Michael Ratner Middle East Fellowship
IPS’s Middle East Fellowship is named for people’s lawyer and former National Lawyers Guild president and long-time president of the Center for Constitutional Rights Michael Ratner, who passed away too early in the spring of 2016. Michael’s passion for Palestinian rights, for ending US wars and occupations in the Middle East, for challenging US aggression around the world, for imagining a new foreign policy based on internationalism instead of empire – as well as his powerful commitment to teaching and mentoring younger lawyers and law students – all serve as the basis for making the IPS fellowship a part of Michael’s legacy.
The Fellowship aims to provide a one-year opportunity for an emerging public scholar, at a mid-career or earlier level, to spend a year working with IPS’s Middle East expert Phyllis Bennis, who directs the IPS New Internationalism Project. The project work includes a broad range of public scholarship (writing, speaking, organizing, advocacy) focused on transforming U.S. policy regarding Palestine, wars in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and beyond, the Iran nuclear deal and sanctions, U.S. domination of Middle East issues in the United Nations, and, overall, supporting diplomacy over war. The Fellow will also have the opportunity to participate in IPS including staff meetings, collaborations with other project staff, and involvement with the broader intellectual and activist life of the Institute.
Latest Work

Biden Is Following Trump's Lead on Israel-Palestine

Time to End the West’s Xenophobic Double Standard on Refugees

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Why Binary Thinking on Russia’s Invasion Is a Losing Strategy

Sanctions May Sound “Nonviolent,” But They Quietly Hurt the Most Vulnerable

Martin Luther King, Jr., Internationalist

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How U.S. Wars Abroad Are Intimately Tied to Police Brutality at Home

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There Is No "Border Crisis"

One Year In: How Militarism Made the Pandemic Worse

Dangerous U.S. Bombing of Syria Worsens Regional Instability and Threatens Iran Nuclear Deal

Biden Must Do More Than Rejoin the Iran Nuke Deal

Why Palestinians Are Mourning George Floyd

Tiny Portugal Shows America the Right Way to Treat Essential Immigrants During the Coronavirus Crisis

War And Militarism Is Worsening COVID Crisis

How Wars, Sanctions, and Militarism Made the Coronavirus Crisis Worse

Webinar: Security, Racism and Solidarity in the Time of Global Pandemics
