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Eric Schewe

Eric Schewe

Eric Schewe holds a PhD in Modern Middle Eastern History from the University of Michigan and has taught history at Baruch College and Queens College. He has lived and worked as a journalist in Egypt beginning in 2004, and writes about the region on ericschewe.wordpress.com and @ericschewe.

soldier using tablet computer hands closeup pnk background pixelated neural network concept

As Militaries Adopt AI, Hype Becomes a Weapon

Few things provoke quite the same amount of anxiety as the effect AI could have on warfare.
British nationals onboard an RAF aircraft heading to Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus on April 26, 2023 in Khartoum, Sudan

In Sudan’s Civil Conflict, the Arab Cold War Widens

Sudan's decades-long civil war has finally come "home" to Khartoum.
Connie Converse

Connie Converse Wasn’t Just a Folk Singer. She Was a Scholar, Too.

The disappeared—but recently rediscovered—folk musician edited and published in academic journals under the name Elizabeth Converse.
An NSA security posters from the 1950s or 60s

Security Studies: Foundations and Key Concepts

Security studies originated in the era of Cold War geopolitics and decolonization. This annotated bibliography introduces readers to scholarship in the field.
Kazakhstan against a backdrop of bitcoin

Even in Kazakhstan, Bitcoin Can’t Escape Geopolitics

People in Kazakhstan have been protesting energy prices, and met with violence by the government. What does Bitcoin have to do with it?
A view of part of the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim on January 28, 2020 in Maale Adumim, West Bank.

Settlements and the Israel-Palestine Conflict: Background Reading

Scholarship about Israeli settlement in occupied Palestinian territories provides historical context for recent violence in the region.
President Joe Biden holds a semiconductor during his remarks before signing an Executive Order on the economy

Semiconductor Shortages End an Era of Globalization

Our security studies columnist on leanness, supply chains, and resilience in a post-pandemic world.
Man with a sealed mouth

After the Capitol Riot, Who Will Govern Speech Online?

Protecting democracy from the power of free speech seems like a paradox. However, free speech on the internet has never truly been free.
A researcher works in a lab that is developing testing for the COVID-19 coronavirus in New Jersey

With the Coronavirus, Science Confronts Geopolitics

The containment of COVID-19 raises pressing questions related to the freedom of scientific information, civil liberties, and human rights, one scholar explains.
President Barack Obama speaks as former President Bill Clinton (L) and former President George W. Bush (R) listen in the Rose Garden of the White House January 16, 2010. President Obama and the former Presidents Bush and Clinton spoke about the efforts to coordinate American Charitable aid to the earthquake victims in Haiti.

Bipartisan Forever Wars

A critical analysis of both political parties is necessary to understand how the US has created its informal empire—and to envision a different future.
Funeral of Qasem Soleimani, Tehran, Iran on 6 January 2020.

Iran in the Trump Era

President Trump's decision to order the assassination of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani has backfired in spectacular fashion. Why?
John Kenneth Galbraith

Why There Is No “Countervailing Power” Against Monopolies

The New Deal revolutions in law and policy were so successful that the economist John Kenneth Galbraith took their accomplishment for granted.
A Moog synthesizer

The Fear That Synthesizers Would Ruin Music

A German musicologist complained in 1954 that they reminded him of "barking hell-hounds."
Mohamed Morsi in 2013

Why Did Ousted Egyptian President Morsi Lose Power?

Mohamed Morsi was elected president in 2012, in Egypt's first free elections. His death has put his brief presidency back in the spotlight.
A rig in the ocean with smoke and fire protruding from top

How Natural Gas Helped Make our Industrial World

Gas was in fact one of the first readily available fuels, and shaped spaces and politics in Regency-era London.
Miles Davis

Why Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue” Is So Beloved

A music scholar suggests that Miles Davis combined the blues with the musical avant garde in a manner reflecting the integrationist spirit of the era.
Omar al-Bashir

Sudan’s Revolution and the Geopolitics of Human Rights

Sudan's former president Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and genocide. Why isn't he on trial?
An illustration of hands around a ballot box

Enfranchisement Is the Only Route to Security

In our final security studies column, our columnist posits that security as a permanent mode of government is actually making Americans less secure.
Border between Mexico and US reaching into the pacific ocean

Border Walls are Symbols of Failure

From feudal fortresses to contemporary border barriers, walls have always offered more symbolic value than real protection.
From an advertisement for a model kit tie in for the film The Silent Star, also released as First Spaceship on Venus

Socialist Sci-Fi Reimagined the Future

The 1960 East German film The Silent Star provided a significant cautionary tale for the Cold War era.
An illustration of a TSA security checkpoint

Why Can’t the TSA Just Go on Strike?

The post-9/11 expansion of federal powers over transportation security was also an extension of power over the security workforce.
Security camera

The World’s New Private Security Forces

The global private market for security has brought with it the need for hiring, measuring, and monitoring security workers in unprecedented ways.
Kodak Brownie Starlet, 1957

How the Brownie Camera Made Everyone a Photographer

Eastman Kodak used folklore to sell a modern technology, and ended up creating new communities and forms of expressions along the way.
The Knightscope K5 Security Robot

Do Security Robots Signal the Death of Public Space?

A security robot targets the homeless, raising questions about whether private companies can expand their security detail to public spaces like sidewalks.