Links to Recent Articles of Interest
By Tony Wood, New Left Review, January-April 2022 issue
An in-depth historical analysis of Ukrainian-Russian relations during and after the Soviet era, the dynamics at play in the current war, and the possible outcomes. The author teaches Latin American history at Princeton and has written two Verso Press books on recent Russian history: Chechnya: The Case for Independence (2007) and Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War (2018).
By Andrew Bacevich, TomDispatch.com, posted April 14
Warns against a “new cold war” by evoking Martin Luther King's Riverside Church speech of April 1967 denouncing the Vietnam War and calling on the US to abandon the “giant triplets” of racism, materialism, and militarism. The author is a retired US Army colonel and a professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University.
By Ted Galen Carpenter, Responsible Statecraft, posted April 11
“The stakes are far too high to stand by while practitioners of the new McCarthyism again silence dissent. Advocating a policy of caution and restraint does not imply the slightest sympathy for Vladimir Putin or his war of aggression, and we must not allow reckless, unprincipled hawks to get away with asserting that it does.” The author is a senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute.
By Anatol Lieven, The Critic, April 2022 issue
Warns against the worldwide economic damage of protracted wartare and sanctions.
“Unless you believe in the fantasies either of a complete Russian conquest of Ukraine or of unconditional Russian surrender in Ukraine then, whatever happens, a compromise peace will sooner or later be necessary.”The author is a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and has written several books on Russia and its neighbors.
By American Association of University Professors, History News Network, posted April 1
This AAUP analysis critiques two kinds of new and proposed laws that jeopardize academic freedom. “In the first case, legislation defines antisemitism to include political criticism of the state of Israel. In the second, legislation defines critical analysis of the history of slavery and its legacies in US society as being itself racially discriminatory against whites.”
By Ellen Schrecker, The Nation, posted March 31
“Displaying an unprecedented solidarity, the academic community is mobilizing to confront what its members rightly perceive as an existential assault on their professional work and values.” The author is a professor emerita at Yeshiva University and author of, among other books, The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s (U. of Chicago Press, 2021).
By Alexander Zevin, New Left Review/Sidecar, posted March 31
One of two conflicting analyses (see article by David Ost, below) of the role of the US and NATO in bringing on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This one argues that liberal and left commentators have been too quick to adopt the mainstream view that Putin is solely responsible for the war. The author teaches history at the College of Staten Island, CUNY and is an editor of New Left Review.
By David Ost, Foreign Policy in Focus, posted March 31
In contrast to the Zevin article, above, this analysis calls on the left to recognize “multiple imperialisms” and denies that the invasion was a response to NATO expansion. The author teaches politics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York.
By Hannah Gurman, Responsible Statecraft, posted March 28
“Like the third installment of the Stallone series, America is trying to reimagine itself while never acknowledging failures of the past.” The author teaches US history at New York University. Her most recent book, co-edited with Kaeten Mistry, is Whistleblowing Nation: The History of National Security Disclosures and the Cult of State Secrecy(Columbia U. Press, 2020).
By Tom Stevenson, London Review of Books, posted March 24
Review essay on The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War by Nicholas Mulder (Yale U. Press, March 2022). The reviewer, a writer on international affairs, argues that from their beginnings until today sanctions have had little impact on their intended elite targets but have inflicted enormous suffering on civilian populations.
By William D. Hartung, Nick Cleveland-Stout, and Taylor Giorno, TomDispatch.com, posted March 22
“A growing chorus of pundits and policymakers has suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marks the beginning of a new Cold War. If so, that means trillions of additional dollars for the Pentagon in the years to come coupled with a more aggressive military posture in every corner of the world.”
All three authors are researchers at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and William D. Hartung is a senior research fellow there.
All three authors are researchers at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and William D. Hartung is a senior research fellow there.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for suggesting several of the above articles, and to Steve gosch and Rusti Eisenberg for suggesting articles and consulting on the composition of the list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.