Trump's North Korea Bluster Has Shattered US Standing As Global Leader

The more stridently Trump says he is going to stop North Korea, the worse it looks when he fails, and the more Beijing stands to gain.     

Patterns in the lives of ETA members

Abstract

Based on 48 fairly detailed personal case histories, and more limited data on 447 other individuals, this article describes significant patterns in the lives of members of the Basque insurgent organization Euzkadi ta Askatasuna (ETA). The article discusses the age and sex of ETA members, the socioeconomic background of the members and their families, and their ethnic and linguistic characteristics. The article also describes life in ETA, the radicalization of Basque youth, how new members are recruited into the organization, how they live and what they do as members, how ETA members relate to family, friends and loved ones, and how they terminate their relationship to the organization. The study finds ETA members to be not the alienated and pathologically distressed individuals who join other insurgent organizations, but rather they are psychologically healthy persons for the most part, strongly supported by their families and their ethnic community.     

Still playing dice with lives: Darfur and security council resolution 1706

This article examines the recent Security Council Resolution 1706 authorising UN peacekeeping in Sudan, in the context of the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Darfur. It assesses the African Union Mission in Sudan and elaborates on the reasons for its current fatigue and failure. It interrogates the proposed mandate of the UN force, the organising principles and rules of engagement and, sadly, the Realpolitik that continues to derail efforts at ending the genocide. It urges the global community, in particular the Security Council permanent members, to unite their efforts and compel the government of Sudan to accept UN deployment in order to save the dying and end the tragedy in Darfur.     

Black lives and climate justice: courage and power in defending communities and Mother Earth

Abstract

This article shares examples of the leadership of Black communities and social movements in the struggle for climate justice, in four different parts of the world: resisting extraction and promoting community health in Nigeria; addressing extreme climate impacts and building people’s sovereignty in Haiti; confronting repression, defending territory and Mother Earth in Honduras; and cultivating community control and building a land-based movement in the US. Together, these examples have rich lessons to share around the importance of linking climate justice with racial justice; of combining strategies of resistance with those of creating alternative models; of maintaining focus on Black communities’ connections with land, territory and Mother Earth; of recognising and creating space for women’s leadership; and of intersectionality across geography and sector.