Discerning Vladimir Putin
We have left behind the Russian dolls, one inside the other as if occlusion were their very point. “A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,” Churchill’s famous mot (invariably quoted out of context) is no longer for us….
The Art of No Mideast Deal
Donald Trump once advertised an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan as his greatest achievement-in-the-making, but like many of the president’s negotiations, the Kushner-Greenblatt strategy is a one-sided bargain, writes Patrick Lawrence. Whatever happened to President Trump’s “Deal of the Century”—his promise to…
The Battle for Our Minds
There are battlefields in Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, and elsewhere, but given the state of corporate media, perhaps the most consequential battle now being fought is for our minds, says Patrick Lawrence. After reading The New York Times piece “The Plot to Subvert an…
John Dower in Conversation: Part II
A preeminent scholar on the Pacific War uses WWII-era Japan to examine race and US imperialism today. In Part 1 of my conversation with John Dower, the distinguished scholar, author, and thinker, we explored his resistance to Cold War scholarship and its…
Japan and the United States: Reflections on War, Empire, Race and Culture
The groundbreaking historian of Japan talks about the challenges of scholarship during rapidly changing times. This article appears in The Asia-Pacific Journal with a new introduction from Patrick Lawrence. It first appeared in The Nation on September 6 and September…
Why the U.S. Seeks to Hem in Russia, China and Iran
America’s three principal adversaries signify the shape of the world to come: a post-Western world of coexistence. But neoliberal and neocon ideology is unable to to accept global pluralism and multipolarity, argues Patrick Lawrence. The Trump administration has brought U.S….
John Dower in Conversation: Part I
The groundbreaking historian of Japan talks about the challenges of scholarship during rapidly changing times. John Dower was “Dower the Tower” during my years as a correspondent in Japan. He was a giant in his field, one of the few…
The Trump Administration’s Spoiler Foreign Policy
U.S. strategy abroad is assuming a curious shape. Whether the president or his minders are running affairs, Patrick Lawrence sees the U.S. being reduced to playing a spoiler role in the Middle East and Northeast Asia. It is not possible…
‘Too Big to Fail’: Russia-gate One Year After VIPS Showed a Leak, Not a Hack
One year later, the VIPS memo contending that the DNC emails were leaked and not hacked has yet to be successfully challenged. Meanwhile, the country sinks deeper into the morass of the new McCarthyism, comments Patrick Lawrence. A year has…
Star Island International Affairs Conference, Isles of Shoals, N. H., July 21 to July 28, 2018: “China as It Is: Recovering Our Sight,” presented July 24.
I was honored to be invited to speak at an annual event in a very special place. The Star Island International Affairs Conference has been convening for a century of so on one of the tiny islands known as the…
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