To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

×
      LATEST NEWSOPINIONCLIMATEECONOMY POLITICS RIGHTS & JUSTICEWAR & PEACE
      LATEST NEWS
      OPINION

      cold war

      Local residents escape flood waters by boat in Hebei Province, China

      No Time for a New Cold War on a Deadly Hot Planet

      For the sake of future generations, isn’t it time for the American and Chinese leaderships to cut the war-like posturing and together face a world in desperate danger?

      Tom Engelhardt
      Oct 02, 2023

      Tell me, what planet are we actually on? All these decades later, are we really involved in a “second” or “new” Cold War? It’s certainly true that, as late as the 1980s, the superpowers (or so they then liked to think of themselves), the United States and the Soviet Union, were still engaged in just such a Cold War, something that might have seemed almost positive at the time. After all, a “hot” one could have involved the use of the planet’s two great nuclear arsenals and the potential obliteration of just about everything.

      But today? In case you haven’t noticed, the phrase “new Cold War” or “second Cold War” has indeed crept into our media vocabulary. (Check it out at Wikipedia.) Admittedly, unlike John F. Kennedy, Joe Biden has not actually spoken about bearing “the burden of a long, twilight struggle.” Still, the actions of his foreign policy crew — in spirit, like the president, distinctly old Cold Warriors — have helped make the very idea that we’re in a new version of just such a conflict part of everyday media chatter.

      Keep ReadingShow Less
      Opinion
      Cold War
      A street art mural depicting a tug-of-war between a Russian and Ukrainian soldier is seen on a war memorial in Izyum

      Time for a Cease Fire and Negotiations in Ukraine

      Now is the time to join the global mobilization to end the Ukraine War.

      Martin Halpern
      Sep 29, 2023

      Between September 30 and October 8, 2023, peace activists from over thirty countries are coming together to support “an immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations” to end the Ukraine War. In joining these advocates, I continue on a path I began over sixty years ago.

      In October 1962, as the Cuban missile crisis was about to unfold, I wrote an op ed for my high school newspaper calling for compromise in negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union to achieve a ban on the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. As it happened, my essay appeared only after the public – including my fellow students and I -- became aware that nuclear war between our two countries might be imminent. Despite the danger, I was alone in my views when members of the Arista honor society chatted about the crisis in an after-school meeting. The dominant anti-Soviet cold war narrative made advocacy of compromise and negotiations, even in the face of a nuclear Armageddon, unthinkable to most. Thankfully, President John Kennedy and Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev reached a negotiated compromise of their disagreement and averted nuclear war.

      Keep ReadingShow Less
      Opinion
      ukraine war
      Beware the Anti-China Sentiment Pushing Us Towards Another Cold War

      Beware the Anti-China Sentiment Pushing Us Towards Another Cold War

      If the United States can’t learn to cooperate with China, our future will be one of constant escalation of wars and threats of wars and all that comes with them—including massive refugee flows, environmental destruction, and rising poverty.

      Phyllis Bennis
      Lindsay Koshgarian
      Sep 16, 2023

      Whenever the threat of war against a new enemy abroad rises, attacks at home erupt first against those who are perceived to have ties to that so-called enemy—and then against those who stand against war and call instead for diplomacy and engagement.

      The new Cold War comes home with a rise in anti-Asian racism, including everything from violent attacks on innocent people to clouds of suspicion hovering over Asian and Asian-American scientists and researchers, with threats of lost jobs, deportation, even arrest. Advocates for diplomacy instead of war with China, peace activists, environmentalists who recognize we cannot deal with the global climate crisis without cooperation and collaboration with China—all are accused of being soft on communism, or spreading “Chinese government talking points.”

      Keep ReadingShow Less
      Opinion
      Cold War
      SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER
      Quality journalism. Progressive values. Direct to your inbox.
      Follow Us
      Most Popular

      'Top Tier Trolling': Fetterman Gifts House GOP Case of Bud Light Over Biden Impeachment Hearing

      'If We Elect Clowns, We Get a Circus': Congress Narrowly Avoids Shutdown, For Now

      'Doesn't Make a Damn Bit of Difference': Trump Belittles UAW Strike in Speech at Nonunion Plant

      Supreme Court Could Trigger Hundreds of Billions in Corporate Tax Cuts 'With the Stroke of Pen'

      We Should Organize for a 20-Hour Work Week

      In 'First Major Blow to Big Pharma,' Federal Judge Blocks Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Injunction

      Sen. Dianne Feinstein Dies at 90

      Citing 14th Amendment, Michigan Voters File Suit to Bar Trump From 2024 Ballot

      'We Held the Line and Won': House Approves Stopgap Spending Bill With No Budget Cuts

      We Won't Survive Trump's Next War Against the United States of America

      Independent, nonprofit journalism needs your help.
      Please Pitch In
      Today!