Peace, Justice and the Ultimate Crime

In 2012, the Nobel Prize Committee awarded the European Union what is, perhaps, its most coveted honor: the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee’s choice drew some scathing attacks from critics within the EU itself. Mostly from those with axes to grind, politicians whose constituencies had been affected by the worst financial/economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s and the usual harbingers of doom who are always predicting the disintegration and demise of that multinational compact. But seen within the context of the seven decades of the post-war era, it seems at least disingenuous to express disdain, let alone condemnation, for the Nobel Committee’s pick, since the EU’s role in maintaining peace in Europe following two devastating world wars simply cannot be overstated. The EU won the Nobel for what it has undeniably provided: “the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.” Even more importantly, it won the world’s top peace prize...

Hitler said what beleaguered Germans wanted to hear. Ever since World War II, people in the Western world have been asking rhetorically how a nation of the education and cultural excellence of Germany could have believed in and rallied around such a sinister, bigoted, megalomaniacal and xenophobic leader as Adolf Hitler. Perhaps there is no single, clear-cut response to that question. But part of the answer is that such an autocratic, über -nationalist leader,  whose stilted them-and-us world vision led to the most tragic global conflict in the history of the human race, was a product of his era, a supremely-driven opportunist who saw clearly how to take advantage of the widespread sense of discontent, disenfranchisement, humiliation and despair bred in his nation as of the end of World War I, in order to build a witheringly powerful and highly militarized movement “to make Germany great again.” Hitler’s so-called Nazi movement evolved by challenging the democratic syste...

There can be little doubt that the result of last week’s referendum in Britain on whether or not to remain within the European Union (EU) was not about liberal economics or overlapping legal boundaries, but about immigration and radical nationalism. By extension, it was also about shirking accountability in the Middle East, and about trying to turn back the clock to a time when Europeans themselves were divided by borders, language and cultural jingoism. Ultimately, it was about racism and fundamentalism, about suspicion and fear, and about isolationism and the ill-feelings that it necessarily engenders. David Cameron - taken by surprise The so-called Brexit Referendum came as a staggering surprise to just about everyone who still believes that this is a world where, despite abundant controversies, everyone basically wants to work together. Not among the least surprised was Britain’s own Prime Minister David Cameron, who, almost immediately following the vote—in which Britons ...