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Geography Archives: Asia
Countries in the continent of Asia
Is Canada an Imperialist State?
Has Canada become an imperialist state, as some on the Left argue? On the surface, a case can be made. Why did Canada participate in the kidnapping and expulsion of Haiti’s elected head of state, Jean-Bertrand Aristide? Why are Canadian troops fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan while supporting a regime dominated by feudal warlords? […]
One Big Push
A NEW MOMENT It’s a new political moment for the antiwar movement. Washington’s failure in Iraq is undeniable: even Henry Kissinger says a U.S. victory is impossible. The Iraq war was the prime reason the U.S. electorate delivered a huge “thumping” to George Bush on November 7. The administration is openly flailing about for any […]
Empire’s Ally: Canadian Foreign Policy
Since the coming into power of the Stephen Harper Conservative government in January of this year, there has been much gnashing of teeth over the foreign policy stance of Canada. In particular, Canada’s relation with the U.S. on a phalanx of fronts has been at the center of controversy. One has been the softwood lumber […]
All Towers Crumble: Should We Mourn the Loss of the Megastore?
The massive grief for Tower Records is staggering. Since the announcement that it would be liquidating and selling to Los Angeles-based Great American Group, music fans and journalists alike have been dreading the moment when the super-chain will be closing its doors; a moment which will arrive any day now. Anyone who passes by a […]
Criminalizing Compassion in the War on Terror: Muslim Charities and the Case of Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir
“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But . . . the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’” — Martin Luther King, Jr.1 “The truth […]
Naked Imperialism: An Interview with John Bellamy Foster
NAKED IMPERIALISM:The U.S. Pursuit of Global Dominance by John Bellamy FosterREAD EXCERPTBUY THIS BOOK John Bellamy Foster’s Naked Imperialism: The U.S. Pursuit of Global Dominance was published by Monthly Review Press in May 2006. It consists of essays written between September 2001 and September 2005, addressing the origins of today’s undisguised imperialism, led by the […]
Educating for Equality
Peter McLaren, Rage and Hope: Interviews with Peter McLaren on War, Imperialism, and Critical Pedagogy (New York: Peter Lang, 2006), 394 pages, paper $32.95. “One morning they gave us a guinea pig. It came to the house in a cage. At midday, I opened the door of the cage. I returned home at nightfall and […]
People’s Victory in Nepal: U.S. and Indian Reactions
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its November 2006 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. The November 8, 2006 agreement between the seven parties alliance (“SPA”) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (“CPN(M)”) brings peace, confirms the subjection of king and army […]
Iran’s Quiet Revolution
The bus rumbled along a highway in southwest Iran, passing a series of anti-aircraft batteries and rickety guard towers before pulling in through a checkpoint to the Bushehr nuclear plant compound. Having anticipated significant difficulties finding, much less nearing, the reactor, I stared in stunned silence at its dome. So much for state secrets. […]
Post-American Geopolitics
I. Three Metropoles, Four Peripheries Many of us on the Left have pondered what would replace the Cold War division of the planet into the First, Second, and Third World. Though the three worlds thesis was arbitrary at best — the social divisions within nation-states are often more significant than the distinctions between nation-states — […]
Defending Muslims in Albany, NY
The government offensive against Muslims in America met fresh opposition yesterday in Albany, New York when dozens of leaders of the anti-war movement and other progressive causes joined with Muslims to protest the recent guilty verdicts in the trial of Imam Yassin Aref and Mohammed Musharraf Hossain. Aref and Hossain were accused and convicted of […]
Storms over the Pacific
Australian Prime Minister John Howard should get a hostile reception at the Pacific Islands Forum this week. His in-your-face imperialism has provoked conflicts in three island nations. The Solomons and Papua New Guinea In the latest outrage, Aussie police have raided the office of Solomons PM Manasseh Sogavare. Meanwhile a key report on the […]
James Baker, the Clark Clifford of the Iraq War
In recent days, reports have begun to appear in mainstream US media sources such as Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times hinting at a new strategy on Iraq from Washington. This strategy, which is scheduled to be officially made public after the November congressional elections, is the product of a so-called bipartisan commission headed […]
Faith in the “War with Islam”
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris. Norton, New York, 2004. ISBN 0-393-03515-8. 336 pp. Cloth $24.95. Sam Harris’ The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason is unusual among books recently issued by mainline publishers in that it begins by rejecting all religious faiths […]
Current Challenges to Feminism: Theory and Practice
For much of the period from the 70s through the 80s, I was quite concerned with the way in which Third World movements for national liberation were sidelining women’s issues and relegating these to the background. In this piece I centerstage the Philippines which I believe may serve as an illustrative case. Let me try […]
Tangled Up in the Milieu: An Interview with Max Elbaum, Author of Revolution in the Air
REVOLUTION IN THE AIR: Sixties Radicals turn to Lenin, Mao and Che by Max ElbaumBUY THIS BOOK I first met Max Elbaum in Vermont in 2002 at a conference against the war organized by the Burlington (VT) Anti War Coalition. We had communicated via email and telephone before about his book Revolution in the Air […]
A Foreign Direct Investment (“FDI”) in Bangladesh: Stock Swindling and Murder
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its October 2006 issue features the following editorial. — Ed. The recent successful peoples struggle at Phulbari in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh against a rapacious Foreign Direct Investment (“FDI”) open-pit coal mining project is of great importance, and […]
Bad Faith and the Common Good: The Road to Civic Republicanism
“Philosophy always comes on the scene too late.” — G.W.F. Hegel1 “They say we don’t stand for anything. We do stand for anything.” — Sen. Barack Obama2 For years it’s been a political commonplace to observe that the Republicans represent the party of ideas while the Democrats are the stupid party. Even Bush-phobic Democrats like […]
The Boom Heard around the World?
August 29, 1949 — Soviet Union. October 16, 1964 — People’s Republic of China. October 7, 2006, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. Three dates. Three first-time nuclear tests by three enemies (at their respective times) of Washington. All three tests were preceded by threats from that same Washington that warned of dire consequences for the […]
