Analyses
Yassin al-Haj Saleh: After Assad, Syria Must Free Itself from Sectarianism
Riccardo Cristiano 12 December 2024
Yassin al-Haj Saleh, born in 1961, is one of Syria’s foremost intellectuals and a long-standing dissident against the Assad regime. He spent sixteen years in prison for “political reasons,” including time in the maximum-security facility of Tadmur, also known as Palmyra. With the onset of the Syrian Spring, he immediately emerged as an opponent of the regime.
  • Trump’s Old-World Vision Clashes with China’s 21st-Century Rise (p. II)
    Seán Golden 3 March 2025
    It is extremely difficult to accurately predict what will unfold in Trump’s relations with China or their effects on the rest of the world, but it may be possible to identify and analyze some of the major scenarios in which they will unfold, including the emerging post-Bretton Woods world order, world trade, the role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in a global setting, and security issues.
  • Redrawing International Cooperation: The Impact of Freezing USAID Funding
    Matias Xerxes Gonzalez Field 3 March 2025
    USAID has provided resources to over 130 nations, accounting for 42 percent of the humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations. Until 2023, its funding averaged around 40 billion dollars per year. After cuts to positions and resources, the agency’s budget has now been reduced to approximately 100 million dollars. The freezing and blocking of USAID’s domestic workforce have had the most evident and severe consequences abroad. While the number of workers fired in the US amounts to just over 1,500 employees, the agency employs over 10,000 people around the globe.
  • What’s Behind the Arab Alternative to Trump’s Gaza Proposal
    Hussein Ibish 24 February 2025
    Saudi Arabia hosted a meeting on February 21 with all six Gulf Cooperation Council countries plus the crucial additions of Egypt and Jordan to begin crafting a formal Arab response to President Donald J. Trump’s fantastical scheme to redevelop Gaza after removing its 2.2 million Palestinian residents. Trump’s supporters and officials claim that this sudden Arab urgency to respond with an alternative to his Gaza plan is a diplomatic achievement and the real purpose of his radical proposal. Yet whatever the Arab countries come up with at this GCC +2 meeting, or at the March 4 full convening of the Arab League, will not be practicable given Israel’s policies.
  • Postliberalism(s): A Brief History of a Resurgent Ideology – With Chris Wright
    Fulvia Giachetti 19 February 2025
    Like any “ism,” liberalism is many things, but its diverse conceptual and political values are undeniably in crisis. From Viktor Orbán’s embrace of “illiberal democracy” and Donald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric to the British Blue Labour’s pro-worker yet anti-woke stance, reactions to liberalism’s decline vary widely. Yet, they share a common thread: postliberalism. Postliberalism itself is complex. To unpack its nuances, Reset DOC spoke with Chris Wright, history professor at the City University of New York and author of Popular Radicalism and the Unemployed in Chicago during the Great Depression.
  • Boussois: “The Saudis Against Trump, But Normalization with Israel is Inevitable”
    Federica Zoja 15 February 2025
    “Every day there’s something new. Donald Trump’s political agenda is totally unpredictable: today it’s the Gaza Strip, tomorrow it will be Ukraine!” Sebastien Boussois, an analyst and researcher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and at Uqam in Montreal, is one of the most authoritative voices in the French-speaking world on the subject of relations between the West and the Gulf States. In the aftermath of Riyadh’s vehement opposition to the American proposal to empty Gaza and rebuild it, his first comment is unequivocal: “It’s all a show, a complete charade! I think that Saudi Arabia, through the voice of its Foreign Minister, is obliged to reject Trump’s proposal for annexation. But also that there is no lasting or solid agreement in the region as strong as the one between the United States and Saudi Arabia: let us remember, it dates back to 1945, after the end of the Second World War.”
  • ,
    Indian Americans, Christian Nationalists, and Post-Liberal America
    Chandra Mallampalli 12 February 2025
    At the confirmation hearing of Kash Patel for the position of FBI Director, Senator Thom Tillis introduced him as the son of Indian immigrants from their home state of Gujarat, which he described as a “melting pot” of religions. Patel’s father had fled Uganda during Idi Amin’s expulsion of Indians before ultimately settling the family in New York. Patel displayed his religion and ethnicity alongside his belief in the U.S. Constitution. He saluted his parents by declaring “Jai Sri Krishna,” a greeting that literally means glory or victory to Lord Krishna. If we set aside the grave concerns Democrats raised about Patel’s conspiracy mongering and his ambitions to dismantle the “deep state” by exacting revenge on Trump’s enemies, Patel’s nomination appears to reflect values Democrats would embrace: a commitment to pluralistic democracy, an embrace of racial and cultural differences, and an affirmation of America as a haven for immigrants. But are these the values that drew him to the Trump administration?
  • Rogozinski on Gaza: “Who Will Forgive us, If We Can’t Ask for Forgiveness for These Crimes?”
    Jacob Rogozinski 10 February 2025
    By acting this way, the Israeli right and far right have taken all Jews hostage—both in Israel and the diaspora—making us complicit in their crimes. And they have done so in the name of the Jewish people, which means in my name as well. For the first time in my life, I feel ashamed to be Jewish. But this is not the shame of the past—the shame of those who were insulted, humiliated, and confined to ghettos. It is a new kind of shame, rare in our people’s long history—the shame of being complicit in a massacre.
  • Mimmo Cangiano on the Culture Wars: “Ideas Risk Becoming Mere Commodities”
    Fulvia Giachetti 7 February 2025
    In Europe and the United States, politics has long been dominated by cultural wars, leading to extreme polarization in public debate. One consequence of this is the overshadowing of economic disparities and social conflicts. What are the origins of this phenomenon, how has it evolved in recent years, and how can it be addressed? To explore these questions, Reset DOC spoke with Mimmo Cangiano, professor of Literary Criticism and Comparative Literature at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Among his most recent works are Cultura di destra e società di massa (Right-Wing Culture and Mass Society, Nottetempo, 2022) and Guerre culturali e neoliberismo (Cultural Wars and Neoliberalism, Nottetempo, 2024).
  • Trump’s Old-World Vision Clashes with China’s 21st-Century Rise
    Seán Golden 7 February 2025
    Trump promised to impose 60 percent tariffs on Chinese trade immediately but has for the moment only imposed 10 percent. Whether this is an attempt to keep face with his voters or a tactical move in a longer-term strategy remains to be seen, as does China’s response and the global consequences. The initial Chinese response has been a cautious tit-for-tat, but the situation is fluid.
Load more
SUPPORT OUR WORK

 

Please consider giving a tax-free donation to Reset this year

Any amount will help show your support for our activities

In Europe and elsewhere
(Reset DOC)


In the US
(Reset Dialogues)


x