News Abroad

In Removing Confederate Symbols, US Military Follows German Military’s Example

by Fred Zilian

With unification, a fundamental break with the values of the East German Communist Party was necessary. Former East German soldiers would now belong to an army of a democracy, rooted in the concept of the “citizen in uniform."

Trump's Removal of Troops from Germany Follows a Trend

by Michael Creswell

While Trump's decision to halve the contingent of US troops in Germany has drawn bipartisan condemnation, critics should recognize that whether the decision is wise or foolish for today's context, it is in line with decades of efforts to shift the burdens of collective security onto NATO allies. 

30 Years Later: Saddam Hussein's Fateful Decision to Invade Kuwait

by Guy Laron

It was clear from the outset that this was a desperate gamble that put Iraq on a collision course with Washington. But Saddam believed he had no other choice but to stop Kuwait from dumping oil into a slack market.

"The Day I Start Being Free": Detained Migrants Struggle for Human Rights

by Jana Lipman

The experiences of Vietnamese refugees in the 1990s, who experienced detention and a bureaucratic process exposing them to dangerous repatriation, are a precedent for the treatment of asylum-seekers in contemporary America.

What Comes After the Fall of Pro-Slavery Monuments?

by Ana Lucia Araujo

In nearly two decades studying monuments, memorials, and museums memorializing slavery in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, I learned several lessons. When groups decide to erect a monument to remember an event or a person from the past, they are always driven by present-day motivations.

Annexation Will Be the (Formal) Beginning of Apartheid and the End of Zionism

by Andrew Seth Meyer

An American historian and lifelong liberal Zionist concludes that Israel's planned annexation of West Bank territory will force people of conscience to choose between liberal ideals and a form of Zionism harnessed to ethnic nationalism.

The Slow Path to Police Reform in Northern Ireland

by Donald M. Beaudette and Laura Weinstein

It took deep reforms and patience to build trust in policing across the sectarian divide of Northern Ireland after the Good Friday Accords. Does that process have lessons for the United States? 

Tear Down that Statue, Mr. Macron!

by Marlene L. Daut

Four figures from French history whose statues could replace that of Jefferson in Paris.

Israel and the Palestinians: Architects of Their Own Destruction

by Alon Ben-Meir

The political positions of Israeli and Palestinian leadership set the region on a path toward more bloodshed. 

Turning Points and Roads Not Taken in American Foreign Policy

by Roger Peace

The end of the Cold War presented an opportunity for American foreign policy to turn away from militarism and toward cooperative development. The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest consequence of failing to secure a "peace dividend."

The Chinese Dream Imperiled

by Andrew Meyer

We are going to hear much in the near future about the dangers of Chinese ambition. World leaders would be well advised, however, to prepare for the dangers of internal Chinese instability. 

Honor the Work of Brazil's Villas-Bôas Brothers by Protecting the Amazon's Indigenous

by John Hemming

The Villas-Bôas brothers worked with Brazil's indigenous people to balance the preservation of their Amazonian lands with inclusion in modernizing society. The policies of Jair Bolsonaro are a dire threat to their work, the survival of indigenous peoples, and the planet.

Tolerance and Violence: The Fate of Religious Minorities During The Plague under Christianity and Islam

by Selina O'Grady

A historian of monotheistic religion argues that the Islamic world showed greater tolerance of religious minorities during medieval plagues than did Christendom. Yet tolerance is a poor model for intercultural cooperation in our current crisis.

Who Can Learn From Taiwan? Apparently not WHO

by Keith Clark

The World Health Organization is unable to effectively learn from Taiwan's response to COVID-19 because the agency adheres to a "One China" policy that doesn't recognize both the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. 

Hong Kong Apocalypses: Teaching the Recent Past and the Speculative Future

by James Carter

The chaos of Hong Kong's recent protests and the Coronavirus unsettled a historian's sense of the boundary between past and present. Perhaps we understand either only through the mirror of the other. 

The Real Thucydides Trap

by Waller R. Newell

Classical histories are in vogue as explanations for the Coronavirus-fueled tensions between the United States and China. A political science scholar argues that an influential theory gets Thucydides backwards.

Trump’s Immigration Restrictions Echo Rhetoric of Africa’s White Settler Regimes

by Brooks Marmon

The Trump administration's adoption of immigration restrictions during the COVID crisis echoes the racial and economic agenda of the white settler regime in Rhodesia.

The Untold Story of Boko Haram’s Origins

by Jacob Zenn

Researchers who view Boko Haram as a Nigerian unsurgency need to understand its history as part of pan-African Islamist networks; responses to extremism must work across national borders.

The COVID Crisis is Accelerating a Global Shift to Authoritarianism (In America, Too)

by Luke Reader

Does the handling of the coronavirus mark a failure of government policy? The answer depends what the administration wanted from the crisis. If his goal was to concentrate power, Trump may be succeeding.

The World’s Major Military and Economic Powers Find Happiness Elusive

by Lawrence Wittner

Perhaps it’s time for the citizens of the “great powers” to ask themselves if they are truly benefiting from the much-vaunted military and economic strength of their nations.