History As It Happens

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Sudan's civil war, genocide, and famine continue to go mostly unnoticed in the United States. This is even though millions of people are being brutalized, murdered, raped, or displaced in a conflict where there are no good sides, and where democracy is not on the line. In this episode, Tufts University scholar Alex de Waal, one of the world's foremost experts on Sudan and the Horn of Africa, explains why peace and justice are distant possibilities in Sudan's third civil war since its 1956 independence.

Further reading: Lineages of Genocide in Sudan by Alex de Waal (Journal of Genocide Research)

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Where does the question of Israel's right to exist come from? At the moment of Israel's independence in 1948, its Arab neighbors rejected its statehood. Today, Israel's defenders say the Jewish state must be allowed to defend itself from Hamas to ensure its survival. In this episode, political scientist Ian Lustick says the question is a category error. Rather than focusing on the state, people may ask whether they have "a duty to respect and defer to the decisions Israeli governments make" under the Zionist regime that has existed since '48.

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Further reading:

The Question of Israel's Right to Exist is a Red Herring by Ian Lustick (Foreign Policy)

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Free expression as a First Amendment right and cultural value is under assault in America. Yes, there's a hurricane of partisan hypocrisy concerning who can say what and when. But the battles over this cherished right are as old as the republic. The uproar over Jimmy Kimmel is merely the latest chapter. The veteran First Amendment litigator Bob Corn-Revere, now the chief counsel of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), is here to clear up the confusion.

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Further reading:

Everyone's a Free Speech Hypocrite by FIRE's Greg Lukianoff (New York Times)

FIRE's College Free Speech Rankings

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A U.N. commission reported that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, provoking denials and denunciations from Israel's government and its U.S. supporters. What explains the endless wrangling over a term coined by Raphael Lemkin to define the crime of national destruction, even as Israeli officials openly express their intent to make Gaza uninhabitable? In this episode, scholars Dirk Moses and Sonia Boulos argue that the search for answers must begin in 1948.

Further reading:

Education After Gaza After Education After Auschwitz by Dirk Moses (Berlin Review)

The "G Word," Liberal Israeli Elites, and the Prospect of Decolonization by Sonia Boulos (Journal of Genocide Research)

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If the ties that bind the republic are disintegrating, imperiling the survival of American democracy, there may be something to learn from the collapse of a European polity 100 years ago. The Weimar Republic was eviscerated by hyper-polarization, national traumas, and economic shocks, leading to the rise of Adolf Hitler. Is this the right place to look? In this episode, David Abraham, an expert in European history and political economy, tells us where this trendy analogy is effective and where it falls short.

Further reading:

The Collapse of the Weimar Republic by David Abraham

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A month after the world's eyes were fixed on the Alaska summit, the Russia-Ukraine War is no closer to concluding. U.S. diplomacy has come up empty. Moscow is escalating air attacks on Ukrainian civilians. Russian drones have violated NATO airspace. Is a collapse possible along the front lines? What are Putin's aims three and a half years after launching his war of aggression? Historian Mark Galeotti of Mayak Intelligence answers these questions and more.

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A group of Palestinians whose families were uprooted from their ancestral homelands in 1948 has filed a legal petition with the British government. The petition is seeking an apology and reparations for British support of Zionist immigration, starting with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The Palestinian petitioners say Britain unlawfully acted as an occupying power, giving itself the authority to rule the territory without a legal basis; and Palestinians were subject to a widespread pattern of murder, torture, and persecution under British rule. In this episode, international legal expert Victor Kattan delves into whether today's catastrophic war in Gaza has its origins in imperial decisions made more than 100 years ago.

Further reading:

Britain Owes Palestine (website)

Gaza is a direct result of Balfour (Middle East Eye)

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This is the final episode in a 5-part series marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in August 1945.

When the Second World War began, few expected the United States would emerge six years later as an unrivaled military and economic power at the head of a new world order built upon the graves of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Eighty years on, U.S. hegemony and the key global institutions for peace and free commerce are under severe pressure. In this episode, historian David M. Kennedy explores the origins of America's global age.

Recommended reading:

Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War by David M. Kennedy

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This is the fourth episode in a 5-part series marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in August 1945.

Before 1947, the United States did not have peacetime intelligence-gathering agencies such as the CIA. Foreign policy was formulated on an informal basis. Even during the Second World War, interservice cooperation was voluntary in the U.S. military. The Army and Navy had to compete for resources in the absence of a unified command structure. All this changed in 1947 with the passage of the National Security Act by large bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate. Its enduring importance cannot be overstated. In this episode, historian Daniel Bessner of the American Prestige podcast, an expert on U.S. foreign policy, delves into the origins of this permanent, expensive, and often dangerous structure.

Further listening:

American Prestige co-hosted by Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison

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