New piece on Syria & how the Washington ‘Blob’ still works to punish it

Helena · 9:04 pm · 12/19/2019 · Human rights, Syria, Transitional Justice, U.S. policy, War-crimes courts

Earlier today, I published a new piece over at Medium, on how both wings of the bellophilic Washington “blob” are still working to punish and isolate the Syrian government, rather than providing real support to the peace/reform negotiations that have been (creakingly) underway in Geneva since October 30. (By “both wings”, I mean leaderships of … Continue reading New piece on Syria & how the Washington ‘Blob’ still works to punish it →

Zelensky, his earlier t.v. show, Finland, etc.

Helena · 2:06 am · 12/13/2019 · Russia, Ukraine

Yesterday, I had my inaugural post up on the new Responsible Statecraft blog, which is the successor to Jim Lobe’s earlier Lobelog. The editor at RS gave it the (fairly earnest) title, “Can ‘Finlandization’ Help Ukraine Stave Off Conflict with Russia?”. I had earlier proposed something a little snappier. But the subject of how people– … Continue reading Zelensky, his earlier t.v. show, Finland, etc. →

Trump’s impeachment: Why include “national security”?

Helena · 7:13 pm · 12/11/2019 · Russia, U.S. politics, Ukraine

I was delighted when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to the whistleblower’s report of Pres. Trump’s fateful July 25 phone call with Pres. Zelensky by swiftly moving toward impeachment. Yesterday, she and her advisers produced just two Articles of Impeachment: One on “Abuse of power”, the other, “Obstruction of Congress.” The first Article deals with  … Continue reading Trump’s impeachment: Why include “national security”? →

Discussing Palestine and the US radical movement of the 1960s & ’70s.

Helena · 4:40 pm · 12/11/2019 · Mass movements, Palestine, Publishing, U.S. politics, Writing

The smart, experienced Arab-American community leader and activist Abdeen Jabara and I are engaged in, I guess, a spirited discussion over at Mondoweiss of the value of Michael Fishbach’s latest book, The Movement and the Middle East: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Divided the American Left. I spent a long time working on the review of … Continue reading Discussing Palestine and the US radical movement of the 1960s & ’70s. →

U.S. Dems’ dangerous demagoguing on Russia

Helena · 5:44 pm · 11/30/2019 · Russia, U.S. politics, Ukraine

Amb. Robert E. Hunter had a compelling piece on the Lobelog site recently in which he warned that the House Democratic leaders’ choice of the Ukraine issue on which to hang their impeachment hearings for Pres. Trump means that the discussion of both Ukraine and Russia in the U.S. political system has now become seriously … Continue reading U.S. Dems’ dangerous demagoguing on Russia →

What do Paul Wolfowitz, Dan Kurtzer, Aaron Miller, and Prince Andrew have in common?

Helena · 8:26 pm · 11/26/2019 · Human rights, International law, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, U.S. policy

These four  privileged older white guys have all sought (and been granted) exposure in the corporate media recently. Paul Wolfowitz, one of the prime architects and advocates of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, was given this fine platform on the NYT’s opinion page in order to criticize Pres. Trump’s recent decision to withdraw (or late, … Continue reading What do Paul Wolfowitz, Dan Kurtzer, Aaron Miller, and Prince Andrew have in common? →

On empires, reluctant or otherwise

Helena · 5:29 pm · 11/20/2019 · Imperialisms, International law, Writing

My piece on Pompeo’s November 18 declaration on Israeli settlements went up on Lobelog today, here. In the piece, I used some of the ideas from Andrew Bacevich’s 2002 book American Empire: The realities and consequences of U.S. diplomacy. This article is part of a broader project I’m pursuing to explore the phenomenon of imperial … Continue reading On empires, reluctant or otherwise →