Interview: Jimmy Carter’s Legacy with Stephen Zunes

WORT-FM January 9, 2025 (50 mins.): Stephen Zunes joins host Allen Ruff to critically assess the legacy of a former president as most media tend to overlook the low points of Carter’s time in office. Carter inherited the presidency at the height of US imperialism with limited foreign-policy experience, propping up dictatorships, including his role in East Timor, Morocco, and Turkey. Ruff and Zunes also appraise his role for nuclear non-proliferation, the Carter Doctrine, the Camp David Accords of 1978, Carter’s opposition to Palestinian statehood, and after he left office, his positive contributions to what Zunes calls a “moral foreign policy” by speaking out against human rights violations. Read Stephen Zunes’s most recent article about Carter’s relationship to Israel in the Progressive.

As President, Jimmy Carter Was Not a “Peacemaker”

In These Times, January 10, 2025

The recent passing of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has led to some well-deserved praise of his legacy, particularly in regard to his exemplary service as a peacemaker and humanitarian since leaving the White House in 1981. During his post-presidency, he was also subjected to heavy criticism for his willingness to speak out against military intervention and the support for repressive governments offered by successive administrations of both parties. In particular, his willingness to challenge the ongoing Israeli occupation and colonization of occupied Palestinian territories was met with vehement condemnation, even from fellow Democrats. What many people forget, however, is that Carter’s administration failed to consistently uphold the principles for which Carter so admirably defended as an ex-president: peace, international law and human rights.

Jimmy Carter Warned Us About Israeli Apartheid

The Progressive January 2, 2025: The late President Jimmy Carter… was met with intense criticism for insisting that standards of peace, human rights, and international law should apply not just to countries hostile to U.S. interests, but to U.S. allies like Israel as well. Particularly controversial was Carter’s 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, a New York Times bestseller, in which he argued against Israel’s ongoing occupation of the West Bank, the Palestinian territory seized during the 1967 war the international community had hoped would form the basis for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Carter was a liberal Christian Zionist… [source]

UN: Charter Reform & Threat If Trump’s Elected

Two articles quoting Dr. Zunes:
* On the threat to the United Nations system if Trump is elected.
Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and Director of International Studies at the University of San Francisco, who has written extensively on the politics of the United Nations, told IPS: “Yes, this would indeed be disastrous and UN funding for these agencies and affiliated institutions would indeed be cut”. It should be noted, however, that Biden has already eliminated U.S. funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and has threatened to eliminate funding to any organization that has Palestine as a full member. Though Harris has generally been less hostile to international legal norms than Biden, I have seen no indication that Harris would reverse these policies, said Zunes. “Given Trump’s disrespect for domestic laws and institutions, it’s not surprising he would have a similar contempt for international laws and institutions,” he declared.

* On UN Charter reform: “Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco, told IPS proposals for Security Council reform generally go nowhere due to opposition from the veto-wielding permanent members who do not want to lose their advantages under the current archaic system. However, this proposal, or some variation of it, might have a chance of success in light of the fact that it is being pushed by the United States, which has historically been an opponent of such reforms, he pointed out. Furthermore, given that each of the P5 desire to extend their influence in Africa and among small island states, it would not reflect well on them to oppose such an effort, Zunes declared.”

Radio & Podcast: 4 Interviews

Video: 10 Interviews Aug.-Oct. 2024

Don’t Believe the Rampant Disinformation over Israel’s Escalation in Lebanon

Truthout August 2, 2024: The US is misrepresenting the strike on Majdal Shams and even the geography and political status of where it took place. Israel has been trading strikes with Hezbollah, the Lebanese political party and armed group, ever since October. So far, the strikes have killed at least 542 people in Lebanon, including 114 civilians and at least 22 soldiers and 25 civilians in northern Israel and Israeli-occupied territory…