Vladimir Putin – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

The Kursk Disaster: Facts Sunk Beneath Waves of Drama

At the turn of the millennium a trilogy of disasters gained a high profile in the international media. First, in July of 2000 the fiery crash of Air France’s Concorde flight 4590 from Paris to New York ended not just many lives (109 persons), but also the plane’s career. Second, on August 12, 2000, there […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Review of 2018, Part 3 (July–September): The Trade War plus Cold War II

JULY June was a month so heavily saturated with key turning point events, that it seemed like the longest month of the year—but then July came. Already, on the first day, we were treated to a very unusual sight: an obviously chastened and tamed John Bolton, just back from his visit with Vladimir Putin in […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Review of 2018, Part 1 (January–March): Unloading the American Empire

In memory of James Laxer, n. December 22, 1941, d. February 23, 2018, prolific author, and an inspiration to all Canadian academics to think for ourselves. JANUARY A US-dominated World Order in Decline At first it seemed as if the start of 2018 proved the existence of a deep continuity between Trump, Obama, and Bush […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Thickest Review of 2018: An Overview

Numbering 100 printed pages, at about 50,000 words, the thickest review of 2018 is about to be published here in four parts over the next few days. A year in the making, and more than just a chronicle, this work is based on a wide range of very different sources, including official documents, with a […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Helsinki Summit: Trying to Turn the Page on the New Cold War

Finally, on Monday, July 16, 2018, the Helsinki Summit bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump took place, despite shrill demands that it be stopped, canceled, or turned into a platform for more aggression. “President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin until Russia takes demonstrable and transparent steps to […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Dying Days of Liberalism

How Orthodoxy, Professionalism, and Unresponsive Politics Finally Doomed a 19th-century Project What a sight to behold. These are the dying days, counting down soon to the final hours, of the defeated political project of liberalism, inherited from the 19th-century. The centre—if there ever was one—could not hold after all. What a thing it is to […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Kagan’s False Paradox and the Pro-War Media’s Confirmation Bias

“What Americans really want in a foreign policy” is a good choice of title, when writing an op-ed that effectively denies that the majority of the US public is against more wars and more interventions. If your starting point is an absolute and essentialist one, then you cannot allow deviation from war as the primary […]

by Brendan Stone

Regime Change: 10 Things You Need to Know about Ukraine

1. The U.S. government, through Victoria Nuland, was caught interfering directly in Ukraine’s politics. Her “fuck the EU” phone call demonstrates the high level of U.S. State Department involvement. Our media focused largely on the negative PR caused by the “fuck the EU” comment, but skirted around the content of the phone call. The widely-leaked conversation featured […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Sochi, Sexuality, and Empire

Only When in Russia When were the last modern Olympic games that openly endorsed gay rights? Where were those Olympic games held? The short answer is: never, nowhere. However, suddenly, gay rights issues matter when deciding to attend the Olympics. Sochi, for reasons that are not altogether mysterious, now stands out as an exception being […]