Fall 2025

The International Community Looks Away

Henry Shue A morally serious person does not pretend to an absolute objection to torture that he or she cannot support. Too much is at stake to indulge in extreme but indefensible positions that collapse under the weight of reality. …

Genocide and the Expedient Political Lie

Did a “new world order” materialize out of communism’s collapse and the Gulf War, only to impose itself now on Iraq? With 9/11 a convenient, mediating excuse? The events of 1989-1991 produced vast change, but I think fluidity resulted-a new …

When U.S. troops entered Baghdad, I was very glad to see the pictures of Iraqis celebrating freedom from Saddam’s dictatorship. Not because they changed my view that the war was wrong, but because they meant that for some Iraqis the …

New Challenges for the Left

As I write in mid-May, what George W. Bush has described as “the second battle in the war on terrorism” appears to have been won. My charge is immensely easier than that presented to those who, in winter, were asked …

War Against Virtual States

The most fateful and clever decision made by George W. Bush’s administration in the days just after September 11, 2001, was the decision to call the American response to terrorism a war. So much becomes possible in a war that …

Imagine for a moment what would happen if the European Union applied for membership in the European Union. Its application would be flatly rejected. Why? Because the European Union doesn’t live up to its own criteria of democracy, of Europeanness. …

I am, of course, very grateful to Henry Shue and Richard Weisberg for their thoughtful comments. I will address them in order. I am not convinced there is much difference between Shue and me. I was touched by the eloquence …

Sometime soon, the forty-nine years of Dissent will be available online—every article in every issue. Right now, we post a number of key articles on our Web site as soon as the “real” issue—paper, ink, and glue—appears; and after a …

Political Criticism in an Age of Entertainment

It is hard to know what to say. At this moment, it looks as if our country is headed into a “war of choice” that we should not have chosen. When you read this issue of Dissent, we will be …