News Abroad

• 
• 5/9/2021
  

  India's COVID Crisis Has Roots in its Colonial-Era Tax Structure

  by Roderick Matthews

  India's COVID crisis is being exacerbated by a health system that uses an anemic 3.5% of GDP. Continuities from the era of the British Raj, when powerful rural landowners went untaxed, are a big part of the problem. 

• 
• 5/9/2021
  

  Reflections on Russia's "Victory Day"

  by Nadya Williams

  Russia's observance of Victory Day prompts reflection on the ways Holocaust survivors and their descendants lived lives shaped by this trauma. 

• 
• 5/9/2021
  

  A CIA Historian’s Photos of the Afghan War Tell the Story of Those Being Left Behind in Afghanistan

  by Brian Glyn Williams

  A historian who advised the US military in Afghanistan and traveled extensively in the country warns that America's Afghan allies may pay a terrible price from Biden's proposed troop withdrawal. 

• 
• 5/2/2021
  

  Aidez Madrid!

  by Andy Robinson

  The embrace of the far-right Vox party by Madrid's conservative coalition promises to drive the region's politics toward nativism, climate denialism, and reckless COVID policies. 

• 
• 4/25/2021
  

  Whither Germany? Historiography and Public Reckoning with the National Past

  by Samuel Miner

  Hedwig Richter's book "Democracy: A German Affair" has sparked controversy for its rejection of the idea that Germany has followed a "special path" to liberal democracy and catalyzed a broad debate about the role of historians in public reckoning with the crimes of the past. 

• 
• 4/25/2021
  

  Russia vs. Ukraine Redux? Mapping the Way Forward from the Recent Past

  by Walter G. Moss

  Historical context suggests that Vladimir Putin's intentions toward Ukraine are pragmatic and comprehensible (whether one favors Russian objectives or not); a broader imagination and diplomatic engagement can do more to prevent open war than saber-rattling. 

• 
• 4/25/2021
  

  The Fateful Choice: Nuclear Arms Race or Nuclear Weapons-Free World

  by Lawrence Wittner

  Nuclear-armed nations face a choice: to push ahead with a wasteful course that raises the risk of nuclear war, or to lead toward a world without nuclear weapons. 

• 
• 4/11/2021
  

  Making Religious Peace in Afghanistan

  by Wayne Te Brake

  American policymakers must recognize the distinctly religious components of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, and learn from European wars of religion: the key to ending war is brokering a political agreement that protects religious diversity. 

• 
• 3/28/2021
  

  Can Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Overcome the Opposition?

  by Lawrence Wittner

  People who want to end the nightmare of nuclear destruction that has haunted the world since 1945 should consider widening the popular appeal of nuclear weapons abolition by strengthening the UN’s ability to provide international security.

• 
• 3/28/2021
  

  Red Flags on the Map: What Soviet Kids Learned about the United States

  by David Mould

  One of the author's souvenirs from a research trip to Asia – a Soviet-era classroom map – prompts reflection on the pervasiveness of ideological education. 

• 
• 3/7/2021
  

  The Return of Human Rights on the American Agenda?

  by Richard Moe

  One of Jimmy Carter's legacies, albeit erratically observed, has been the assertion of human rights as a foreign policy priority. After four years of ignoring the issue, will the US under Joe Biden reclaim leadership in high-stakes relationships with Russia and Saudi Arabia? 

• 
• 2/14/2021
  

  How Abraham Lincoln Can Inspire Peace for Yemen

  by William Lambers

  The postwar "friendship train" campaign involved Americans personally in delivering food to the hungry in Europe, and symbolized the nation's larger commitment to the Marshall Plan. A similar broad effort could help advance the policies needed to end the humanitarian crisis of war and starvation in Yemen. 

• 
• 1/31/2021
  

  The Audacious Escape of George Blake

  by Steve Vogel

  George Blake was the most notorious double agent in Cold War Britain, which makes the story of his amateurish (but successful) escape from prison all the more remarkable. 

• 
• 12/20/2020
  

  Trump's Troop Withdrawal in Afghanistan: Part 2 – Is There Even a "Trump Doctrine"?

  by Brian Glyn Williams

  Many Americans have bought Donald Trump's claim that he seeks to extricate the U.S. from "endless wars," including in Afghanistan. Viewed in the context of his other foreign policy actions, this claim is nonsensical, and undermines the work being done in support of global democracy and American interests.

• 
• 12/20/2020
  

  Peace is Good. But are More Peace Deals Necessarily Better?

  by Catherine Baylin Duryea

  The recent normalization of relations between Israel and Morocco extends longstanding covert cooperation between the two nations, but troublingly reflects Mideast politics that are increasingly aimed at isolating Iran. It also includes concessions that  contribute to the marginalization of the people of Western Sahara.

• 
• 12/13/2020
  

  Will Biden Shake Up a Century of US-Ireland Relations?

  by Mark Holan

  As the second Irish-American Catholic president, Joe Biden may be expected to sprinkle his speeches with lines from Seamus Heaney, but he's likely to tread a moderate path as issues like Brexit test the Irish-American relationship. 

• 
• 12/20/2020
  

  Trump's Troop Withdrawal in Afghanistan: Part 1 – Abandoning a Vulnerable Ally in the War on Terror

  by Brian Glyn Williams

  Donald Trump's plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan misrepresents the scope and costs of the American mission and ignores the high stakes of failure for both Afghans and American security, according to a scholar of the War on Terror. 

• 
• 11/15/2020
  

  Can the COVID Crisis Create a New Civilian-Military Trust in Argentina?

  by David M. K. Sheinin y Cesar R. Torres

  Many Argentinians have been suspicious of military involvement in civil affairs since the end of the country's military dictatorship in 1983. Two scholars ask if the COVID crisis presents an opportunity for healing and reimagining the military's role in Argentina.

• 
• 11/1/2020
  

  Mythologies Without End: The U.S., Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1917-2020

  by Jerome Slater

  The author of a new history of the Israel-Palestine conflict argues that a myth of national innocence crafted by Israel and embraced by the United States impedes pragmatic compromise and costs lives through ongoing violence. 

• 
• 11/1/2020
  

  From a Victorian to a Twenty-First Century Understanding of Why History Matters

  by Priya Satia

  "Churchill was the apotheosis of the historically-minded statesman, committed to the idea of history as progress in which the role of great men was to suppress ordinary moral compunctions about destructive events that forwarded it."