Khury Petersen-Smith is the Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow at IPS. He researches U.S. empire, borders, and migration. Khury graduated from the Clark University Graduate School of Geography in Massachusetts, after completing a dissertation that focused on militarization and sovereignty. He is one of the co-authors and organizers of the 2015 Black Solidarity with Palestine statement, which was signed by over 1,100 Black activists, artists, and scholars.
The White House’s decision to transfer the bombs to Ukraine both escalates the already horrific war and legitimizes a weapon that has no place in our world.
NATO’s July summit betrayed the Kurdish people. The left must stand with both Ukraine and the Kurds — and against NATO.
Saudi Arabia — in the news for cutting oil production and pushing up the price of gas — is also making headlines for perhaps a more unusual reason: golf.
The US president’s promise to put human rights first doesn’t seem to apply to Israel.
Looking at gun manufacturing rather than just gun ownership can help break down our status quo red-blue divide.
Racism lowers the floor for how all people are treated. But it’s not too late to change.
Ending police exchanges will help build a world where our ties are of solidarity and common pursuits for justice.
The idea that we have to either support military action and sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, or “do nothing,” is a false binary.
Economic sanctions are a weapon of war, not an alternative to war.
U.S. actions are raising tensions with Russia rather than resolving them.
King looked beyond our borders — not only at injustice, but how people worked together to end it. It’s an example we need today.
The U.S. must lead on nuclear disarmament. Instead, it’s doing the opposite.
When it comes to concrete action, President Joe Biden has accepted and continued along his predecessor’s path.
The Pentagon now claims no wrongdoing in a parting drone attack that killed seven children. International law and basic morality demands real accountability.
Julian Aguon’s ‘The Properties of Perpetual Light’ is a thoughtful meditation on how, to understand problems at the center of a colonial society, we have to look at the margins.
There are obvious links between anti-war movements against U.S. militarism and Black Lives Matter activism against police brutality. Is time for activists to join forces?
Instead of resetting U.S. relations with Iran, Biden has mostly continued the course of aggression set by the Trump Administration.
Discussing the border in nativist terms obscures the real crises that propel migrants to seek asylum in the United States.
When the world needed collaboration across borders to control the pandemic, U.S. militarism led to the opposite. We must change course.
Regardless of who is giving orders to U.S. bombers, we know that deploying U.S. troops, drones, and warplanes across the region does not provide safety or security for anyone.