The Post-Partisan Emporium

  Russia, SCO, BRICS: The Normalization of Afghanistan PEPE ESCOBAR   The whole Russia-Taliban affair involves a humongous package – encompassing oil, gas, minerals and loads of rail connectivity. This past Sunday in Doha, I had a meeting with three high-level representatives of the Taliban Political Office in Qatar, including a founding member of the body (in 2012) and a key official of the previous Taliban government of 1996-2001. By mutual consent, their names should not be made public. The cordial meeting was brokered by Professor Sultan Barakat, who teaches at the College of Public Policy at Hamad bin Khalifa University – set in an outstanding, immaculate campus outside of Doha which attracts students from across the Global South. Prof. Barakat is one of those very few – discreet – players who knows everything that matters in West Asia, and in his case, also in the intersection of Central and South Asia. With my three Taliban interlocutors, we talked extensively about the challeng

  Deep State Spotlight: Victoria Nuland Why the High Priestess of the Security State Transcends Partisan Politics RYAN DELARME Countless politicians in America today have experienced meteoric ascensions to the upper echelons of government for no real, discernible reason. It seems as though the requirements for becoming a deep state pawn are minimal beyond the prospective candidate's willingness to forsake their constituents to appease an international ruling class. In this article, we are going to take a good, hard look at Neocon warhawk Victoria Nuland, somebody who’s managed to maintain substantial power regardless of which political party is in control of American politics. Her career serves to remind us that there is a class of deep-state assets that exist beyond the confines of party affiliation and that these consequential individuals who fly under the radar are often far more dangerous than the ones who receive constant partisan criticism. We are told that we, the people, ha