The Iran Crisis #16: Helena Cobban on Hormuz and 5,000 Years of Strategic Power

The Iran Crisis #19: Maryam Jamshidi on international law regarding Hormuz, and prospects for peace

On May 1, JWE president Helena Cobban sat down with Maryam Jamshidi, Assistant Professor of Law in the law school at the University of Colorado, and a Non-resident Fellow of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. In this convo, Jamshidi and Cobban discussed (among other topics): *  The many details of what international maritime law has to say about the rights Iran may enjoy over the Strait of Hormuz * The depth of the remaining differences between the U.S. and Iranian positions on how to end the war * The sad history of the UN Security Council's engagement in the question of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran * The utility of international law in the present, lawless era. This was latest episode in our continuing series on the Iran Crisis. Find the multimedia records of this episode and all its others at this Online Learning Hub [https://bit.ly/JWE-iran-crisis] on our website. Support the show [http://justworldeducational.org/donate/]

The Iran Crisis #18: Ray McGovern on Araghchi in Russia, U.S. & Israeli naval piracy, and more

On May 1, JWE president Helena Cobban sat down with the former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, who was one of the founders of the antiwar organization Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). During his career in the CIA, McGovern was a very expert analyst of Soviet (and Russian) affairs. In the early 1980s he was responsible for giving the U.S. president his daily intel briefing. In this convo, McGovern and Cobban discussed (among other topics): *  the likelihood of any imminent U.S. resumption of major military actions against Iran;  * the slowly decreasing influence of Israel in the U.S. Congress; * the impact of Iranian FM Araghchi's recent visit to Moscow and the potential role that Russia might play in mediating an end to the war;  * the Israeli navy's recent acts of piracy against the Global Sumoud Flotilla heading to Gaza (in the context of the increasing recourse to acts of piracy by the U.S. navy, as well); and * David Swanson's recent book War Is Still A Racket. [https://davidswanson.org/racket/] This was latest episode in our continuing series on the Iran Crisis. Find the multimedia records of this episode and all its others at this Online Learning Hub [https://bit.ly/JWE-iran-crisis] on our website. Support the show [http://justworldeducational.org/donate/]

The Iran Crisis #17: Richard Falk on his Meeting with Khomeini, International Law & More

In this episode of the Iran Crisis series, Helena Cobban sat down with Professor Richard Falk, international law scholar and JWE board member, for a wide-ranging conversation that spanned nearly five decades of history. Recorded on April 29, the discussion moved from a remarkable personal meeting he had with Ayatollah Khomeini in January 1979 to the crisis of international law and the nuclear non-proliferation debate that are both unfolding right now.  This was latest episode in our continuing series on the Iran Crisis. Find the multimedia records of this episode and all its others at this Online Learning Hub [https://bit.ly/JWE-iran-crisis] on our website. Support the show [http://justworldeducational.org/donate/]

The Iran Crisis #16: Helena Cobban on Hormuz and 5,000 Years of Strategic Power

In this special presentation for Just World Educational's Iran Crisis series [https://justworldeducational.org/the-iran-crisis/], Helena Cobban, the president of Just World Ed, delivered a pre-recorded talk for the Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center conference in Orinda, California, on April 25th. Unable to attend in person and having to record her remarks more than 24 hours before they would be delivered, she chose to take a long historical view of the crisis by tracing the Strait of Hormuz across 5,000 years of human history.  She traced Hormuz's  origins as a key node connecting the formative ancient civilizations in the Indus Valley and Mesopotamian, and as a central artery in the vast Indian Ocean trading zone that once stretched from East Africa to China. She described that pre-European world as a thriving, self-governed commercial network with its own norms and technologies, drawing on the work of historian Janet Abu-Lughod.  She then walked through the entry of five European imperial powers into that world: Portugal, Spain, England, the Netherlands, and France. She described what she called the "White Supremacist International," a succession of empire-building ventures driven by profit, looting, and the rise of finance capitalism. She traced Portugal's violent seizure of Hormuz in 1507 under Afonso de Albuquerque, followed by the London-based East India Company's takeover of the port in 1622, and drew direct parallels between those colonial methods and what Israel is doing in Palestine and Lebanon today.  Cobban closed by urging viewers to work toward curbing Western military power and ending the war. Support the show [http://justworldeducational.org/donate/]

The Iran Crisis #15: Dr. Moeed Pirzada on Pakistan's role and fears of renewed conflict

On the evening of April 23, JWE president Helena Cobban sat down with Dr. Moeed Pirzada,  a prominent Pakistani journalist based in Washington, D.C. and founder-editor of Global Village Space magazine. Together they examined the rapidly shifting situation around the U.S.-Iran conflict, Pakistan's role as a mediator, and the broader geopolitical realignments taking place across West Asia and beyond. This was latest episode in our continuing series on the Iran Crisis. Find the multimedia records of this episode and all its others at this Online Learning Hub [https://bit.ly/JWE-iran-crisis] on our website. Support the show [http://justworldeducational.org/donate/]