Judah Grunstein
WorldPoliticsReview
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Past articles by Judah:
Washington’s Hawkish China Consensus Is Reaching a Point of No Return
There is a hawkish consensus surrounding the US-China relationship in Washington that could be dangerous to US foreign policy—and the world. → Read More
Bolsonaro vs Lula: Brazil Elections Raise Fears for Democracy
The election pitting Bolsonaro against Lula has become a poster child of the “democracy versus autocracy” narrative. → Read More
The Global South Knows the West Better Than the West Knows Itself
The term “Third World” can only ever describe economic relationships—it does not and cannot apply to the arts and literature, or to knowledge and experience more broadly. This truth is lost on the West at its own peril. Yet, though it is lost in a variety of different ways, the historical constant is that it is lost. → Read More
What We’ve Already Learned From the Russia-Ukraine Crisis
Several months of crisis on the Russia-Ukraine border has already answered important questions that had been hovering over the trans-Atlantic alliance for much of the past 15 years. It’s worth taking stock of them now because the crisis could yet unfold in ways that serve to overshadow or obscure them. → Read More
When It Comes to Strategic Rivalries, History Doesn’t Take Sides
The Russia-Ukraine crisis and the one-year anniversary of the Capitol insurgency are not directly related. But they both make up parts of a difficult challenge facing U.S. policymakers: how to preserve Washington’s global leadership role at a time when its model of governance is increasingly called into question. → Read More
Making Sense of a Year of Contradictions
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that whatever hopes we might have held out for 2021 were disappointed. Instead of a turning point where the alarming trends of the preceding five years were reversed, the past year seemed more like a moment of fluctuation, where those trends wavered, only to reconsolidate and regain momentum. → Read More
The Afghanistan Debacle Is Another Step Toward ‘Fortress Europe’
Even at the height of European involvement in Afghanistan, it was always an afterthought among both politicians and the general public. That has only become more the case in recent years. But the war has had important impacts on Europe, and the likely fallout from its outcome will have repercussions as well. → Read More
The Climate Crisis Is Rooted in the Human Condition
On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest, highly anticipated report on the state of Earth’s climate and efforts to keep global temperatures from rising to levels that would trigger catastrophic changes in Earth’s environment and weather conditions. Spoiler alert: It’s bad. → Read More
Viktor Orban Has Gone From Outlier to Precursor
The appeal of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s brand of illiberal democracy to the Trump-era Republican Party is not surprising. Orban’s assaults on judicial independence, press freedom and LGBT rights, and his virulent anti-immigrant positions, have become a model for populist leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. → Read More
Biden’s ‘Democracy Agenda’ Gets a Stress Test
Is the U.S.-China rivalry an ideological contest pitting democracy against authoritarianism, or is it a battle for global primacy involving hard-boiled power politics? The events in Tunisia this week, and Washington’s reaction to them, underscore the tensions involved in any attempt to answer that question. → Read More
The Pegasus Project ‘Revelations’ Are Part of a Bigger Problem
Explosive revelations this week from the Pegasus Project detailed the widespread use of surveillance software by governments to spy on their own citizens, but also on foreign journalists and even heads of government. But in many ways, the Pegasus Project’s revelations are not really revelations at all. → Read More
Cuba’s Protests Are Shocking, but Not Surprising
Cuba’s new, post-Castro generation of leaders hoped to pursue the reforms needed to reinvigorate a flagging, state-controlled economic model, while maintaining the Communist Party’s control over Cuban society. This week’s protests demonstrate that this balance will be as hard to strike as most observers have predicted. → Read More
A Milestone in China and a Reversal in Ethiopia’s Tigray War
Chinese leader Xi Jinping used the CCP’s centennial celebration to vaunt the party’s accomplishments, while also amplifying his message about China’s ambitions on the global stage. Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, federal forces suffered a major reversal in the war in Tigray, after having portrayed the war as essentially over. → Read More
The Israel-Hamas War and Colombia’s Social Protests
What matters in global affairs? At times, the answer is right in front of us: the top story on newspaper front pages and news broadcasts around the world. At others, it lies in quieter stories that nevertheless reflect deeper trends driving important developments. This week is a good example of both kinds of stories. → Read More
This Israel-Hamas Conflict Isn’t Quite Like All the Others
Despite assurances from former President Donald Trump and others, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict did not go away just because one side’s grievances were downgraded and ignored. The events of the past week represent the saturation point, when the tensions that had been lying dormant finally broke through again. → Read More
On Democracy, France-Africa Relations Highlight a Double Standard
In late April, an open letter written by a group of 20 retired French generals and published in a right-wing weekly snowballed into a political controversy in Paris. But coming on the heels of Chadian President Idriss Deby’s death, it also highlighted the double standard at the heart of France’s engagement in Africa. → Read More
With Biden’s Foreign Policy, U.S. Is Back in the Diplomacy Game
Three months after Joe Biden took office, some prominent questions surrounding the foreign policy he intends to pursue remain unanswered. But if actual policies have yet to emerge on many key issues, we know enough about how the Biden team intends to manage foreign policy to have an idea of what they plan to do. → Read More
Avoiding Groupthink to Manage the US-China Relationship
There is nothing so difficult or so important as thinking independently amid a gathering consensus. Few people have the courage of Rep. Barbara Lee, who just three days after 9/11 cast the sole vote in Congress against the AUMF. A similar challenge is now arising in the hardened U.S. foreign policy debate on China. → Read More
Globalization’s Perverse Convergence
In retrospect, the early 2000s can be considered the golden age of contemporary globalization, when liberalized trade achieved a quasi-theological status, with the catalogue of its real and anticipated benefits extending far beyond the economy. The world today, of course, is far from that utopian vision. → Read More
Trump, Angry Politics and Outrage Culture
Centrist technocrats have been feeling the heat from anger-driven movements on both the right and the left over the past five years. Though often delegitimized as a driver of political behavior, anger is a feature of the current political landscape that is in many ways a direct result of technocrats’ failures. → Read More