Prof Michael BrennerProfessor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, USAHonourary International Advisor, Ground Report IndiaWE live in a kaleidoscopic environment that we call post-modern society. It spins and reconfigures itself without stop. Whatever the oases of solidity and order we have managed to carve out for ourselves, we sense the fields of reality […]
Prof Michael BrennerProfessor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, USAHonourary International Advisor, Ground Report India The romance of ‘The Great Game” lingers. Abandoned as a pointless draw a century ago, its power to evoke stirring images endures. The fabled lands of Central Asia long have been the stuff of dreams – Samarkand, Balkh, Hotan, […]
Prof Michael BrennerProfessor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, USAHonourary International Advisor, Ground Report India Amb Chas FREEMAN “This was not a retaliation, as claimed, but the pre-planned exploitation of a pretext to assassinate a foreign official designated as an enemy as well as the commander of an Iraqi militia hostile to the United States. […]
Prof Michael BrennerProfessor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, USAHonourary International Advisor, Ground Report India The genius of civilization, as one sage has told us, is to bring together a mass of flawed individuals to form an intelligent social design marked by sophisticated, self-sustaining institutions. Thereby, the practical communal intelligence far surpasses that of […]
Prof Michael BrennerProfessor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, USAHonourary International Advisor, Ground Report India Emanuel Macron’s ascendance to the Elys ée is trumpeted by the Anglo-American media as an epochal event that ushers in a new Golden Age for France. He is heralded as savior of a failing country – a combination of […]
Prof Michael Brenner Most Americans think they know what “terrorism” is: what happened on 9/11, what happened in Orlando. Islamic militants murdering innocent civilians out of hate and in the cause of Islamist jihad. Experience shapes how we understand the world. The Global War On Terror has been oriented accordingly. More formal definitions of “terrorism” try to […]
We all are familiar with George Santayana’s dictum that “those who ignore history are destined to repeat it.” If the past referred to notable successes, then repetition would not be a bad thing. Of course, he had in mind costly failures. His skeptical view of human enterprise held that initiative rarely achieved its end unless […]
Prof Michael BrennerProfessor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, USAHonourary International Advisor, Ground Report IndiaA few people have asked me why I have stopped commenting on American party/electoral politics. The answer is simple: we know what the state of affairs is, we know the elements that have produced it, we know what has […]
Prof Michael Brenner, Professor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, USA “better nurse a delicious FANCY Than GAG ON TRUTH” -Michelangelo PREFACE Truth is the object of our desires. Yet the supply always exceeds the demand. That anomaly is the point of departure for this collection of thoughts. Everyone talks about the truth, but most […]
Prof Michael BrennerProfessor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, USAHonourary International Advisor, Ground Report India At this moment of unprecedented upheaval, it is striking that some things never change. We are being subject to a tidal wave of interpretation and speculation as to what a Trump administration means for American foreign relations in […]