Gilbert Achcar is an emeritus professor at SOAS, University of London. His most recent books are The New Cold War: The United States, Russia and China From Kosovo to Ukraine and Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective.
President Trump’s midterm debacle has weakened the entire MAGA camp. But J. D. Vance, a more disciplined and more ideological far-right figure, is already positioning himself to inherit the movement in 2028.
Israel’s election campaign reflected the wide support for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians across mainstream politics. The electoral stalemate between government and opposition is unlikely to slow the radicalization of Israeli society.
Israel’s ethnic cleansing of southern Lebanon and Gaza has reached a scale unseen since the Nakba. The history of Israel’s offensives shows how depopulation is soon followed by annexation.
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt blamed Israel for America’s Middle Eastern fiascos. But from Iraq to Iran, Washington has had its own reasons for war in the Gulf.
What’s really behind Trump’s war on Iran?
Since the end of the Cold War, European and US liberals have claimed to defend a “rules-based international order.” Often a fiction, even the pretense has now vanished under the rubble of Gaza.
Gilbert Achcar explains how oil, US power, and regional rivalries have shaped decades of conflict in the Middle East — and why the confrontation with Iran fits a long imperial pattern.
There’s something disingenuous about liberal Western media rediscovering that the term “imperialism” also applies to the US. Donald Trump is no radical departure from his predecessors; he simply abandons the pretense of exporting democracy.
Today marks 15 years since the overthrow of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, one of the high points of the Arab Spring. The events of 2011 gave rise to an impressive wave of revolutions. Almost all were bloodily suppressed.
Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa was just welcomed to Donald Trump’s White House. His visit represents Washington’s embrace of a sectarian government with little respect for democracy.
Western plans for a Palestinian state fall far short of Palestinian self-determination, imposing tight limits on its future sovereignty.
Zionists often insist that the use of the word “genocide” to describe Israeli actions in Gaza cheapens other past crimes. Yet in both scale and in intent, Israel’s destruction of Gaza conforms closely to historic genocides.
In defending and arming Israel over the last two years, Western governments have shown the hollowness of international law. The genocide will be remembered as a decisive moment in the collapse of liberalism.
An exchange between two Jacobin writers on the question of military aid to Ukraine.
Not even 1 percent of NATO military hardware will actually be used to help Ukraine. But the Russian invasion has provided a pretext for massively increased arms spending — and it’s great news for weapons manufacturers’ profits.
The current Ukraine-Russia standoff is the most dangerous European war crisis in decades. Rhetorical grandstanding and the buildup of weaponry risk setting off a devastating explosion. Progressive movements must urgently organize for peace and de-escalation.
War hawks constantly cite women’s liberation in support of the US occupation of Afghanistan. That’s transparent hypocrisy: during the Cold War, the US supported patriarchal fundamentalists against a party dedicated to advancing the cause of Afghan women.
The United States suffered grave losses in Iraq and Afghanistan, just as it did in Vietnam. But we shouldn’t mistake revisions of US military strategy after calamitous failures for a turn away from US imperialist ambitions.
The Sudanese Revolution has won major victories. But it still needs to wrestle control from the military to popular forces.
The recent uprisings in Sudan and Algeria show that the conditions that gave rise to the Arab Spring are not going away. But movements against authoritarianism and exploitation still face existential threats.