Portside

The path back to sanity is thorny but not impossible.

The Middle East that is emerging from the current crisis may be very different than the one that existed before those cruise missiles and drones tipped over the chessboard

As Saudi Arabia slowly backpedals, we could see an end to the Yemen war, an easing of Iran’s isolation, and a reduced role for the U.S.

The world has enough water for 7 billion people, but not if countries waste, hoard, or weaponize it. Ongoing tensions over Kashmir have transformed water into a national security issue for both India and Pakistan.

With the hard right running left and the center-left abdicating, Euroskeptics could accelerate a continent-wide crisis. Global migration is on the rise as climate change drowns coastlines, river deltas and drought drives people out of arid climates.

The U.S. has pulled out of a major arms agreement with Russia, and the Trump administration wants to bump the budget for the modernization of nuclear weapons by nearly 9 percent. The nuclear powers should observe the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Of course, if the United States and/or Israel join in, Iran will be hard pressed. But as belligerent as Bolton and the Israeli government are toward Iran, would they initiate or join a war? But we should take neocons like Bolton at their word.

In Andalucian Spain, as elsewhere in Europe, right-wing electoral success comes primarily at the expense of the neo-liberal center. But, the Left must do more to prevent ultra-rightist parties from filling the void created by the center’s collapse.

As a bloody siege looms over Idlib, the U.S. is digging into the east, and conflict between Iran and Israel may put Syria in the crosshairs. Turkey will have to eventually withdraw from Syria; Israel will eventually have to come to terms with Iran...

In a nakedly political move, Jeremy Corbyn's right-wing critics are painting the lifelong anti-racist's criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic. Corbyn’s wing of the Labor Party is accused because criticism of Israel is now defined as anti-Semitism.