Imperialism in a Full World: Neomercantilism and the Return of the Zero-Sum Game

August 17, 2026
Alberto Garzón
In September 2010, a Chinese fishing vessel was detained by the Japanese Coast Guard near the disputed Senkaku Islands. China’s unofficial response was to halt rare-earth exports to Japan—a country whose entire electronics industry depended on them. The dispute was brief: Japan released the captain, and China never formally acknowledged the embargo. But that episode became a geopolitical watershed, exposing the enormous dependence of the developed world on a single country’s monopoly over the minerals that are indispensable for the energy and digital transitions. Interdependence, once praised as a virtue of globalization, had become a weapon and a vulnerability.1

Dora Weiland (1892-?) from Wietze uses a hand scoop to fill barrels with oil that has run together in pits. By Unknown author - Deutsches Erdölmuseum Wietze (Erdoel Museum), CC BY 2.5, Link.

Trump reinvents the Portuguese Empire with Plan to make Hormuz US Territory

August 16, 2026
Juan Cole
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump said in a speech on Saturday that he wants to make the Strait of Hormuz part of the United States.

Netanyahu’s réprise of the ‘Iraq WMD deceit’ – re-launched to promote war on Iran

August 15, 2026

Trump’s pivot to economic pressure as the key to Iranian capitulation is not a credible strategy.

Iran war live: US eyes ‘indefinite’ naval blockade, vows to isolate Tehran

August 14, 2026
Yashraj Sharma and Caolán Magee

• US Vice President JD Vance has outlined Washington’s key objectives in the Iran conflict as keeping energy prices stable for Americans, preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons and securing a stronger US position.
• US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says that the US can sustain its blockade against Iran “indefinitely”.
• Iran’s military disputes US assertions that maritime traffic is flowing normally through the Strait of Hormuz, maintaining that no vessel passes without its authorisation.
• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the United States will apply economic measures against Iran that have “never been seen” before in efforts to isolate Tehran.

 

Sen. Van Hollen: Iran war is illegal and we cannot fund another dime

August 14, 2026

Martin Di Caro

In an interview with RS, the senator discusses Israeli influence in the US, whether Libya was a mistake, and more

 

Iran’s next front isn’t the Middle East — it’s America’s backyard

August 13, 2026
Jose Lev Alvarez
When Israeli officials revealed in November 2025 that Mexican security services had disrupted an Iranian plot to assassinate Jerusalem’s ambassador in Mexico City, naive Washington bureaucrats predictably responded with surprise. Mexico’s regime mendaciously denied the operation. Yet, Israeli intelligence identified its architect as Hasan Izadi, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force operative embedded within the Iranian Embassy in Caracas. Diplomatic whitewashing cannot erase the chilling warning: Tehran is actively preparing murder in the Americas.

Tehran says 'Hormuz is ours' after Trump claims ownership of strait

August 13, 2026

The president went on social media and said that the waterway is under 'full US control'

‘Lies and Fabrications’: Khatam al-Anbiya Rejects US Claims on Hormuz

August 13, 2026

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters says Hormuz remains closed and under Tehran’s control, rejecting US claims of normalized maritime traffic.

Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters. (Photo: Video grab)

America’s Fatal Attraction to War

August 12, 2026
Emma Ashford

The Perverse Incentives for Presidents to Use Military Force

تاریخ

کسانی‌ که به تاریخ علاقه‌مندند و وقایع تاریخی‌ را مطالعه می‌کنند، هر یک از دید خاصی‌ به آن رویدادها می‌نگرند. ولی‌ آنچه که بیش از همه جلب توجه می‌کند جنگ‌ها و لشگر‌کشی‌هاست که در هر دورهٔ تاریخی‌ بی‌وقفه ادامه دارند. نه تنها داستان جنگ‌ها و لشگرکشی‌ها، بلکه مرور ابداعات و اختراعات جنگی و سلاح‌هائی که ضایعاتِ انسانیِ و نظامیِ نیروی خودی را کمتر، و در عوض خسارات جنگی دشمن را چند برابر می‌کنند. گرچه جوامع بشری همواره و در طول تاریخ با اختراعات و اکتشافات و نوآوری‌های خود رو به پیشرفت بوده‌ا‌ند، بلکه همواره در نقطه‌ای از این کرهٔ خاکی درگیری نظامی بین دولت‌ها و ملت‌ها رقم خورده است. ولی‌ روند جوامع همیشه به سمت بهتر و راحت‌تر زیستن بوده است، و بسیاری از جنگ‌ها نیز به منظور تحت اختیار گرفتن و یا غلبه کردن بر آن نوآوری‌های نظامی بوده‌ا‌ند. دانشمندان همیشه با کاوش و تجسّسِ خود کشف کرده‌ا‌ند که چگونه می‌توان از آنچه که در دسترس بشر قرار دارد، چون عوامل جوّی و رودها و اقیانوس‌ها، و سایر ثروت‌های طبیعت مانند کشتزارها و معادن،  و انرژی خورشیدی، و هر آنچه که در این کرهٔ خاکی یافت می‌شود، به منظور راحت زیستن استفاده بهتر و شایانی کرد.ا

US War on Iran Is Devastating for Women Who Want Life and Freedom

August 11, 2026
Iranian feminists asked for international help — but the U.S.-Israeli war has killed women, left many jobless and given the government a pretext to violate their rights.

An Iranian woman walks past anti-U.S. graffiti painted on a wall of Tehran University in downtown Tehran on April 25, 2026

Iran Has Changed the Question

August 11, 2026

Vijay Prashad
For more than three decades, the United States has treated Middle Eastern diplomacy as an exercise in writing the terms for others. Iran’s emerging regional strategy is challenging that privilege. The immediate evidence is emerging in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and Oman are negotiating an arrangement under which Tehran could oversee vessels entering the Gulf while Muscat manages outbound traffic. The proposal remains unsettled, but it represents something larger than a maritime agreement: Iran is attempting to move the diplomatic agenda away from the narrow question of its nuclear compliance and towards the wider architecture of Gulf security.

Image Source: Wikideas1 – Own work made with Numbers for Mac and data from https://portwatch.imf.org/ – CC0

What the Iran-Oman Hormuz deal means (it’s not good)

August 10, 2026

Optimism about reaching a diplomatic solution to the Iran crisis is premature. No deal between Iran and Oman has been formally announced, but what we know is not promising. Indeed, allowing the Strait of Hormuz littoral states alone to conduct the negotiations is a fundamental challenge to freedom of the seas, a foundation of U.S. foreign policy. The specifics may be even worse.  Under one leaked version of the deal, neither US nor Israeli ships would be allowed to transit the strait, an automatic non-starter for Washington.

Marco ‘McCarthy’ Rubio: Wrong on Cuba & ‘Terrorism’

August 10, 2026
Ann Wright

Those who challenge and protest U.S. policies are not foreign-paid terrorists; Rubio and other Trump appointees are using “McCarthy” tactics to stop dissent, says Ann Wright.

Downtown Minneapolis ICE-out demonstration on Jan. 23 following ICE agent Jonathan Ross’ fatal shooting of civilian Renée Good. (Lorie Shaull /Flickr/ Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY 4.0)

Live: Israel rejects Trump's 15-point plan for Gaza

August 9, 2026 (Edited)

Meanwhile, Iran lays down six conditions for Hormuz reopening

Iran war live: IRGC says Hormuz to open after US ‘fully’ accepts conditions

August 8, 2026
Stephen Quillen & Rached El-Moctar
Sardar Mohebi, spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), says the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is not subject to the deal with Oman, adding that it is conditional on the US “fully accepting Iran’s conditions”.

Trump’s Iran Oil Giveaway

August 7, 2026
Freddy Brewster

As war with Iran drove oil prices higher, Trump gave politically connected oil companies — not taxpayers — the chance to cash in on publicly owned oil.

Kuwait shuts down nation's only Iranian school

AUG 6, 2026

No reason was given for the closure, as families were told to transfer their children before the next academic year begins

Iran war live: Tehran says it agreed coordinates of Hormuz route with Oman

August 5, 2026
Mariem Bah and Stephen Quillen

• Iran’s foreign ministry says a deal with Oman on a route through the Strait of Hormuz is being “finalised”, but the US and Israel still pose a danger to ships in the vital waterway.
• Israel’s military says it has started carrying out attacks on southern Lebanon in response to what it calls a “blatant violation of the ceasefire” by Hezbollah. One person has so far been reported killed and 11 injured in the offensive. Earlier, Israeli media reported that two Israeli soldiers were killed and several others wounded after an IED exploded inside a booby-trapped building in the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm.
• Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB has quoted an informed source as saying the talks between Iran and Oman “have nothing to do with the United States”.
• Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank carry out large-scale raids in several areas. Soldiers have entered the Qalandiya refugee camp, storming homes and detaining Palestinians. Israeli gunfire and shelling have been reported in neighbourhoods across the Gaza Strip.

باز هم جنگ

 هفتهٔ پیش در مورد جنگ جهانی‌ سوم سخن رفت. با حملات دولت آمریکا به ایران  و حملهٔ یک هفته پیش به کیش و کشتار غیر نظامیان، حملهٔ چند روز پیش دولت فاشیستی اکراین به یک کشتی ایرانی‌ در بحر خزر، و حملات دولت ایران به کشورهای عربی‌ به منظور متلاشی کردن پایگاه‌های نظامی آمریکا، جنگ‌ها همچنان گسترش می‌یابند. این کشت و کشتار‌ها علاوه بر جنگ طولانی‌ بین روسیه با اکراین، سودان و میانمار و جنگ‌های متفرقه بین سومالی، مالی‌، بورکینا فاسو، و از طرف دیگر حملات رژیم اسرائیل به فلسطینیان و سایر کشورهای همجوارش مانند سوریه و لبنان، هر لحظه دنیا را پر آشوب‌تر می‌کنند. به این ترتیب و با کمال تاسف، به نظر می‌رسد که پیش‌بینی‌ مقالهٔ پیشین هر لحظه به حقیقت نزدیک‌تر می‌شود.ا