Over two thirds of Gaza is now either under active displacement orders or within a no-go zone. With no safety or shelter elsewhere, some Palestinians are refusing to leave.
Thankfully, my Jewish friends do NOT identify as the kind of Zionists that have captured the government of Israel and the two cartel parties that form the U.S. government. I think my Jewish friends are more representative of humanity than the picture you paint.
I was raised Catholic. Long ago, Catholics viewed themselves as "God's chosen people" destined to "convert" others to "the faith." The world of the popes of those times consisted of Catholics and those who would be Catholics, much as the world consists of "promised lands" (there was never just one. See Rovner https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Zion-Promised-Before-Israel/dp/1479817481)
The resulting genocides, tortures, megalomaniacal control, demonization of science, and denial of the obvious proved so costly that one of the best decisions humanity every made was to make certain the Pope and thus the Catholic Church could NEVER AGAIN have an army.
The Zionists you speak of have a different parochial belief, but in so many other ways they are like dark-age Catholics and the more recent Nazis who believed themselves superior beings and thus destined by deity to rewards gained by displacing others and committing atrocities on those whom they see as lesser creations than themselves. That includes those of us in the USA who resist their imaginary hierarchy. At some point, there WILL be an equivalent of Nuremberg in a Nuremberg II, after which the world will be watchful that Zionists, and maybe even right-wing Christians perpetrating genocide, can never again procure an army to do their bidding. Like the third Reich, genocidal insanity puts a culture on a path to its own destruction, not to some imaginary celestial perfection of humanity.
Thank you for your brave reporting. It was hard to read. I fear it is true that no one is coming to save them. It seems like Netanyahu, Trump and Putin have formed an alliance to take over the world. “We have to have it,” Trump says.
There's a well-established principle in political science: to effect meaningful governmental change, a movement typically needs the active participation of at least 3.5% of the population. This threshold, identified by political scientist Erica Chenoweth, has been consistently associated with successful nonviolent campaigns throughout modern history.
Right now, the situation in Gaza, while deeply concerning, doesn’t appear to meet that level of public engagement in most Western countries. In the Czech Republic, for example, we’ve experienced nearly 40% cumulative inflation over the past five years, and that has hit people hard. When basic living costs skyrocket, public attention naturally shifts toward immediate personal and national concerns.
At the same time, Europe is still dealing with a major armed conflict in Ukraine, involving a nuclear power that openly threatens escalation. That’s not a minor distraction—it’s a live, high-stakes geopolitical crisis. In that kind of environment, even very real humanitarian tragedies abroad struggle to break through.
I understand this may not be what some want to hear—but it’s simply where the political oxygen is going right now.
So to answer your question: if you want to make this issue more visible, you have two options—either persuade people that their own survival is not at risk, or improve their conditions enough that they can stop worrying about their own lives and finally have the bandwidth to help others.
And here’s the brutal truth: it’s hard to help others when you’re drowning yourself. Just like they tell you on every airplane: secure your own vest before assisting others. That’s not selfish—it’s survival.
I want to show my appreciation for your report on this bleak subject, but it is hard to "like" ❤️ it when I feel so hopeless and disgusted by what's happening. Can Substack make a "free Palestine" button to press"?
As I am sure Murad knows, humiliation has always been an Israeli goal. The informal motto of the IDF for many years has been "let them know we are here". The destruction of Gaza is an indication of Israel's frustration that the Palestinians refuse to yield to the terrible oppression of decades. This frustration is now to be relieved by simply killing people.
I am on the street with my Palestinian flag flying wearing a signboard that says "36 Hospitals Bombed by Israel - the State of Hate" as I continue my 6 month old vigil in support of a native people that the US should be supporting, but does not due to the corruption of the US political system by money combined with the unlimited amount of Zionist money available to fund political campaigns.
DAWN has urged the ICC prosecutor to investigate and prosecute former President Biden, State Secretary Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin for their personal roles in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza as part of his ongoing investigation into the situations in Palestine since 2014.
Let’s give them our support. Maybe they will expand their complaint to include this latest US administration, and include all the leaders of the western nations supporting this genocide.
Once the killing stops, we need to see that humanity persists, that there is another way, and that despite everything, we will not stop fighting for a future built on dignity, justice, and peace for all. Combatants for Peace can't do this alone and your support is crucial.
Amid the ongoing devastation in Gaza, we are here to say: the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Ceremony will take place this year. We will not bow to those who seek to silence us.
Every contribution goes directly toward production, logistics, and, most importantly, ensuring the safety and security of all participants and guests.
The ceremony is live streamed on 29th April 2025 at 8:30pm Jerusalem time. You can register online:
If the international institutions have any meaning, and it is questionable for how long, we cannot allow Israel to escape the legal consequences of their war crimes. The Hind Rajab Foundation has, among other things, filed a case with the ICC against 1,000 Israeli soldiers for war crimes in Gaza.
They have taken further steps in recent days, and vacations are becoming a lot more difficult for IDF soldiers, worldwide. The Hind Rajab Foundation can use our help. Please join me in making a contribution.
To know more about The Hind Rajab Foundation, there are a couple of really good interviews that Glenn Greenwald did on his Rumble platform, and Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada, did with the head of this organisation, Dyad Abou Jahjah. It was very informative.
Here's a petition calling for accountability for the arrest of Ali Abunimah in Switzerland for the crime of speaking about Palestinian rights::
Increasingly, the two corrupt cartel parties install party hacks as college presidents, not accomplished scholars or teachers. Both parties bought by AIPAC guarantees we'll see Israel increasingly dictating what can be taught and who can teach or receive tenure. Our SCOTUS that legalized unlimited bribery ensured this would happen. Money is even more effective than bombs in destroying a nation, and we have two parties that seem eager to facilitate the selling out the American people.
Zionism is supported by Christians, Jews, Hindus, and atheists, alike. The Christian Zionists even use their religious beliefs to justify the Zionist project.
Zionists would like nothing more than for you to accept their conflation of Zionism with Judaism. It gives them cover for their atrocities, and provides a very convenient scapegoat when this project fails, as we all hope. Why ever would you want to help them in this?
So Israel has issued displacement orders in cities and towns across Gaza, and the ICJ has concluded that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful, and that it is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence “as rapidly as possible”. Further, Israel is also “under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” as well as “reparation for the damage caused to all natural or legal persons involved.”
So let’s see, which prevails, international law, or Zionist law…? To borrow from Stalin, “The ICJ? How many (American taxpayer supported) divisions does it have?”
That’s exactly the problem. An “obligation” means nothing if it’s just words on paper with no enforcement behind it. International law is nice in theory, but it only matters if someone has the power and will to enforce it. Otherwise, it's just theater.
The UN doesn’t have independent power—it’s a glorified debating club. All of its “authority” is borrowed from states that choose to back it, and when those states don’t care enough to act, the UN is effectively powerless. No state voluntarily gives up real force—do you seriously think the US would hand its carrier groups to the UN, or China would hand over control of its ballistic arsenal? Of course not. That’s fantasy.
So what’s left? Soft power. Influence, shame, PR pressure. But in the face of hard geopolitical interests, soft power gets ignored fast. States care about outcomes, not ideals. You can quote ICJ rulings all day, but if no one enforces them, they’re just moral noise.
International law is a beautiful concept—but completely detached from how raw power works in the current system.
"United Nations Command (UNC) was established on July 7, 1950 following the United Nations' recognition of North Korean aggression against South Korea. UNC signifies the world’s first attempt at collective security under the United Nations system. United Nations Security Council Resolutions 83 and 84 provided the international legal authority for member states to restore peace on the Korean Peninsula, and they designated the United States as the leader of the unified command we know as UN Command. During the Korean War and the reconstruction period following the signing of the Armistice Agreement, twenty-two countries contributed either combat forces or medical assistance to support South Korea under the United Nations flag."
So if it was done then, why couldn't there be a UN Gaza Command today? Well, note the common denominator - back then, the US was committed to fighting the communist threat anywhere and everywhere; nowadays, the US is committed to abetting the Zionist threat anywhere and everywhere (even if it entails the subversion of our own country).
Yes, the UN does have its problems, perhaps paramount among them having a built-in Western (European) bias, but I think it still does good things, and could even do much better things, were it not for the Hegemon in the room.
You're right—and you even answered your own question. The U.S. led the charge in Korea because it wanted to. It had clear strategic goals and a Cold War ideological framework driving it. Today, it has different interests, and supporting a UN military intervention in Gaza just isn’t on its agenda. Other Western nations aren’t going to take the lead either, because no one wants direct confrontation with Israel, especially given the web of alliances, arms deals, and domestic political pressure involved.
And as for non-Western powers—why would China intervene? Gaza offers no strategic advantage, no resource interest, no leverage point against the West. It’s a moral crisis, not a geopolitical opportunity. Same for India—deep economic ties with Israel, rising nationalist politics at home, and no incentive to alienate either side. Great powers don’t move on morality; they move on interest. That’s the part no one likes to admit.
Yes, the UN still does some good—UNICEF is a great example—but you don’t need a full UN security apparatus to feed kids or distribute medicine. The UN helps coordinate and give legitimacy, but it's not magic. It still depends entirely on what member states are willing to back.
And honestly? I’m glad we have a hegemon, even if I don’t agree with most of what it does. History shows that when there are two or more serious contenders for global dominance, you don’t get balance—you get proxy wars, instability, and chaos. Even the American War for Independence ([bald eagle scream, gunfire in the background]) was, in many ways, a proxy war between Britain and France—with American ideals layered on top for dramatic effect. The Cold War? Same thing, just with nukes and better marketing.
We’re now sliding into another hegemonic contest—primarily between the U.S. and China—and things will likely get worse before they get better. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in 20 years, people look back at the post-1990 U.S.-dominated world order and say, “Damn, that was actually the stable part.”
And that’s coming from someone who really doesn’t like U.S. foreign policy.
Good points all, I'm with you up until having one global hegemon, and that one being the US. The hegemony of the US, propagandistically touted domestically and abroad as promoting freedom and democracy, has entailed the exact opposite. In furthering its economic (capitalistic), political, and ideological interests worldwide (800 military bases over the globe!), this country has suppressed freedom and democracy through exploitation, subversion, coercion, murder, assassination, overthrow of governments, control of international organizations, bribery, overt warfare, covert warfare, and on, and on, and on... I mean even the worshiped USAID was a front for the CIA and a sleight of hand to profit American companies rather than assist in substantive international development, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mFSRb5dUOM.
Yeah, America as the "exceptional, indispensable" nation throughout the world has cost the lives of millions, has diminished the life prospects of untold millions more, including among its own people (“The U.S. ranks as the worst performer among 10 developed nations in critical areas of health care, including preventing deaths…”, https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/us-health-care-ranking-report-last-rcna171652). America’s global leadership is also in its withdrawal from international climate accords and denial of global warming as official Trumpian/MAGA belief and government policy, That outlook hastens the environmental collapse bearing on all of civilization.
The words of JFK spoken in June of 1963 still pertain today: “What kind of a peace do I mean? What kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and build a better life for their children — not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time but peace for all time” [https://singjupost.com/full-transcript-president-kennedys-peace-speech-at-american-university-june-10-1963/?singlepage=1].
So I don’t subscribe to there being a global hegemon, certainly not an American one, nor a Chinese, nor a Russian, nor… I’d like to see a multipolar world order (maybe along the lines of a BRICS one?) reflecting the values of - ready for this? – diversity, equity, and inclusion (gawd, I’m a DEI-ist!) in economic, political, social, and cultural arrangements. In other words, I don’t think Francis Fukumaya got it right in “The End of History and the Last Man.”
Please humanity resist Zionism. Oppose genocide. Always
Thankfully, my Jewish friends do NOT identify as the kind of Zionists that have captured the government of Israel and the two cartel parties that form the U.S. government. I think my Jewish friends are more representative of humanity than the picture you paint.
For evidence see:
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/04/08/how-americans-view-israel-and-the-israel-hamas-war-at-the-start-of-trumps-second-term/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OOiSdryRMs
I was raised Catholic. Long ago, Catholics viewed themselves as "God's chosen people" destined to "convert" others to "the faith." The world of the popes of those times consisted of Catholics and those who would be Catholics, much as the world consists of "promised lands" (there was never just one. See Rovner https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Zion-Promised-Before-Israel/dp/1479817481)
The resulting genocides, tortures, megalomaniacal control, demonization of science, and denial of the obvious proved so costly that one of the best decisions humanity every made was to make certain the Pope and thus the Catholic Church could NEVER AGAIN have an army.
The Zionists you speak of have a different parochial belief, but in so many other ways they are like dark-age Catholics and the more recent Nazis who believed themselves superior beings and thus destined by deity to rewards gained by displacing others and committing atrocities on those whom they see as lesser creations than themselves. That includes those of us in the USA who resist their imaginary hierarchy. At some point, there WILL be an equivalent of Nuremberg in a Nuremberg II, after which the world will be watchful that Zionists, and maybe even right-wing Christians perpetrating genocide, can never again procure an army to do their bidding. Like the third Reich, genocidal insanity puts a culture on a path to its own destruction, not to some imaginary celestial perfection of humanity.
Thank you for your brave reporting. It was hard to read. I fear it is true that no one is coming to save them. It seems like Netanyahu, Trump and Putin have formed an alliance to take over the world. “We have to have it,” Trump says.
The "developed" nations of the Western world are either ignoring this huge, humanitarian crisis, or they are promoting it. What is to be done?
There's a well-established principle in political science: to effect meaningful governmental change, a movement typically needs the active participation of at least 3.5% of the population. This threshold, identified by political scientist Erica Chenoweth, has been consistently associated with successful nonviolent campaigns throughout modern history.
Right now, the situation in Gaza, while deeply concerning, doesn’t appear to meet that level of public engagement in most Western countries. In the Czech Republic, for example, we’ve experienced nearly 40% cumulative inflation over the past five years, and that has hit people hard. When basic living costs skyrocket, public attention naturally shifts toward immediate personal and national concerns.
At the same time, Europe is still dealing with a major armed conflict in Ukraine, involving a nuclear power that openly threatens escalation. That’s not a minor distraction—it’s a live, high-stakes geopolitical crisis. In that kind of environment, even very real humanitarian tragedies abroad struggle to break through.
I understand this may not be what some want to hear—but it’s simply where the political oxygen is going right now.
So to answer your question: if you want to make this issue more visible, you have two options—either persuade people that their own survival is not at risk, or improve their conditions enough that they can stop worrying about their own lives and finally have the bandwidth to help others.
And here’s the brutal truth: it’s hard to help others when you’re drowning yourself. Just like they tell you on every airplane: secure your own vest before assisting others. That’s not selfish—it’s survival.
I want to show my appreciation for your report on this bleak subject, but it is hard to "like" ❤️ it when I feel so hopeless and disgusted by what's happening. Can Substack make a "free Palestine" button to press"?
As I am sure Murad knows, humiliation has always been an Israeli goal. The informal motto of the IDF for many years has been "let them know we are here". The destruction of Gaza is an indication of Israel's frustration that the Palestinians refuse to yield to the terrible oppression of decades. This frustration is now to be relieved by simply killing people.
I am on the street with my Palestinian flag flying wearing a signboard that says "36 Hospitals Bombed by Israel - the State of Hate" as I continue my 6 month old vigil in support of a native people that the US should be supporting, but does not due to the corruption of the US political system by money combined with the unlimited amount of Zionist money available to fund political campaigns.
DAWN has urged the ICC prosecutor to investigate and prosecute former President Biden, State Secretary Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin for their personal roles in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza as part of his ongoing investigation into the situations in Palestine since 2014.
https://dawnmena.org/latest/
Let’s give them our support. Maybe they will expand their complaint to include this latest US administration, and include all the leaders of the western nations supporting this genocide.
Microsoft workers oppose ties with Israel.
Take action with us — and support the Microsoft workers organizing to cut the company’s ties with Israel’s military
https://act.mpowerchange.org/go/71588?t=3&akid=10199%2E809623%2EH7UcG5
Microsoft and other tech partners, like Google and Amazon, are helping redefine the ugly underbelly of U.S. technology’s use in war.
We’ve set up a digital action where you can send emails to Microsoft leadership, including AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, with just a few clicks.
And let’s tell Google to stop weaponizing AI, and to cut ties with Israel.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-google-stop-using-your-ai-for-genocide-apartheid-and-border-violence?source=mc_GoogleNext_2025_04_10
Petition for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/demand-the-immediate-release-of-columbia-student-pro-palestine-advocate-mahmoud-khalil-from-dhs-detention
Such awful lives they now try to live.
Once the killing stops, we need to see that humanity persists, that there is another way, and that despite everything, we will not stop fighting for a future built on dignity, justice, and peace for all. Combatants for Peace can't do this alone and your support is crucial.
Amid the ongoing devastation in Gaza, we are here to say: the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Ceremony will take place this year. We will not bow to those who seek to silence us.
Every contribution goes directly toward production, logistics, and, most importantly, ensuring the safety and security of all participants and guests.
The ceremony is live streamed on 29th April 2025 at 8:30pm Jerusalem time. You can register online:
https://form.jotform.com/250713298885065
You can support them here:
https://www.drove.com/campaign/67e136ebc7b99f39b8ccd657?emci=524b798a-ce0f-f011-90cd-0022482a9fb7&emdi=c73421bf-da0f-f011-90cd-0022482a9fb7&ceid=13999075
If the international institutions have any meaning, and it is questionable for how long, we cannot allow Israel to escape the legal consequences of their war crimes. The Hind Rajab Foundation has, among other things, filed a case with the ICC against 1,000 Israeli soldiers for war crimes in Gaza.
https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org/perpetrators/hind-rajab-foundation-files-historic-icc-complaint-against-1000-israeli-soldiers-for-war-crimes-in-gaza
They have taken further steps in recent days, and vacations are becoming a lot more difficult for IDF soldiers, worldwide. The Hind Rajab Foundation can use our help. Please join me in making a contribution.
https://buy.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
To know more about The Hind Rajab Foundation, there are a couple of really good interviews that Glenn Greenwald did on his Rumble platform, and Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada, did with the head of this organisation, Dyad Abou Jahjah. It was very informative.
Here's a petition calling for accountability for the arrest of Ali Abunimah in Switzerland for the crime of speaking about Palestinian rights::
https://chng.it/8D4pkxPhWS
Please sign the petition and share widely.
Free Rumeysa Ozturk. Tufts PhD student snatched from the street by unidentified, masked men, from HHS/ICE.
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/free-rumeysa-ozturk/?source=group-just-strategy&referrer=group-just-strategy&redirect=https://secure.actblue.com/donate/nc4j_free_ozturk&link_id=3&can_id=a707410023f29d0530df1e255f3edf18&email_referrer=email_2694599&&&email_subject=speaking-out-is-not-a-crime-stop-the-deportation-of-rumeysa-ozturk&refcodeEmailReferrer=email_2694599
Join Us on April 17, 2025 to Fight for Higher Education
https://www.dayofactionforhighered.org
Tell Universities: Protect Student Rights, Reject Trump's Order
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/protectstudents?source=direct_link
https://theintercept.com/2025/04/15/pitt-students-sjp-palestine-free-speech-aclu-lawsuit/
Increasingly, the two corrupt cartel parties install party hacks as college presidents, not accomplished scholars or teachers. Both parties bought by AIPAC guarantees we'll see Israel increasingly dictating what can be taught and who can teach or receive tenure. Our SCOTUS that legalized unlimited bribery ensured this would happen. Money is even more effective than bombs in destroying a nation, and we have two parties that seem eager to facilitate the selling out the American people.
Zionism is supported by Christians, Jews, Hindus, and atheists, alike. The Christian Zionists even use their religious beliefs to justify the Zionist project.
Zionists would like nothing more than for you to accept their conflation of Zionism with Judaism. It gives them cover for their atrocities, and provides a very convenient scapegoat when this project fails, as we all hope. Why ever would you want to help them in this?
So Israel has issued displacement orders in cities and towns across Gaza, and the ICJ has concluded that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful, and that it is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence “as rapidly as possible”. Further, Israel is also “under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” as well as “reparation for the damage caused to all natural or legal persons involved.”
So let’s see, which prevails, international law, or Zionist law…? To borrow from Stalin, “The ICJ? How many (American taxpayer supported) divisions does it have?”
That’s exactly the problem. An “obligation” means nothing if it’s just words on paper with no enforcement behind it. International law is nice in theory, but it only matters if someone has the power and will to enforce it. Otherwise, it's just theater.
The UN doesn’t have independent power—it’s a glorified debating club. All of its “authority” is borrowed from states that choose to back it, and when those states don’t care enough to act, the UN is effectively powerless. No state voluntarily gives up real force—do you seriously think the US would hand its carrier groups to the UN, or China would hand over control of its ballistic arsenal? Of course not. That’s fantasy.
So what’s left? Soft power. Influence, shame, PR pressure. But in the face of hard geopolitical interests, soft power gets ignored fast. States care about outcomes, not ideals. You can quote ICJ rulings all day, but if no one enforces them, they’re just moral noise.
International law is a beautiful concept—but completely detached from how raw power works in the current system.
To add further to the comedy we have this from https://www.unc.mil/History/1950-1953-Korean-War-Active-Conflict/:
"United Nations Command (UNC) was established on July 7, 1950 following the United Nations' recognition of North Korean aggression against South Korea. UNC signifies the world’s first attempt at collective security under the United Nations system. United Nations Security Council Resolutions 83 and 84 provided the international legal authority for member states to restore peace on the Korean Peninsula, and they designated the United States as the leader of the unified command we know as UN Command. During the Korean War and the reconstruction period following the signing of the Armistice Agreement, twenty-two countries contributed either combat forces or medical assistance to support South Korea under the United Nations flag."
So if it was done then, why couldn't there be a UN Gaza Command today? Well, note the common denominator - back then, the US was committed to fighting the communist threat anywhere and everywhere; nowadays, the US is committed to abetting the Zionist threat anywhere and everywhere (even if it entails the subversion of our own country).
Yes, the UN does have its problems, perhaps paramount among them having a built-in Western (European) bias, but I think it still does good things, and could even do much better things, were it not for the Hegemon in the room.
You're right—and you even answered your own question. The U.S. led the charge in Korea because it wanted to. It had clear strategic goals and a Cold War ideological framework driving it. Today, it has different interests, and supporting a UN military intervention in Gaza just isn’t on its agenda. Other Western nations aren’t going to take the lead either, because no one wants direct confrontation with Israel, especially given the web of alliances, arms deals, and domestic political pressure involved.
And as for non-Western powers—why would China intervene? Gaza offers no strategic advantage, no resource interest, no leverage point against the West. It’s a moral crisis, not a geopolitical opportunity. Same for India—deep economic ties with Israel, rising nationalist politics at home, and no incentive to alienate either side. Great powers don’t move on morality; they move on interest. That’s the part no one likes to admit.
Yes, the UN still does some good—UNICEF is a great example—but you don’t need a full UN security apparatus to feed kids or distribute medicine. The UN helps coordinate and give legitimacy, but it's not magic. It still depends entirely on what member states are willing to back.
And honestly? I’m glad we have a hegemon, even if I don’t agree with most of what it does. History shows that when there are two or more serious contenders for global dominance, you don’t get balance—you get proxy wars, instability, and chaos. Even the American War for Independence ([bald eagle scream, gunfire in the background]) was, in many ways, a proxy war between Britain and France—with American ideals layered on top for dramatic effect. The Cold War? Same thing, just with nukes and better marketing.
We’re now sliding into another hegemonic contest—primarily between the U.S. and China—and things will likely get worse before they get better. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in 20 years, people look back at the post-1990 U.S.-dominated world order and say, “Damn, that was actually the stable part.”
And that’s coming from someone who really doesn’t like U.S. foreign policy.
Good points all, I'm with you up until having one global hegemon, and that one being the US. The hegemony of the US, propagandistically touted domestically and abroad as promoting freedom and democracy, has entailed the exact opposite. In furthering its economic (capitalistic), political, and ideological interests worldwide (800 military bases over the globe!), this country has suppressed freedom and democracy through exploitation, subversion, coercion, murder, assassination, overthrow of governments, control of international organizations, bribery, overt warfare, covert warfare, and on, and on, and on... I mean even the worshiped USAID was a front for the CIA and a sleight of hand to profit American companies rather than assist in substantive international development, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mFSRb5dUOM.
Yeah, America as the "exceptional, indispensable" nation throughout the world has cost the lives of millions, has diminished the life prospects of untold millions more, including among its own people (“The U.S. ranks as the worst performer among 10 developed nations in critical areas of health care, including preventing deaths…”, https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/us-health-care-ranking-report-last-rcna171652). America’s global leadership is also in its withdrawal from international climate accords and denial of global warming as official Trumpian/MAGA belief and government policy, That outlook hastens the environmental collapse bearing on all of civilization.
The words of JFK spoken in June of 1963 still pertain today: “What kind of a peace do I mean? What kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and build a better life for their children — not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time but peace for all time” [https://singjupost.com/full-transcript-president-kennedys-peace-speech-at-american-university-june-10-1963/?singlepage=1].
So I don’t subscribe to there being a global hegemon, certainly not an American one, nor a Chinese, nor a Russian, nor… I’d like to see a multipolar world order (maybe along the lines of a BRICS one?) reflecting the values of - ready for this? – diversity, equity, and inclusion (gawd, I’m a DEI-ist!) in economic, political, social, and cultural arrangements. In other words, I don’t think Francis Fukumaya got it right in “The End of History and the Last Man.”
[Thanks for taking the time to read this.]
ADDENDUM: I came across this from Jeffrey Sachs after writing the above. I think it's very germane https://consortiumnews.com/2025/04/14/jeffrey-sachs-birthing-a-new-international-order/.