The Nouveau Riche in Power

Donald Trump behaves like any other nouveau riche that has reached positions of power as a result of the expansion of capitalism and the neoliberal geopolitical realities that shaped the international system after the Cold War. He is no different then Vladimir Putin or Silvio Berlusconi, living ostentatiously and using power to intimate those around […]

NAFTA is Here to Stay

Recently I have been talking to my students about the nature of the nation state and the formation of the international system. We have also been talking about the historical development of capitalism as its ideas and values expanded from Europe to North America. We briefly began to reflect about industrialization, its power structures and […]

North Korea? No Worries

Peace movements and human rights organizations have voiced their opposition to the administration’s recent reaction to the threats voiced by Kim Jong-un, several leaders from the Democratic Party have also questioned Trump’s bellicose stance, and some main stream Republicans have done so as well. This has turned the North Korean issue into another opportunity for […]

Venezuela, “A Fling of the Past”

When Van Trevor & the Four Seasons released “A Fling of the Past” back in 1963 Venezuelan-US relations were harmonious and to a certain extend exceptional within the Western Hemisphere. Creole Petroleum Corporation, Standard Oil of New Jersey’s subsidiary in Venezuela, controlled large part of the nation’s oil production and exports, and capitalized on disproportional […]

The Leadership Envisioned by the International Community

The 2017 Hamburg G-20 summit was another opportunity for internationalists and the anti-Trump community to reinforce their now well-known arguments. Headlines such as “Once Dominant, the United States Finds Itself Isolated at G-20” and “Australian Journalist Demolishes Trump at G-20: ‘Biggest Threat to the West’” reflected the focus of domestic and international media.[1] There was […]

Internationalists, Nationalism and the Paris Accord

The internationalist agenda is so ingrained in our subconscious that it feels almost immoral and unenlightening to question those who are infuriated with President Trump’s decision to abandon the Paris Accord. To find logic or reasoning behind the recent decision taken by his administration comes across as defiant to mainstream views. I understand the magnitude […]

Is Our Increasing Consumption a Sign of Our Prosperity?

I wanted to share with the readership a blog that I wrote this week for The NEP-HIS Blog in response to Dr. Bruce Sacerdote’s working paper “Fifty Years of Growth in American Consumption, Income, and Wages.” I thought it was important to approach this from our “glocal” perspective in order to better understand the historical dynamic of […]

The March for Science and the Fragmentation of the Opposition in the USA

The recent march for science that was initially inspired by the U.S. scientific community’s initiative to protest the scientific denials of President Trump’s administration and the potential cuts on scientific funding, and that ignited other science agenda-based marches across the world, confirms the failure of the silo-driven opposition movements across the United States.   This march is […]

A Local Strategy for the Global Migration Crisis

There’s no question that the world is currently facing a global migration crisis. Approximately 65 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide; of these, roughly 21 million are refugees (those who have crossed an international border in search of security) and of these 21 million over half are children.[1] From a structural/security perspective and a […]