In The Last of Earth, she points her writerly compass towards the mountains of mid-19th-century Tibet a region then closed off to European imperialists to meditate on the chequered history of colonial exploration, cartography and the impermanence of human existence. It's in the nature of white men to believe they own the world, that no door should be shut to them.
Liadan Ní Chuinn was born in Northern Ireland in 1998, the year the Good Friday Agreement ended the Troubles, the decades of violence stemming from England's occupation of Ireland. Other recent fiction about the Troubles-the novels and Trespasses , the TV show Derry Girls (all excellent)-is set firmly in the last century, relegating the violence to history. Ní Chuinn's work does the opposite: Their new book of short stories, Every One Still Her e, is set in contemporary Northern Ireland.
On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron appeared before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland the annual Alpine gathering of the global elite to declare that now is not a time for new imperialism or new colonialism. This, of course, was a reference to the current ambitions of Macron's counterpart in the United States, Donald Trump, who, in addition to recently kidnapping the president of Venezuela and repeatedly threatening to seize the Panama Canal,
The announcement on 17 January that Washington will impose punitive tariffs of 10% to 25% on eight European allies unless they facilitate the complete and total purchase of Greenland is likely to be the death knell of the post-1945 transatlantic order. By linking the territorial sovereignty of a Nato ally to trade access, the US has transitioned from Europe's security guarantor to a 19th-century imperial rent-seeker. This is a moment of profound rupture.
For Trump, it's the Donroe doctrine, or the western hemisphere is mine for whatever profit I and my elite group of loyal courtiers can wring from it. At the same time, Trump's honesty about his intention to use the astonishing military power he wields for unfettered plunder is at least refreshing. No more American pieties to democracy and human rights. The world hasn't seen this kind of unabashed dedication to amassing wealth since the British East India Company. All hail the new king emperor!
I have spent 12 of my 28 years in higher education working in top business schools-three in graduate admissions and nine as a tenured professor. I especially love teaching and mentoring MBA students, in part because I know that most of them are going to ascend to leadership in corporations, government agencies and other organizations in the future. I want them to leave my classrooms with the practical skills required to solve complex contemporary business problems.
The Washington Roundtable discusses Donald Trump's use of force in Venezuela, his desire to take over Greenland, and the historical echoes of the Administration's new imperialist projects. The panel also considers Trump's brand of "narcissistic unilateralism" and the increased risks of global conflict when foreign policy is based on one man's whims.
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe, Such boastings as the Gentiles use, Or lesser breeds without the Law- Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget-lest we forget! Naked imperialism is an ugly thing, and that contemptuous phrase, "lesser breeds without the Law," unsettles any contemporary reader of "Recessional."
"We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else," Miller said. "But we live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power." "These are the iron laws of the world that existed since the beginning of time."
The remarks were part of a vocal push by Miller, long a powerful behind-the-scenes player in Trump administration policy, to justify American imperialism and a vision for a new world order in which the United States could freely overthrow national governments and take foreign territory and resources so long as it was in the national interest. "We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power," he said. "These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time."
Almost everyone is a little bit in love with the USA, declares Edward Stourton in his introduction to Made in America. And why not? It is the land of razzle-dazzle and high ideals, of jazz music, Bogart and Bacall, Harriet Tubman and Hamilton, a nation that was anti-colonialist and pro-liberty from its conception, whose Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal.
The fascination for all things Middle Eastern was part of a larger art and design philosophy known as the Aesthetic Movement. It began with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of the 1850s, grew to encompass William Morris and fellow designers and artists, evolved into the British Arts and Crafts movement, and ended with Art Nouveau in the first decades of the 20th century. The Aesthetic Movement began in Great Britain, but soon spread to other parts of Europe
