Category Archives: Foreign Policy

The Gaza Protests and Grassroot Challenges to US Foreign Policy

Posted on 10/18/2024 by Janice Jayes

Letters to the editor, teach-ins, motions for divestment, campus protests, city resolutions . . . These expressions of citizen concern are not unique to the ongoing war on Gaza and are entirely appropriate to a democracy. Local communities have the … Continue reading →

97 total views

Posted in Foreign Policy, Gaza, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Peace movement, Vietnam War | Tagged campus protest, Champaign City Council, Gaza, local activism, peace movement, Urbana City Council, US foreign policy | Comments Off

Winter Issue Front Cover

Posted on 02/12/2024 by Public i

Posted in Foreign Policy, Middle East, War | Tagged Gaza, Palestinian rights, US policy | Comments Off

The Age of Disconnect: US Policy and the War Beyond Gaza

Posted on 02/12/2024 by Janice Jayes

The hypocrisy gap between US diplomatic pronouncements and US actions is no surprise to world audiences, but the disconnect on display since October 7 has put the nail in the coffin of the American Century. American officials have been invoking … Continue reading →

1,290 total views

Posted in Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Section, War | Tagged China, Gaza, imperialism, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, US foreign policy, war | Comments Off

Another View of the Ukraine War

Posted on 08/27/2023 by Al Kagan

Readers will note that the Public i has recently published three articles about the Ukraine War. However, there are still more issues not yet fully addressed. “When two elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled.” Swahili proverb The … Continue reading →

671 total views

Posted in Afghanistan, Corporate media, Eastern Europe, Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, International, Latin America, Nuclear War, Peace movement, Section, Ukraine, War | Tagged Monroe Doctrine, NATO, nuclear threat, peace, Russia, Ukraine, war | Comments Off

US/NATO Proxy War in Ukraine: Continuity in US Foreign Policy

Posted on 07/18/2023 by Paul Mueth

The war in Ukraine is barbarous and awful beyond comprehension. The formula in the US media that the attack was unjustified is true, but its frequent corollary, that it was completely unprovoked, is not. This is Noam Chomsky’s and Daniel … Continue reading →

1,103 total views

Posted in Afghanistan, Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, International, Ukraine, War | Tagged imperialism, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, US foreign policy, war | Comments Off

Frozen Conflicts, Flashmob Militants, and the End of the Gunpowder State

Posted on 07/18/2023 by Janice Jayes

Syria, Libya, Yemen . . . and now Sudan. Sudan has the unhappy potential to become the next of the intractable conflicts that have unfolded over the past decade. These multisided struggles involving a cocktail of militaries, militias, and mercenaries … Continue reading →

664 total views

Posted in Africa, Foreign Policy, International, International, Middle East, Section, Violence, War | Tagged foreign policy, Middle East, Sudan, the state, violence, war, warlords | Comments Off

Daniel Ellsberg: “The Most Dangerous Man in America” and Heroic Whistleblower

Posted on 07/18/2023 by Al Kagan

“Wouldn’t you go to prison to help end this war?” Daniel Ellsberg, 1971 “I was PFC Manning.” Daniel Ellsberg, 2011 “The current risk of nuclear war, over Ukraine, is as great as the world has ever seen.” Daniel Ellsberg, 2023 … Continue reading →

625 total views

Posted in Foreign Policy, Free Speech, Imperialism, Peace movement, Vietnam War, War | Tagged activism, imperialism, In Memoriam, peace movement, Vietnam War, Whistleblowers | Comments Off

Silence and the Continuing Legacy of the US Invasion of Iraq

Posted on 05/01/2023 by Janice Jayes

The twentieth anniversary of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq slid by with an encore performance of the arrogance that characterized the invasion itself. In 2003 that arrogance disregarded inconvenient international norms as easily as it disregarded the Iraqi victims … Continue reading →

1,408 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, International, Middle East, Remembering, Section, World-wide death and suffering | Tagged imperialism, Iraq invasion, Memory, US foreign policy | Comments Off

Woman – Life – Freedom: Interview on Resistance in Iran, Part 2

Posted on 02/10/2023 by Public i

Part 1 of this interview was published in the December 2022 issue. The text has been substantially shortened and edited. Public i: I want to shift the discussion to the US now, and ask what can or should the US … Continue reading →

676 total views

Posted in Feminism, Foreign Policy, International, International, Section, Voices, Women | Tagged feminism, human rights, Iran, protest | Comments Off

Biden’s Sanctions on Afghanistan Threaten to Kill More Civilians than Two Decades of War

Posted on 06/24/2022 by Mark Weisbrot

When President Joe Biden decided to withdraw the US military from Afghanistan last year, much of America’s news media came down on him like a ton of bricks. Republicans piled on, calling the withdrawal an “unmitigated disaster.” But getting out was the right … Continue reading →

587 total views

Posted in Afghanistan, Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, International, Poverty, War | Tagged Afghanistan, foreign policy, poverty, sanctions, war | Comments Off

Progressive Dilemmas on Ukraine

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Richard Esbenshade

The Left has tangled itself in knots over how to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Early statements, such as by CodePink and Black Alliance for Peace, while putatively opposing war, laid emphasis on US and Western responsibility, NATO’s … Continue reading →

983 total views

Posted in Eastern Europe, Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, International, Politics, Refugees, Ukraine, War | Comments Off

The Great De-Centering: The World after Ukraine

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Janice Jayes

The Ukraine war is a turning point in history, but not the one you might be expecting. It won’t revive the Cold War. It won’t determine the survival of the Liberal World Order (whatever that is). And most decidedly, it … Continue reading →

935 total views

Posted in Foreign Policy, International, International, Middle East, Politics, Racism, Ukraine, War | Comments Off

The Border We Build Every Day: Guatemala in Champaign-Urbana

Posted on 11/15/2021 by Janice Jayes

The border mechanisms that capture headlines—the roundups, the cages, and the deportations—deserve attention, but this human sorting isn’t confined to the moment or space of the frontier crossing. It is part of the food we buy, the clothes we wear, … Continue reading →

1,242 total views

Posted in Foreign Policy, Immigrants, Immigration, Indigenous, Refugees, Violence | Comments Off

The WTO Vaccination Charade

Posted on 09/21/2021 by Paul Mueth

It’s not an accident that the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the site for the battle over the pandemic and the health of the world. Many critics of corporate control of international trade, and of most of everyday life, have … Continue reading →

1,640 total views

Posted in Big Pharma, COVID-19, Foreign Policy, International, pandemic, Politics, Public Health, World-wide death and suffering | Comments Off

Yemen: A War of Many Fronts

Posted on 08/04/2021 by Valerie Hoffman

Journalists describe the conflict in Yemen as a sectarian proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, but that fails to capture the complexity of the war: in October, 2020, Human Rights Watch reported more than thirty battle fronts between various … Continue reading →

845 total views

Posted in Arab Spring, Foreign Policy, International, International, Islam, Middle East, War | Comments Off

Counting the Costs of War

Posted on 04/03/2021 by Seth Lerner

“The refugee crisis” is a big and scary concept, but to many of us it is just that, conceptual. However, a September 2020 study has found that between 37 and 59 million people from 12 different countries have been displaced … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign Policy, military, Refugees, War, World-wide death and suffering | Comments Off

A Tale of Two Elections

Posted on 04/03/2021 by Mark Weisbrot

This article was first published in The Raw Story on December 21, 2020, under the title “Trump’s Coup is Failing—But a Similar Effort Backed by the US has Already Succeeded.” It has been amended to note the inauguration’s having happened. Reprinted … Continue reading →

Posted in Elections, Foreign Policy, International, Latin America | Comments Off

Anti-Austerity Protesters in Ecuador Win Some Concessions, But Unlikely to Prevent Further Unrest or Repression

Posted on 11/02/2019 by Mark Weisbrot

The government of Ecuador reached an agreement on October 13 with leaders of the protests that had rocked the country for the previous two weeks. The deal, which included the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), is a retreat … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign Policy, International, International | Comments Off

Bolton is Out! But Imperialist Aggression Against Iran is Still In

Posted on 11/02/2019 by Nick Goodell

On September 10, National Security Advisor John Bolton was fired from his post at the White House. With one of the staunchest advocates for US imperialism now out of the Trump administration, some were optimistic that the warmongering and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, Middle East, Politics | Comments Off

Need for System Change

Posted on 06/13/2019 by Karen Aram

The time is long past due for American citizens to realize that our political and economic systems are untenable. Trump is awful, no question there. And for those who continue to support the Democratic candidates as the lesser evil—fine, that’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Elections, Foreign Policy, Immigration, Imperialism, Politics | Comments Off