Empires built on dominance achieved through a powerful, expansionist military necessarily become ever more authoritarian, corrupt and dysfunctional, writes William J. Astore. Ultimately, they are fated to fail.
Let’s see how Europeans respond when they are told their peace dividend is henceforth to be spent on the machinery of war — when it’s “howitzers instead of hospitals” now, as a New York Times article puts it.
France’s president has proven himself to be a well-oiled weathervane. What he says on Monday may not match what he says or does on Wednesday. But his remarks while visiting China are interesting in several ways.
“At what point does a beleaguered population living near or below the poverty line rise up in protest?” From the author’s talk on April 4 at the Independent National Convention in Austin, Texas.
Far from constituting an exception, March 16 marks the 100th time under France’s Fifth Republic that the executive has drawn on special powers to force through an unpopular measure, writes Mathias Bernard.
When it bypassed Parliament and forced through pension system changes, Macron’s government exposed the anti-democratic deterioration in the Fifth Republic’s dual-executive system, writes Muhammed Shabeer.
Despite Colin Powell’s presentation and the U.S. media’s embrace of it, every other nation on the Security Council, with the exception of Britain and Spain, was highly skeptical of the U.S. argument for war, including allies Germany and France.
If the Donbass city of Bakhmut falls to the Russians the U.S. may need to save face in order to reverse course in Ukraine, writes Joe Lauria.
The mobilization on Tuesday was the latest demonstration against a government initiative that is currently being discussed in the French Senate. While the bill calls for raising the retirement age, protesters want it lowered.
