By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO | 18 July 2026 (IDN) — Creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel seemed feasible when President Bill Clinton hosted the signing of the Oslo Accords at the White House in September 1993. The goal was reaffirmed in 2011 when 90 per cent of the Senate co-sponsored a resolution […]
The Demolition Of Some Important Myths About American History
By Jan Servaes BRUSSELS | 18 July 2026 (IDN) — Traditional American historiography is often criticised for presenting simplistic, one-dimensional portraits of historical figures and events, thereby concealing complex realities and controversial aspects. Traditional historiography therefore tends to gloss over events and the broader struggle of marginalised groups, and to glorify a select few key […]
We Should Question US “Soft Power”
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 15 July 2026 (IDN) – Is the world being captured by what the late Harvard academic, Joseph Nye, has termed American “Soft Power”? President Donald Trump says he’s pushing for this. The debate about American influence on the world at large is not new. Charles Dickens, the great British […]
Power, Fear, and Submission
By Dr. Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 10 July 2026 (IDN) — How is it possible that the Republican Party, at the peak of American power and at the new dawn of the country’s 250th anniversary, became a cult of personality around a leader they know to be a felon, a liar, and a danger […]
My Conversation With Karl Marx About Donald Trump
By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO | 7 July 2026 (IDN) — The following has been edited for clarity and length. Norman Solomon: You’ve downplayed the importance of the individual in history. But the United States now has as president an individual who transformed power relations and the political landscape. Karl Marx: I can assure you that […]
1776 Against 1787: Constituent Power and the Forgotten Meaning of American Democracy
By Sam Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 6 July 2026 (IDN) — On Saturday, July 4, Americans celebrated the nation’s 250th anniversary with the familiar fanfare: fireworks, flags, patriotic speeches, and ritual invocations of liberty. Yet at this extraordinary milestone, when the country is more deeply divided than at any time in recent memory over the […]
America at 250: A Reckoning and a Call to Conscience
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 3 July 2026 (IDN) — As the United States marks its 250th anniversary—a testament to endurance, sacrifice, and democratic aspiration—it does so under a dark and foreboding shadow. At this defining moment, the nation finds itself led not by steadiness or vision, but by a figure whose erratic conduct, […]
Whither the Law of the Sea?
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 1 July 2026 (IDN) — David Attenborough said in his wondrous documentary film, Ocean, that it had taken him a long time in his 99 years of life to understand that for the survival of our planet the oceans are more important than the land. This past four months, as […]
The US Occupation of the Indian Ocean ‘Zone of Peace’, the Next UNSG and the World’s First Woman Head of State
By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 30 June 2026 (IDN) — America’s war of choice on Iran has spread across the Indian Ocean World and maritime Silk Route. Starved of oil and gas, South and Southeast Asia’s emerging economies have seen their local currencies fall against the ‘exorbitantly privileged’ Petrodollar as public and private […]
From a Respected Hegemon to a Drifting Power
As midterm campaigns accelerate and disillusionment with Trump’s domestic and foreign policies widens, a stark scenario emerges: America faces a perilous inflection point demanding immediate action before democratic erosion becomes irreversibleBy Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 28 June 2ß26 (IDN) — Donald Trump did not invent America’s vulnerabilities, but he has driven them to a breaking point. […]