Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria February 5, 2017. By Rezgar Akrawi The People’s Palace Scene: The End of an Experiment and the Beginning of a Question On 25 August 2026, Mazloum Abdi announced from the People’s Palace in Damascus the end of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their dissolution as an independent military force, alongside the dissolution of the Autonomous Administration and its affilia

Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Timcho Mucunski with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar -- image via Timcho Mucunski on Instagram By Biljana Vankovska A few days ago, when I landed at Budapest Airport on my way to an international conference devoted to serious questions of international politics, the first thing I saw was a huge civilian aircraft bearing a name unfamiliar to me: Isair. It was not difficult to guess, but I checked anyway. It was an Israeli air carrier. At this

Iranian missile display at the Holy Defense Museum in Tehran -- Fars Media Corporation, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad The gravest danger in the present war is not that Iran has already decided to manufacture a nuclear weapon. There is no verified evidence of such a decision. The danger is that another major US escalation could convince Tehran that remaining a non-nuclear state inside the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) no longer provides protection, recogni

Axadem, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad Dear friends and colleagues, The United States and Israel launched a war of aggression against Iran in February of this year. For six months, US missiles and bombs have fallen upon civilian and military targets inside the country. Hospitals, schools, energy facilities, and neighbourhoods have been struck. The 168 schoolgirls killed in Minab have become the terrible symbol of this war. Iranians have been forced to live

Public domain image By Guillermo R. Barreto It happened on 25 May 2020, in Minneapolis, USA. George Floyd (a Black man) was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pay for a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Police officer Derek Chauvin (a white man) pinned him to the ground and pressed down on his neck for more than 9 minutes. It was to no avail that George Floyd repeated ‘I can’t breathe’ more than 20 times. He lost consciousness and died of asphyxiation. In ot

Vessels in the Staright of Hormuz -- image via news video screenshot By Vijay Prashad For more than three decades, the United States has treated Middle Eastern diplomacy as an exercise in writing the terms for others. Iran’s emerging regional strategy is challenging that privilege. The immediate evidence is emerging in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and Oman are negotiating an arrangement under which Tehran could oversee vessels entering the Gulf while Muscat manages outbound tra

From the Civil War and World War I to the ongoing conflict in Iran, America’s and other nations’ expectations of war have repeatedly been challenged by the realities that emerge once fighting begins. U.S. Marines in their gas masks during a gas mask drill, France, WWI, 1917 By John P. Ruehl A nominal ceasefire reached in April 2026 has done little to halt the escalation in the Persian Gulf. After Iran’s “attempted surprise attack” against US forces on July 28, the US retaliat

Marco Rubio meets with the Saudi Foreign Minister, June 25, 2026 -- public domain image By Vijay Prashad On 22 July, the United States and Saudi Arabia signed what Washington calls a ‘peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement.’ The agreement has been presented as a commercial arrangement that will help Saudi Arabia diversify its energy system while creating a vast new market for US-based nuclear companies. But its significance goes far beyond the construction of power stations.

Abelardo de la Espriella, May 25, 2026 -- Abelardo de la Espriella, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Laura Violeta Devia López There are just over three weeks left before Abelardo De La Espriella takes office as Colombia’s new president, despite the numerous allegations that cast a shadow over his election and, as usual, discredit the Colombian electoral system. The announcements already being made by Abelardo and his designated cabinet mark a significant change of course, not o

At the JEF Summit in Helsinki, 26.03.2026 -- Stenbocki maja, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Biljana Vankovska The history of warfare shows that conflicts end either with a clear victory by one side or through negotiations when both face the exhaustion of resources and the will to continue sacrificing lives. There is also a third way: a silent ending of hostilities, the establishment of a ‘cold peace,’ and the freezing of the conflict without an explicit acknowledgment of

A displaced Palestinian girl sleeps in the street after the Israeli army ordered them to evacuate the Abu Areif and Al-Mazra'a areas in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip, 21 August 2024 -- Ashraf Amra, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, via Wikimedia Commons By Guillermo Barreto It is 19 April 2025. A 12-year-old girl and her 3-year-old brother are playing in front of their house in the village of Bert-Furik. A group of Israeli settlers kidnaps them. At knifepoint, they drag the children to an olive

Humanitarian organizations invest in education to promote safety, resilience, and social cohesion, but researchers continue to debate its long-term impact on conflict and human well-being. By Chloe Bruce Humanitarian education refers to educational initiatives developed or supported by humanitarian organizations to reduce suffering, protect vulnerable populations, and help communities recover from conflict and disaster. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees define

From war and environmental disaster to poverty and public policy, children face systemic harm that societies often fail to recognize—and can choose to change. Representational image By Colin Greer and Reynard Loki Few ideas command more universal agreement than the belief that children must be protected. Across cultures, religions, and political traditions, they are regarded as uniquely deserving of care, safety, and opportunity. Yet a glaring contradiction emerges when we lo

Once one of the world’s most militarized frontiers, the Russia-China border along the Amur River Basin shows how a long-running territorial dispute can evolve from confrontation to integration. No. 41 Boundary Marker at China–Russia Border -- Ncysea, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By John P. Ruehl Since the early 1990s, the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk, located on the Amur River, has steadily reemerged as one of Russia’s most important “border trade hubs.” Sitting dir

A girl walks amid the devastation in Gaza, August, 2024 -- Jaber Jehad Badwan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad On June 23, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel release done of the most devastating reports ever produced by a UN investigative body on the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Its title is almost unbearable to read: The Essence of Childhood Has Been

U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft fly in formation, June 3, 2026 -- public domain image By Gisela Cernadas, John Bellamy Foster and David Vine U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed a $1.5 trillion military budget for the fiscal year 2027, which would increase by 44 percent the acknowledged budget for 2026. While a roughly $500 billion increase would be unprecedented in modern U.S. history, the idea that the military budget only recently hit $1 trillion is incorr

Tesla charging stations at Pacific Fair, Queensland -- Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Layne Hartsell, Max Wilbert and Ntafakabirhi-Aganze Clovis Like oil in the twentieth century, lithium is the ‘white gold’ of the twenty-first. Demand for this key element is driving economic growth based on the ‘renewable’ energy provided by lithium-ion batteries. Such batteries are necessary for storing energy from solar photovoltaics in order to make that electricity readily

From vaccine hesitancy to conflict-zone rumors, false information is making it harder for humanitarian organizations to build trust, protect civilians, and save lives. mikemacmarketing, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Chloe Bruce In today’s post-truth era, where “objective truth” has lost influence in the public sphere, it is becoming increasingly difficult for humanitarians, who seek to preserve human life, to carry out their work. “The post-truth era has dramatic reper­

Israeli forces operating around Beaufort Castle in Lebanon on May 31 -- IDF Spokesperson's Unit By Vijay Prashad There are moments in history when words lose their meaning. Not because dictionaries are rewritten, nor because language itself changes, but because political power empties words of the realities they once described. The word ceasefire has increasingly acquired this desolate quality when used by Israeli and US officials. What was once understood to mean the suspens

A rally of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement -- Photo source: redacaonline By Guillermo Barreto The right to food and to choose what we plant, how we plant it, how we harvest it, how we distribute it, and even how we cook it is what is known as food sovereignty: a central concept when discussing people’s sovereignty, introduced by the international peasant movement known as La Vía Campesina during the World Food Summit in 1996. Food sovereignty is defined as ‘the right of p