free trade – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

The Trade War is Here: Some of the New “Facts of Life”

In Madeleine Albright’s new book, dramatically titled Fascism: A Warning, she slams the anti-globalization crowd, claiming yet again that globalization is here to stay—it’s a “fact of life”. It must be another of those facts of life that we are seeing today, like “Donald Trump will never be elected president” or “UK voters will ultimately […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Better Off Without NAFTA, Part 1: Introduction—the US, Trump, and Facts and Fictions about Winners and Losers

Canada, Mexico, and the US: we could argue that any one of these nation-states “lost” because of NAFTA while the others “won”. That is Donald Trump’s position: that the US’ trade partners have “won” from NAFTA, at the expense of the US (which would also validate NAFTA as a “good thing” for both Canada and […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

How to Read Donald Trump Like Donald Duck

If an alien were to land on Earth, and listen only to Donald Trump, the impression the alien would get is that a great, powerful, and cruel nation–Mexico–was dominating its neighbours unfairly, robbing them of their resources, cheating them through trade, and invading them with gangsters. “Mexico is killing us at the border”. “Mexico is […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

101 Things We Learned from WikiLeaks’ Podesta Emails

US voters have been given a rare, even unprecedented opportunity to look at the machinery inside an electoral campaign and a foundation, as presented by the insiders themselves. Being afforded this privilege motivated one columnist to assert: “Those voting for Hillary Clinton, defending Clinton and supporting Clinton without reading the information reported by WikiLeaks are […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Donald Trump and Empire: An Assessment

“There is something unseemly about a nation conducting a foreign policy that involves it in the affairs of most of the nations of the world while its own domestic needs are neglected or postponed, just as there is something unseemly about an individual carrying all the burdens of the Community Chest and the PTA while […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Cosmopolitan Imperialism: Obama Does Anthropology in Laos?

“Obama, the cerebral son of an anthropologist”—this is how the Associated Press touted soon to be ex-president Barack Obama on his visit to Laos this week. The AP went even further, declaring Obama’s approach “soft diplomacy”. One has to wonder where all of the “soft diplomacy” was in the seven brutal wars simultaneously fought by […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Immigration and Capital

Immigration, rightly or wrongly, has been marched to the frontline of current political struggles in Europe and North America. Whether exaggerated or accurate, the role of immigration is situated as a central factor in the Brexit referendum in the UK, and the rise of the “America First” Trump movement in the US. It seems impossible […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Encircling Empire: Report #27 — Donald Trump’s “America First” Foreign Policy

This and previous issues have been archived on a dedicated site—please see: ENCIRCLING EMPIRE. For frequent updates, please “like” our Facebook page and/or follow on Twitter. There are four parts to this report: Notes on Donald Trump’s first major foreign policy speech; An overview of Trump’s positions on NATO; An annotated list of articles on […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Globalization: Beyond Discontent

On Stiglitz, Joseph E. (2003). Globalization and its Discontents. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. “Today, globalization is being challenged around the world….for millions of people globalization has not worked. Many have actually been made worse off, as they have seen their jobs destroyed and their lives become more insecure. They have felt increasingly powerless […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Wall: A Monument to the Nation-State

Reaction against globalization often takes a visceral nationalist turn in many parts of the globe, no less in the US where the impacts of globalization are increasingly registered as an increased “Third Worldization” of large parts of the society and economy. The nationalist reaction to peripheralization within the centre takes shape in ideas of “taking […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Terminal Condition: Neoliberal Globalization

After decades of protests and riots against neoliberal structural adjustment; after anti-globalization mass movements flourished across North America and Europe; after a large portion of Latin America and the Caribbean elected socialist governments; after waves of anti-Western cultural and religious revitalization movements (some violent, some not) have spread from Indonesia to Europe; after nationalist and […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Peruvian Massacre and a “Socialist” Fig Leaf for World Capitalism

James Petras, in an essay that is being widely reproduced across the web (as it will be here as well), articulates a series of critical points regarding the nature of the Peruvian regime, the political history of President Alan García (profile) and his APRA party (which continues to use grand revolutionary symbols), and its service […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Resisting Free Trade, Racism, and the State: Peru’s Amazonian Indians Fight Back

‘Peruvian Indians are being driven to desperate measures to try and save their lands which have been stolen from them for five centuries. ‘Their protests signal that the colonial era has finally drawn to a close. No longer are Amazon Indians prepared to put up with the illegal and brutal treatment which has been routine. […]