By Jonathan Michael Feldman, May 17, 2022; Updated May 22, May 24, and June 5, 2022 On Johann Karl Rodbertus, Rosa Luxemburg would write, “the stalwart Prussian prefers to crack the whip of a colonial policy of Christian ethics over the natives of the colonial countries. It is, of course, what one might expect of…
Continue readingNATO as Foolish Anti-Militarism: Daniel Marwecki’s “I Choose the West Moment”
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, April 24, 2022 The esteemed Social Democratic debater Daniel Suhonen argues in Aftonbladet (April 23rd) that persons from the 1968 generation have argued against NATO membership even though Russia invaded Ukraine just like the U.S. invaded Vietnam. Therefore, he sees some double standard. Suhonen writes as if U.S. intervention stopped in…
Continue readingArguments that Don’t Convince: Daniel Suhonen’s Conversion to NATO
Internationalists must listen to the voice of all Ukrainians and the peace movement, not simply the Ukrainian (and US) governments By Jonathan Michael Feldman, April 17, 2022; Updated April 19, 2022 Deconstruction of Russian State Apologists or Red Herring? On April 13th, the esteemed political thinker Gilbert Achcar wrote an essay entitled, “Contemptuous Denial of Agency in the…
Internationalists must listen to the voice of all Ukrainians and the peace movement, not simply the Ukrainian (and US) governments By Jonathan Michael Feldman, April 17, 2022; Updated April 19, 2022 Deconstruction of Russian State Apologists or Red Herring? On April 13th, the esteemed political thinker Gilbert Achcar wrote an essay entitled, “Contemptuous Denial of Agency in…
Aftonbladet and Karl Nehammer’s Diplomatic Mission to Moscow By Jonathan Michael Feldman, April 16, 2022; Updated April 25, 2022 Introduction Putin is engaged in a brutal war against Ukraine. This fact, together with the emotions surrounding that fact as mediated by certain frameworks and personalities, partially explains the displacement of the very idea of diplomacy. In addition,…
Continue readingHow a Swedish Newspaper Displaced Diplomatic Possibilities in Ukraine
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, April 14, 2022 The Russian Reaction to Finland’s and Sweden’s Move to NATO Weeks into Russia’s barbaric attack on Ukraine, some wonder what the proper policy solution is. Is the solution for countries like Sweden and Finland to deepen military aliances or is the solution to pair them back? Should one…
Continue readingSweden, NATO & Russian Threats: The Selective Use of Security Expertise
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, April 7, 2022, Updated April 9, 2022 Ecological Xenophobia as Metaphor The photograph above is of the newly named courier firm, Bara Posten. This company used to be called “Ryska Posten” in Swedish, which means “the Russian post.” The reason for the name change, according to one news report, was “to…
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, April 2, 2022 On April 1, 2022, Dagens Nyheter published this editorial: “The arguments of NATO opponents do not stand up to reality.” The editorial points out that “Sweden has not been alliance-free for a long time. Non-aligned countries do not allow US troops to practice on their territory, nor do…
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, March 22, 2022, Updated March 23 and March 25, 2022 This essay reviews some of the left militarist arguments for weapons shipments to Ukraine. Based on the Swedish case, I hypothesize that these arguments come from a lack of understanding about the logic of militarism. Priority number 1 is to end…
Continue readingStockholm Syndrome 2022: The Faustian Bargain of Left Militarism in Ukraine