a total budget of nearly $8 billion.  Their missions range from interposing themselves between combatants…
BLOG…

Post #49 – “I’m Not a Scientist, But…”

13 Oct 201427 Feb 2017
The People’s Climate March in New York City and (so it was declared) in 155 other countries has come and gone. Climate change, unfortunately, parades on. While people marched—an estimated…
BLOG…

Post #28 – What Works?  Saving Young Lives

17 Jun 201427 Feb 2017
While living in Tokyo back in 2001, my attention was captivated by a US public television program on a cardiovascular surgeon in Phoenix who was making annual trips to Sri…

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  • Post #362: Risky Business: Japan Steps Out
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  • Post #360 The Threat Business: China or Russia?
  • Post #359: The Iran Protests and US Policy
  • Post #358: China’s COVID Uprising

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Journals with my recent articles

  • Asian Perspective US-China Relations and Human Rights: The Xinjiang Case
  • China-US Focus Chinese domestic and foreign policy; US-China relations
  • Counterpunch critical commentary from my blog on current affairs
  • Foreign Policy in Focus COVID-19 has contributed to US-China tensions instead of to cooperation.
  • Global Asia Pres. Biden’s Asia policy will emphasize toughness with China in coalition with allies. But foreign policy will be subordinate to domestic renewal.
  • The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Articles on US-China relations and the End-of-Poverty Illusion in East Asia

BOOKS

  • MY RECENT BOOKS America in Retreat: Foreign Policy Under Donald Trump; Engaging Adversaries: Peacemaking and Diplomacy in the Human Interest. COMING THIS FALL: Engaging China: Rebuilding US-China Relations. Published by Rowman & Littlefield, available from Amazon

Listen to my "Global Citizen" commentaries every Tuesday on KBOO.fm (Portland area) and Wednesdays on KXCR.net (Florence, OR area). Podcasts may be accessed at https://www.podserve.fm/series/website/the-global-citizen,2906/

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