Geopolitics & Empire

Geopolitics & Empire · Stephen Kinzer: U.S. Foreign Policy and Interventionism #033

Dr. Stephen Kinzer discusses U.S. foreign policy and interventionism and whether it is the most destabilizing force in the world today. He discusses which US presidential candidate would be worst in terms of increasing war tensions and also covers the legacy of Muhammad Ali's anti-war posture and "American exceptionalism" which is a key factor in support of US interventionism.

Websites

http://stephenkinzer.com

https://twitter.com/stephenkinzer

http://watson.brown.edu/people/visiting/kinzer

http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Kinzer/e/B001IGOJOS/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1465396272&sr=8-1

About Stephen Kinzer

Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents. His articles and books have led the Washington Post to place him “among the best in popular foreign policy storytelling.”

Kinzer’s most recent book is “The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War.” The novelist John le Carré called it “a secret history, enriched and calmly retold; a shocking account of the misuse of American corporate, political and media power; a shaming reflection on the moral manners of post imperial Europe; and an essential allegory for our own times.”

Kinzer’s previous book was “Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future.” “Stephen Kinzer is a journalist of a certain cheeky fearlessness and exquisite timing,” The Huffington Post said in its review. “This book is a bold exercise in reimagining the United States’ big links in the Middle East.”

In 2006 Kinzer published “Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq.” It recounts the 14 times the United States has overthrown foreign governments. Kinzer seeks to explain why these interventions were carried out and what their long-term effects have been. He is also the author of “All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror.” It tells how the CIA overthrew Iran’s nationalist government in 1953.

Kinzer spent more than 20 years working for the New York Times, most of it as a foreign correspondent. His foreign postings placed him at the center of historic events and, at times, in the line of fire. While covering world events, he has been shot at, jailed, beaten by police, tear-gassed and bombed from the air.

Before joining the New York Times, Kinzer was Latin America correspondent for the Boston Globe. He is now a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, where he teaches international relations. He contributes to The Guardian and the New York Review of Books, and writes a world affairs column for The Boston Globe.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Dr. Stephen Kinzer discusses U.S. foreign policy and interventionism and whether it is the most destabilizing force in the world today. He discusses which US election candidate would be worst in terms of increasing war tensions and also covers the legacy of Muhammad Ali's anti-war posture and "American exceptionalism" which is a key factor in support of US interventionism.

Dr. Stephen Kinzer discusses U.S. foreign policy and interventionism and whether it is the most destabilizing force in the world today. He discusses which US presidential candidate would be worst in terms of increasing war tensions and also covers the legacy of Muhammad Ali's anti-war posture and "American exceptionalism" which is a key factor in support of US interventionism.

Websites

http://stephenkinzer.com

https://twitter.com/stephenkinzer

http://watson.brown.edu/people/visiting/kinzer

http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Kinzer/e/B001IGOJOS/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1465396272&sr=8-1

About Stephen Kinzer

Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents. His articles and books have led the Washington Post to place him “among the best in popular foreign policy storytelling.”

Kinzer’s most recent book is “The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War.” The novelist John le Carré called it “a secret history, enriched and calmly retold; a shocking account of the misuse of American corporate, political and media power; a shaming reflection on the moral manners of post imperial Europe; and an essential allegory for our own times.” Kinzer’s previous book was “Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future.” “Stephen Kinzer is a journalist of a certain cheeky fearlessness and exquisite timing,” The Huffington Post said in its review. “This book is a bold exercise in reimagining the United States’ big links in the Middle East.”

In 2006 Kinzer published “Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq.” It recounts the 14 times the United States has overthrown foreign governments. Kinzer seeks to explain why these interventions were carried out and what their long-term effects have been. He is also the author of “All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror.” It tells how the CIA overthrew Iran’s nationalist government in 1953. Kinzer spent more than 20 years working for the New York Times, most of it as a foreign correspondent. His foreign postings placed him at the center of historic events and, at times, in the line of fire. While covering world events, he has been shot at, jailed, beaten by police, tear-gassed and bombed from the air.

Before joining the New York Times, Kinzer was Latin America correspondent for the Boston Globe. He is now a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, where he teaches international relations. He contributes to The Guardian and the New York Review of Books, and writes a world affairs column for The Boston Globe.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEkI6FALU-s

What are the greatest threats to civilization today? Why are the TTP and TTIP dangerous to democracy? How do states misbehave at the United Nations? How do we fix the United Nations? What human rights do whistleblowers such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have? What are the responsibilites of governments and citizens in global civil society?

Websites

https://twitter.com/alfreddezayas

https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IntOrder/Pages/AlfredDeZayas.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred-Maurice_de_Zayas

http://alfreddezayas.com

About Alfred de Zayas

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas studied history and law at Harvard, where he obtained his J.D. He practiced corporate law with the New York law firm Simpson Thacher and Bartlett and is a retired member of the New York and Florida Bar. He obtained a doctorate in history for the University of Göttingen in Germany.

Mr. de Zayas has been visiting professor of law at numerous universities including the University of British Columbia in Canada, the Graduate Institute of the University of Geneva, the DePaul University Law School (Chicago), the Human Rights Institute at the Irish National University (Galway)and the University of Trier (Germany). At present he teaches international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy.

In 2009 de Zayas was a member of the UN workshop that drafted a report on the human right to peace, which was subsequently discussed and further elaborated by the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council. He is also a signatory of the Declaración de Bilbao and Declaración de Santiago de Compostela on the Human Right to Peace. He served as a consultant to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the issue of mercenaries. De Zayas is an expert for civil and political rights and has published nine books on a variety of legal and historical issues, including “United Nations Human Rights Committee Case Law” (together with Jakob th. Möller, N.P. Engel 2009), and has been co-author and co-editor of numerous other books, including "International Human Rights Monitoring Mechanisms" (together with Gudmundur Alfredsson and Bertrand Ramcharan). His scholarly articles in the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Oxford Encyclopedia of Human Rights and Macmillan Encyclopedia of Genocide, encompass the prohibition of aggression, universal jurisdiction, the right to the homeland, mass population transfers, minority rights, refugee law, repatriation, legal aspects of the Spanish Civil War, indefinite detention, Guantanamo and the right to peace. He is fluent in six languages and has published a book of Rilke translations with commentary (“Larenopfer”, Red Hen Press 2008) and is completing the translation of Hermann Hesse’s "Das Lied des Lebens".

From 2002-2006 he was Secretary-General, from 2006-2010 President of PEN International, Centre Suisse romand. He was member of several advisory boards, including of the International Society of Human Rights (Frankfurt a.M.), Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen (Berlin), the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (Canada) and of the conseil scientifique of the Académie International de droit constitutionnel (Tunis). He has received several awards, most recently the "Educators Award 2011" of Canadians for Genocide Education.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

What are the greatest threats to civilization today? Why are the TTP and TTIP dangerous to democracy? How do states misbehave at the United Nations? How do we fix the United Nations? What human rights do whistleblowers such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have? What are the responsibilites of governments and citizens in global civil society?

What are the greatest threats to civilization today? Why are the TTP and TTIP dangerous to democracy? How do states misbehave at the United Nations? How do we fix the United Nations? What human rights do whistleblowers such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have? What are the responsibilites of governments and citizens in global civil society?

Websites

https://twitter.com/alfreddezayas

https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IntOrder/Pages/AlfredDeZayas.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred-Maurice_de_Zayas

http://alfreddezayas.com

About Alfred de Zayas

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas studied history and law at Harvard, where he obtained his J.D. He practiced corporate law with the New York law firm Simpson Thacher and Bartlett and is a retired member of the New York and Florida Bar. He obtained a doctorate in history for the University of Göttingen in Germany.

Mr. de Zayas has been visiting professor of law at numerous universities including the University of British Columbia in Canada, the Graduate Institute of the University of Geneva, the DePaul University Law School (Chicago), the Human Rights Institute at the Irish National University (Galway)and the University of Trier (Germany). At present he teaches international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy.

In 2009 de Zayas was a member of the UN workshop that drafted a report on the human right to peace, which was subsequently discussed and further elaborated by the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council. He is also a signatory of the Declaración de Bilbao and Declaración de Santiago de Compostela on the Human Right to Peace. He served as a consultant to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the issue of mercenaries. De Zayas is an expert for civil and political rights and has published nine books on a variety of legal and historical issues, including “United Nations Human Rights Committee Case Law” (together with Jakob th. Möller, N.P. Engel 2009), and has been co-author and co-editor of numerous other books, including "International Human Rights Monitoring Mechanisms" (together with Gudmundur Alfredsson and Bertrand Ramcharan). His scholarly articles in the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Oxford Encyclopedia of Human Rights and Macmillan Encyclopedia of Genocide, encompass the prohibition of aggression, universal jurisdiction, the right to the homeland, mass population transfers, minority rights, refugee law, repatriation, legal aspects of the Spanish Civil War, indefinite detention, Guantanamo and the right to peace. He is fluent in six languages and has published a book of Rilke translations with commentary (“Larenopfer”, Red Hen Press 2008) and is completing the translation of Hermann Hesse’s "Das Lied des Lebens".

From 2002-2006 he was Secretary-General, from 2006-2010 President of PEN International, Centre Suisse romand. He was member of several advisory boards, including of the International Society of Human Rights (Frankfurt a.M.), Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen (Berlin), the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (Canada) and of the conseil scientifique of the Académie International de droit constitutionnel (Tunis). He has received several awards, most recently the "Educators Award 2011" of Canadians for Genocide Education.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Allan Gotlieb: North American Politics and Integration #031

Retired Canadian Ambassador Allan Gotlieb discusses Canadian foreign policy in the shadow of U.S. foreign policy since 9/11. He reveals his thoughts on the progression of the North American idea and community or as Parag Khanna recently described it in the New York Times, "an emerging North American Union". He also provides his analysis of the Canadian oil sands and Keystone XL Pipeline. Finally, he offers advice to future political scientists and diplomats.

Websites

http://www.bennettjones.com/GotliebAllan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Gotlieb

http://www.international.gc.ca/odskelton/gotlieb.aspx?lang=eng

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/us-canada-relations-at-historic-cool-veteran-diplomat-allan-gotlieb-says/article23210155

About Allan Gotlieb

A former Canadian ambassador to the United States, Allan Gotlieb's international law and diplomacy experience has been honed over the past 50 years through his legal and public service careers.

Mr. Gotlieb is the emeritus chairman of the Canadian Group and former North American deputy chairman of the Trilateral Commission, a non-governmental policy discussion group. He is also chairman or member of several Canadian charitable foundations and companies and a past director of a number of international corporations in Canada and the United States as well as Canadian Crown corporations and agencies.

Mr. Gotlieb is a Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest civil honour in the country, a recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Government of Canada and of the Order of Manitoba.

Mr. Gotlieb has taught at numerous universities, including Harvard University as William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor and the University of Toronto as Claude Bissell Visiting Professor. He is an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, former Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a recipient of Honorary Doctorates from the University of Toronto, Western University, Concordia University and a number of other universities.

Mr. Gotlieb has written five books and countless articles on international law, diplomacy and political science. His latest book, The Washington Diaries: 1981-1989, was nominated for The Writer's Trust of Canada's 2007 Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing. Regarding these diaries, Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail wrote "These are among the best diaries about public policy ever written by a Canadian, maybe even the best."

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Retired Canadian Ambassador Allan Gotlieb discusses Canadian foreign policy in the shadow of U.S. foreign policy since 9/11. He reveals his thoughts on the progression of the North American idea and community or as Parag Khanna recently described it in the New York Times, "an emerging North American Union". He also provides his analysis of the Canadian oil sands and Keystone XL Pipeline. Finally, he offers advice to future political scientists and diplomats.

Retired Canadian Ambassador Allan Gotlieb discusses Canadian foreign policy in the shadow of U.S. foreign policy since 9/11. He reveals his thoughts on the progression of the North American idea and community or as Parag Khanna recently described it in the New York Times, "an emerging North American Union". He also provides his analysis of the Canadian oil sands and Keystone XL Pipeline. Finally, he offers advice to future political scientists and diplomats.

Websites

http://www.bennettjones.com/GotliebAllan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Gotlieb

http://www.international.gc.ca/odskelton/gotlieb.aspx?lang=eng

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/us-canada-relations-at-historic-cool-veteran-diplomat-allan-gotlieb-says/article23210155

About Allan Gotlieb

A former Canadian ambassador to the United States, Allan Gotlieb's international law and diplomacy experience has been honed over the past 50 years through his legal and public service careers.

Mr. Gotlieb is the emeritus chairman of the Canadian Group and former North American deputy chairman of the Trilateral Commission, a non-governmental policy discussion group. He is also chairman or member of several Canadian charitable foundations and companies and a past director of a number of international corporations in Canada and the United States as well as Canadian Crown corporations and agencies. Mr. Gotlieb is a Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest civil honour in the country, a recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Government of Canada and of the Order of Manitoba.

Mr. Gotlieb has taught at numerous universities, including Harvard University as William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor and the University of Toronto as Claude Bissell Visiting Professor. He is an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, former Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a recipient of Honorary Doctorates from the University of Toronto, Western University, Concordia University and a number of other universities.

Mr. Gotlieb has written five books and countless articles on international law, diplomacy and political science. His latest book, The Washington Diaries: 1981-1989, was nominated for The Writer's Trust of Canada's 2007 Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing. Regarding these diaries, Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail wrote "These are among the best diaries about public policy ever written by a Canadian, maybe even the best."

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp2yRLMXDio

Award-winning journalist Russ Baker discusses the Deep State, the life and death of John F. Kennedy, U.S. elections, journalism and WhoWhatWhy.org.

To learn more about deep politics and international affairs, go to: whowhatwhy.org

Websites

http://whowhatwhy.org

http://russbaker.com

http://www.familyofsecrets.com

About Russ Baker

Russ Baker’s career has been about one thing: finding out what really happened—or the truth of what is currently unfolding—and presenting it to the public in a compelling, entertaining, thoughtful manner.

In his reporting and writing he brings the best of mainstream methods (balance and rigor) to the alternative media, and the best of the alternative media (passion for the truth and the larger story) to the mainstream. He focuses on getting past the rhetoric to expose the hidden levers and machinations that shape our world. Baker’s investigative reporting, analysis pieces, features, and essays on politics, power, and perceptions have appeared in many of the world’s finest publications.

Over the past two decades, Baker has produced over a thousand stories, most of them for magazines and newspapers and online publications — but also for television and radio — on a broad range of topics, from political revolutions to revolutionary humor. He has pursued stories in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Among other things, Baker covered Hutu-Tutsi massacres in Central Africa, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the overthrow of the longtime Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. He spent one and a half years as a correspondent and investigative reporter based in the former Yugoslavia. When not wrestling with traditional hard-news and politics, he has written essays and critiques, and profiles of colorful and controversial figures, from the notorious murderer-on-the-run Ira Einhorn (whom Baker caught up with in the French countryside) to the irreverent tv culinary hero, Iron Chef Morimoto, as he was preparing to open his first restaurant.

Baker has received Society of Professional Journalists, Mencken and Common Cause awards, served as a panelist for the national conference of Investigative Reporters & Editors, and been a member of the adjunct faculty at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He appears frequently in the electronic media to discuss current events. He is the co-founder of the journalism soirees that evolved into the company, MediaBistro.

In 2004, Baker devoted himself largely to researching stories that provided new insights into the rise of George W. Bush and the policies he pursued, including the war in Iraq. He also explored the integrity of the voting system and examined instances of alleged election fraud. This research led him to begin working on a book, FAMILY OF SECRETS: The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put it in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America, which was published by Bloomsbury Press in 2009. It was later issued in paperback as FAMILY OF SECRETS: The Bush Dynasty, America’s Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years. Widely praised, it has become a best-seller, is available as an e-book, and, by early 2012, as an audio book.

In 2005, Baker founded a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to producing ground-breaking, transformative, independent investigative journalism: WhoWhatWhy.com. He spends most of his time running that site (including editing and writing for it), does public speaking, and is working on a new book.

Want Russ to speak to your organization, class or event? Click here.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)