Allies (Fall 2019) | Boston Review

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War & Security

The Making of the American Gulag

During the Cold War, the “police apparatus” was held up as a prime example of Soviet repression. Yet in its efforts to fight subversives, the United States ended up with its own carceral state. 

Stuart Schrader

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War & Security

Race, War & Security

The Pervasive Power of the Settler Mindset

More than simple racism or discrimination, the destructive premise at the core of the American settler narrative is that freedom is built upon violent elimination.

Nikhil Pal Singh

War & Security

The President and the Blob

The barrage of attacks that followed Trump’s decision to reduce the U.S. military presence in Syria obscures the decades-long bankruptcy of the U.S. foreign policy establishment.

Andrew J. Bacevich, Rajan Menon

War & Security

How Do We End the Never-Ending Wars?

Wars may begin like they always have, but they no longer end as they once did. We need an ethics of war termination to hold politicians accountable.

Elad Uzan

War & Security

Holding Ourselves Responsible

In 2001, three frameworks for handling international crises emerged: the War on Terror, an ill-defined "responsibility to protect" struggling countries, and the Caribbean movement for reparations. The first two have failed, but the third may still have something to tell us.

Adom Getachew

War & Security

Sleeping Through the Alarm

With virtually no democratic oversight and over 6,500 missiles in the United States alone, the use of nuclear weapons is almost inevitable. So why is it so hard to think about nuclear war?

Elaine Scarry, Rachel Ablow

War & Security

The Sanctions Game

Donald Trump's “maximum pressure” strategy is doomed to fail, especially as tensions rise between Iran and the United States.

Masoud Movahed

War & Security

Watching the End of the World

The Doomsday Clock is set to two minutes to midnight—the same position it held in 1953, when the United States and USSR detonated their first hydrogen bombs. So why don't we make movies about nuclear war anymore? 

Stephen Phelan

War & Security

Imperialism After Empire

A new book reveals the extent of the "Greater United States," but territory is not as important as it used to be. Instead, imperialism endures today in the logic of capitalism.

Stuart Schrader

War & Security

Banking on the Cold War

The Cold War says more about how U.S. elites imagined their “freedom” than it does about enabling other people to be free.

Nikhil Pal Singh

War & Security

Trump’s Foreign Policy Isn’t the Problem

It reflects, like a funhouse mirror, a twisted image of U.S. imperialism.

Jeanne Morefield

War & Security

The Path Back From Hell

U.S. foreign policy disasters fueled our current political crisis. But those who want a new approach must do more than point out past blunders.

Rajan Menon

War & Security

Foreign Policy for the Twenty-First Century

It is time to develop a new geostrategy unencumbered by past traumas.

Daniel Bessner

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