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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

Politics, War & Security

Rambo Politics from Reagan to Trump

In linking the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Trump invokes a fantasy of poetic justice—positioning himself as Rambo, the avenger of American humiliation abroad.

Bonnie Honig

War & Security

Getting Counterinsurgency Wrong

Washington Post reporting exposed that U.S. operations in Afghanistan were horribly mismanaged, but even a well-run mission would have been doomed to fail.

Ethan Bueno de Mesquita

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

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