News Abroad

Photographer Peter van Agtmael's Unsparing Images from Iraq and Afghanistan

by Robin Lindley

In a recent column entitled "The Pictures of War You Aren't Supposed to See," esteemed correspondent Chris Hedges described the nature of modern w

The Road Not Taken by the U.S. in 1950s Iran

by John T. McNay

The streets of Tehran are often filled these days with anti-government protesters criticizing a government that came to power largely as a reaction to a repressi

Turkey Yesterday... and Today: An Interview with Jenny White

by Aaron Leonard

Anthropologist and Boston University professor Jenny White has just published The Winter Thief, the third book in her “Kamil Pasha” historical novel series.  The book takes place in the waning da

Lying About Nuclear Weapons

by Lawrence S. Wittner

One of the most popular muckraking American journalists of the late twentieth century, I.F. Stone, once remarked:  "All governments lie.&qu

The Perils of the Philanthropist President in Haiti

by Martine Jean

The editors of the New York Times must suffer from collective amnesia!  That is what I kept repeating to myself as I watched their latest report on the aftermath of the devastating January 12th earthquake in Haiti.  I relish reading the reports on Haiti for a variety of reasons.  It’s my way to keep hope for my country amid the devastation that the earthquake has brought on an already devastated land.  On March 20th, the online edition of the New

From the Philippines Conquest to Afghanistan, the U.S. Trains Local Police in Brutality

by Jeremy Kuzmarov

As the U.S. expands the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Obama administration has placed a premium on police training programs.  The stated aim is to provide security to the population so as to enable local forc

Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride and the Struggle to End Global Hunger

by William Lambers

One day I was flipping through an old book about my hometown of Andover, Massachusetts.  I was curious to see what role the town may have had in the American Revolution, particularly the historic days of April 18-19 and the

Open Letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vice-Prime Minister Bülent Arınç

by Taner Akçam

There is something I have difficulty understanding.  You, who have put an end to ninety-five years of the “there are no Kurds, they’

The American Insurgency in Iraq?

by Priya Satia

During last week’s election, Ayad Allawi, Nouri al-Maliki’s closest rival for the Iraqi premiership, made a curious remark about the h

Inside the Sit-Ins Against U.S. Military Expansion on Okinawa

by Kikuno Yumiko

Okinawa used to be the independent Ryukyu Kingdom, blessed with a bountiful environment and friendly trade relations with many other Asian countries.  In March 1609, Satsuma-han [which controlled Kyūshū] invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom.  In 1879, the Meiji government forced the Kingdom to surrender Shuri Castle by means of the “Ryukyu Disposition,” which brought down the curtain on the Ryukyu Kingdom. Ryukyuan culture was subsequently lost under the assimil

How Zoroastrianism Influences the Worldview of Iran's Leadership

by Juan Cole

As I reported in January, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has begun taking the lin

On Turkey and the Armenian Genocide, the Obama Administration Needs to Sing a New Song

by Taner Akçam

What is the difference between the Obama and Bush administrations?  Nothing, it seems, when it comes to facing history and recognizing historic

The Crisis in Turkey over the Military Threatens Secular Government

by Daniel Pipes

The arrest and indictment of top military figures in Turkey last week precipitated potentially the most severe crisis since Atatürk founded the republic in 1923. The weeks ahead will probably indicate whether the country continues its slide toward Islamism or reverts to its traditional secularism. The denouement has major implications for Muslims everywhere.Turkey's military has long been both the state's most trusted institution and the guarantor of Atatürk's legacy, e

With a Free Enterprise Vietnam, Who Really Won the War?

by William Thompson

Over the year-end, I visited Vietnam, and I revised some thinking.  I now conclude that we won the Vietnam War.  We just weren’t there for the victory party.I was in Vietnam to visit my son, a school teacher at the South Saigon (yes! SAIGON) International School.  I rode on a “cyclo” from the Ho Chi Minh Post Office, filled with merchants hawking goods, to the Ben Thanh Market—from one hot spot of capitalism to another.  I took a tr

The China We're Stuck With

by Warren I. Cohen

In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt spoke to a Chinese emissary of America’s hope for a strong, stable, and prosperous China. He professed to believe that such a China would be in the interest

The (Very) French Argument against Google Books

by Christine S. Haynes

American opponents of Google Books, Google’s effort to create a vast digital book repository, cite various reasons for their resistance:  the issue of copyright, or the danger of monopoliza

How the Russians View Abraham Lincoln

by William G. Shade

Everyone who will read this knows that a year ago on February 12, 2009, we honored what would have been Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday.  The many American celebrations have been noted in these pages, and even in a paper at the recent AHA annual convention in San Diego.  I have been told that there where also commemorations in other countries, and I personally took part in one that I think Americans would find most interesting.On February 18th and 19th, 2009,

“Secret” 1965 Memo Reveals Plans to Keep U.S. Bases and Nuclear Weapons Options in Okinawa After Reversion

by Steve Rabson

Jack London, Asian Wars and the “Yellow Peril”

by Daniel A. Métraux

Novelist Jack London (1876-1916), by far the most popular American writer a century ago, is these days remembered for his novels and short stories on the Yukon.  The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and To Build a Fire have retained much of their early popularity, but his visits to Japan, Korea and Manchuria, his brilliant coverage of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), his short stories based in Japan and China, his essays predicting the rise of the Pacific R

George Galloway and the Left’s Unholy Alliance

by Richard L. Cravatts

The news that British MP George Galloway was the planned guest speaker at a February 1st Hamas fundraiser at Boston’s Palestinian Cultural Center for Peace would, in a morally coherent world, be alarming for those in the West who wonder why elected officials should be gathering support for a group of jihadist thugs whose principal efforts are dedicated to the extirpation of Israel and the murder of Jews.  Here, again, is yet another instance of the dangerous “unholy all