Rania Khalek Dispatches

Are Russia & China imperialist like the US? Will the decline of the west lead to more fascism in the global north? What is sovereignty? Is every country entitled to it? Where do sanctions fit in? What does it mean that the Global South is refusing to get on board with them? And what are the alternatives to the current so-called rules-based international order? To discuss this and more Rania Khalek was joined by Bikrum Gill, who teaches at the department of political science at Virginia Tech. Follow Bikrum on Twitter @bikrumsinghgill: https://twitter.com/bikrumsinghgill Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRKTIME CODES 0:30 Intro2:06 Relevance of imperialism6:32 China as an alternative: Is China imperialist?11:14 Projecting European colonialism onto China15:34 Ukraine proxy war & Western decline19:39 Is Russia imperialist in Ukraine?26:02 A changing Global South?37:19 Resistance movements40:33 Sanctions 45:20 Racial Capitalism 50:21 Sovereignty1:00:00 Reparations for imperialists?1:09:22 Disempowered Americans1:19:16 Alternatives?

What does the US Cold War with China and Russia mean for Africa? Can China’s rise benefit the continent, providing it leverage and another partner to rely on? Or is the State Department correct that China is engaging in neocolonialism and that African countries should be cautious and prioritize their relationship with the US? To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek was joined by Kambale Musavuli, an activist, writer, and analyst with the Center for Research on the Congo-Kinshasa. Kambale’s organization: https://cereck.org/ Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK

To discuss the censored reality of the war in Ukraine and its horrific consequences, Rania Khalek was joined by Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany, who is currently associate professor of history at Koc University in Istanbul, working on Russian, Ukrainian, and generally East European history.Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK

The misnamed “Arab Spring” unleashed restrained aspirations of the region and like all uprisings saw an eruption of expression in songs, music, lyrics, spreading, much like these intifadas, through social media, massive crowds, and sharing ideas and trends across borders. But just as the initial optimism of the protests was crushed by the harsh reality of reactionary governments, western interventions, oligarchs and capitalism, so too was the new music of Arab youth co-opted, suppressed, corrupted and infiltrated by the West and the Gulf monarchies. Lebanese writer Mohamad-Ali Nayel has recently written a two part series that is the definitive examination of post Arab Spring hip-hop and popular music. He joined Rania Khalek to talk about this and much more.Moe’s articles discussed in the episode:Part 1: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/44193/Music-Politics-After-the-Arab-Uprisings-Part-1Part 2: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/44194/Music-Politics-After-the-Arab-Uprisings-Part-2 

The US left is often smeared and mocked, accused of being weak, ineffective, unserious, fractured, obsessed with identity issues and prone to destructive infighting. While capitalist media has a stake in portraying the left in this way, the organized US left is rebuilding and growing stronger. Still, it is weaker today than it was many decades ago and that’s no accident.  To discuss the history of repression against the US left and how it relates to the challenges we face today, Rania Khalek was joined by Brian Becker, host of The Socialist Program, which you can watch every Wednesday right here on Breakthrough News.

The occupation of Palestine continues with no end in sight, and this remains the primary political struggle in the region as America’s client states normalize with Israel. But now there’s a new backdrop: the war in Ukraine exposing Western double standards alongside the US-China New Cold War. Fundamental to US geostrategic aims in the region is taming the “axis of resistance” stretching from Iraq to Iran to Syria to Lebanon and Palestine. This played out in yet another Israeli bombing campaign against the besieged Gaza Strip. Here to help us understand the state of the resistance in Palestine and beyond, and the shifting regional alliances in the Middle East is Ali Abunimah, executive director of the Electronic Intifada and author of “The Battle for Justice in Palestine.”Follow the Electronic Intifada on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/electronicintifadaListen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRKTIME CODES0:00 Intro2:11 Palestine as central to anti-imperialist resistance 5:15 Why does Israel keep killing Palestinians? “Mowing the lawn” 15:33 Why is Israel attacking the West Bank?23:49 Armed resistance & Ukraine double standards34:26 What is the right to resist?  45:06 Iran backs the resistance Resistance Axis stronger than ever 47:54 Potential war? Hezbollah warns Israel not to steal Lebanon’s offshore gas59:23 Salman Rushdie1:08:50 The Edward Said & Obama photo: Have progressives learned their lesson? 

NATO expansion might have provoked the war in Ukraine, but surrounding Russia isn’t the organization’s only pursuit. NATO participated in the US “war on terror” in Afghanistan, NATO destroyed Libya and today NATO is expanding into Africa. To help break it all down, Rania Khalek was joined by Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and author of many books, including “Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations."Vijay’s articles discussed in the episode: The rise of Nato in Africa https://mg.co.za/top-six/2022-06-02-opinion-wests-military-muscle-forcing-its-way-into-africa/ Africa is on the move https://monthlyreview.org/2022/05/01/africa-is-on-the-move/ You can listen to all episodes of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW TIME CODES:0:00 Intro2:00 What is NATO?4:50 A global NATO7:59 Europe’s military footprint in Africa11:00 NATO goes to Africa 12:10 NATO in Libya: Chaos and consequences17:32 Flood of weapons into Libya destabilized Africa 22:40 New mood growing in Africa26:43 Bully Africa over Ukraine33:45 Germany becomes third largest military spender41:15 Africa is on the move49:02 Taiwan53:06 Sri Lanka update

How is it that judges arbitrarily chosen by presidents who didn't even win the popular vote are appointed for life and can overturn our most cherished rights? What’s with the veneration of the US constitution, which was written by slave owners? Is America really a democracy?To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek was joined by Aziz Rana, a professor of law at Cornell University and author of the book “The Two Faces of American Freedom.”Follow Aziz’s work here: https://www.azizrana.com/ You can listen to all episodes of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW TIME CODES0:00 Intro1:50 Judges for life 5:29 Why are Democrats so weak on this? 11:13 How can liberal and conservative justices be so chummy?14:27 Supreme Court’s drift to the extreme right 18:49 Cult of personality around supreme court justices22:12 Court’s achievements or people’s achievements? 27:01 Reducing the power of the Supreme Court31:06 The myth of steady progress35:42 Can we achieve through legislation what we fail to achieve to litigation?40:43 The constitution as counter-revolutionary46:23 History of constitution worship tied to imperialism50:24 Liberalism vs the constitution: Contradictions 53:33 Have elections and democracy lost their meaning?56:27 Is the US a democracy?  59:08 Foreign policy1:02:57 Internal violence and mass shootings1:07:00 Mass incarceration 1:12:12 America does NOT have universal suffrage 1:16:21 Radical constitutional transformation 1:21:48  Federal judiciary system, is it flawed?

In his recent Harper's cover piece, “Empire Burlesque,” Daniel Bessner traced the evolution of the foreign policy vision that defined the so-called American century and how it has been reshaped by failures and a changing world order, including a new multipolarity and the rise of China. He draws a distinction between the liberal internationalists and the “restrainers,” the two dominant foreign policy camps in Washington, and he calls for planning a future beyond the American century. But can America act like a normal country? Bessner, an Associate Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington and co-host of the podcast American Prestige, joined Dispatches with Rania Khalek to discuss this and more. Daniel’s article: https://harpers.org/archive/2022/07/what-comes-after-the-american-century/

A few months ago Democrats bragged that Americans were so supportive of President Biden's "unprecedented" Russia sanctions turning the ruble into rubble, that they couldn't wait to pay higher gas prices. But now that prices are higher with no end in sight, Americans are irate with high costs eating into their earnings, and Democrats and Republicans are pretending the sanctions they enacted have nothing to do with it. Meanwhile mainstream economists are warning of a possible recession and saying the only way to get inflation down is to raise interest rates and unemployment. And that’s exactly the Fed’s plan. To help us make sense of what's happening, how we got here, and what should be done to contain it, Rania Khalek is joined by Eugene Puryear, a journalist for Breakthrough News and host of The Punch Out.You can listen to all episodes of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.0:00 Intro2:24 What’s really behind inflation? 11:24 Sanctions on Russia20:22 Intentionally raising unemployment to save capitalism 32:16 What is a recession? Is it a built-in feature of capitalism? 39:21 Causing suffering around the world to hurt Russia48:32 Political consequences for Democrats 59:03 Europe cuts its own throat1:04:09 It’s socialism or barbarism