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In thinking about international affairs, it is useful to keep in mind several principles of considerable generality and import. The first is the maxim of Thucydides: the strong do as they wish, and the weak suffer as they must. It has an important corollary: every powerful state relies on specialists in apologetics, whose task is to show that what the strong do is noble and just, and if the weak suffer it is their fault. In the contemporary West, these specialists are called “intellectuals,” and with only marginal exceptions, they fulfill their assigned task with skill and self-righteousness, however outlandish the claims, a practice that traces back to the origins of recorded history

What He Said:
“This agreement with the United States is in force by the principle of sovereign equality. I want to state to you all: there is no Colombian resignation of sovereignty. This move does not imply any abdication of sovereignty at all.”
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, late August, in a meeting with Latin American leaders.
What He [...]

Establishing US military bases in Colombia is only one part of a much broader effort to restore Washington’s capacity for military intervention. There has been a sharp increase in US military aid and training of Latin American officers, focusing on light infantry tactics to combat “radical populism” – a concept that sends shivers up the spine in the Latin American context.

The case of a girl in Argentina being raped and then refused the morning after pill has reignited the debate on abortion in this strongly Catholic country.

In an exclusive interview, Matt Kennard talks to Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz on Iraq, Latin America and free-market fundamentalism.

Latin America has been the U.S.’s ‘backyard’ for too long, and finally with a new generation of nationalist leaders it is finally breaking free of its subjugation.