Review of Jonathan Katz, “Gangsters of Capitalism”
I have a review in the January/February issue of The New Republic of Jonathan Katz’s biography/travelogue of Smedley Butler, a figure of long fascination to many and totally obscure to […]
Category Archives: US and the World
A review of Spencer Ackerman’s “Reign of Terror”
I have a new review of Ackerman’s Reign of Terror in the New Republic. Here’s the beginning: On September 5, 2016, two months before the Electoral College victory of Donald […]
Venezuelans’ Hopes for a Biden Administration
I believe that the people affected by U.S. foreign policy should be listened to about how to shape it. I spoke with five Venezuelan social scientists about the situation in […]
No Room
I wrote a review of John Bolton’s The Room Where it Happened. It’s a bad book, which is convincing in its condemnation of Trump but also reveals the limitations of […]
An interview with the poet Carolyn Forché, author of “What You Have Heard is True”
The poet Carolyn Forché’s engagement with El Salvador stretches back to the late 1970s. In the 1980s, she toured extensively in the United States, reciting poetry and raising awareness about […]
Venezuela and the Left: A Forum
I’ve written an introduction to a forum, up now at Dissent magazine. The left has had a tricky relationship with Venezuela over the last couple of decades. It has often […]
Review of Wolfe, “Freedom’s Laboratory”
My review of Audra Wolfe’s “Freedom’s Laboratory,” up now at The New Republic. The book extends out understanding of the Cultural Cold War into the world of science. A sample: The […]
Review of Immerwahr, “How to Hide an Empire”
I have reviewed Daniel Immerwahr’s How to Hide an Empire for The New Republic. Good book, surprising controversy, even-more-surprising quantity of guano islands. In February 2003, Al Jazeera broadcast an interview with Donald […]
US foreign policy and Venezuela
This is not an easy subject. Anti-imperialism may be a limited framework in this situation, and the Maduro government needs to be subject to pressure to leave. But I think, […]
Five Principles to Guide a Foreign Policy for the Left
The Fellow Travelers blog is hosting a forum in which different thinkers are asked to provide five guiding principles for a potential left foreign policy. The current participants are Rep. […]
patrick iber 