The Russian government's claim that it was or is threatened by the possibility of Ukraine's joining NATO is hollow, as is the Russian contention that Ukraine was or is Nazi-dominated. Instead, the Putin regime's vastly destructive war upon Ukraine is clearly driven by the goal of territorial gain and, as both the United Nations and the International Court of Justice have observed, constitutes a clear violation of international law.
Although great empires rank among the most powerful engines of world history, they are also among the most dangerous, especially as they brood over their decline. The ubiquity and perils of this nostalgia -- which afflicts Russia, Britain, France, China, the United States, and other nations -- highlight the need to create an international security system to replace today's international anarchy.
Although the rulers of the world's major military and economic powers have repeatedly claimed that they are making their nations great again, their policies have not resulted in widespread happiness among their citizens. As the latest UN-sponsored survey of happiness reveals, they fail to rank among the world's happiest nations -- in most cases by a very wide margin. The happiest nations are those with policies emphasizing social solidarity.
Great power crimes against humanity, often driven by imperial arrogance and ambition, have been -- and continue to be -- a plague upon the world. But it remains possible to take a significant step along the road to a peaceful, humane planet. Strengthening the United Nations would provide such a step.
Vladimir Putin's dominant motive for his invasion of Ukraine is clear enough. Denying that Ukraine has any right to statehood independent of Russia and glorifying the expansionism of his country Czarist and Stalinist past, he is caught up in a reactionary nostalgia for empire. Or, to put it simply, he longs to Make Russia Great Again.
The Cuban missile crisis ultimately convinced John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev that, in the nuclear era, there's little to be gained, and a great deal to be lost, when great powers continue their centuries-old practices of carving out exclusive spheres of influence and engaging in high-stakes military confrontations. Surely, we, too, can learn from the Cuban crisis -- and must learn from it if we are to survive.
The dangerous military confrontations currently occurring in Eastern Europe and in Asia should remind us that great powers have a dangerous proclivity for war. Numerous plans have been suggested that can defuse these situations. But, in the long run, to avert wholesale destruction, it will be necessary to build an organizational structure with the responsibility and power to maintain international security
William Scheuerman's A New American Labor Movement (SUNY Press, 2021) argues that the nation's unions, under a withering assault by a powerful corporate offensive, lack the power, when acting alone, to revive the the U.S. labor movement. Even so, this book reveals, a revival is possible thanks to a recent and effective upsurge in labor organizing by new social movements. In this fashion, A New American Labor Movement illuminates a useful path forward in the long and difficult struggle for workers' rights.
January 22, 2022 marks the first anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Adopted by an overwhelming majority of the world's nations, the treaty bans developing, testing, producing, acquiring, possessing, stockpiling, and threatening to use nuclear weapons. Nevertheless, the governments of the nine nuclear weapons nations (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea) have not only refused to ratify the treaty, but are currently engaged in an exceptionally dangerous nuclear arms race.
Although a major scandal erupted in 2019 over bribery and other fraudulent practices used by wealthy Americans to secure their children's admission to elite colleges, the affluent benefit substantially from other kinds of class-biased admission policies that are perfectly legal. Indeed, large donations, hereditary entitlements, and favoritism for athletes have long privileged the privileged -- and continue to privilege the privileged -- in entering the loftiest ranks of U.S. higher education.