When Ichiro Hatoyama finally gained the premiership from 1954-1956, he had become elderly and was in failing health. This did not stop him, however, from scoring two major achievements: he presided over the creation of the Liberal Democratic Party and reestablished diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
What Fujimori did with power became a cautionary tale—of how an outsider, once let in, can corrupt everything.
The notion that non-Western powers might band together to resist the depredations of Europe and the United States has been around since the late 19th century, but only now has the power balance shifted to a sufficient degree that the era of Western global dominance is actually coming to an end.
The ghost of Shinzo Abe’s political and financial corruption has again risen up to haunt his successors, staggering the already weak administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro appears to be plotting a comeback, but his prospects for a return to power–should he not be willing to wait four years until the next election–will very much depend upon who occupies the White House in the years ahead and how deep his support runs within his country’s military.
Largely outside of the public view, the United States has been prosecuting an intermittent, fifteen-year-long bombing campaign in Somalia which has killed an estimated 2,000-3,000 people, including dozens of noncombatants. US actions could be considered tantamount to a secret war about which most people are unaware.
The Covid pandemic has gradually unleashed political and social forces in Japan that have lifted its underlying xenophobia to the surface, and thus transformed its culture from one of attraction into one of repulsion for many of its previous admirers.
Many Democrats in the US Congress and others hailed reports that the Biden administration is imposing a temporary freeze on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, pending a review of billions of dollars worth of weapons deals with the repressive regimes approved during the presidency of Donald Trump.
Abby Martin, host of The Empire Files, and Paul Jay discuss how working people and the left should respond to the presidential election.
Nearly fifty years after a US-backed coup toppled Chile’s democratically-elected President Salvador Allende and paved the way for military dictator General Augusto Pinochet to impose a rightwing constitution, Chileans have voted in a 4-to-1 landslide to approve the creation of a new constitution.
