https://znetwork.org/author/binoykampmark/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:02:37 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/binoykampmark/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-minilateralist-incentive-a-climate-change-conference-in-colombia/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-minilateralist-incentive-a-climate-change-conference-in-colombia/#respond Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:02:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1297451 Not much good comes from war.  Qualifying exceptions, however, can be found. The United Nations, tarnished, libelled and mocked for being simultaneously ineffectual and intrusive, was the mediating entity for international relations that grew from the calamities of the Second World War.  Without that somewhat frail body, it is hard to imagine how the patchwork of human [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-minilateralist-incentive-a-climate-change-conference-in-colombia/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/lunar-exploitation-and-colonial-escapism-the-artemis-ii-mission/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/lunar-exploitation-and-colonial-escapism-the-artemis-ii-mission/#respond Fri, 24 Apr 2026 15:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1297305 The Earth is in a fine mess, but human beings sealed in laboratories full of energy and vigour, attached to screens, and running tests about conditions in space, have another reason to cheer.  Between April 1 and April 11, the Artemis II undertook a flyby of the Moon and returned safely.  News bulletins, life stream feeds and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/lunar-exploitation-and-colonial-escapism-the-artemis-ii-mission/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-hegseth-and-the-colonial-language-of-war-crimes/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-hegseth-and-the-colonial-language-of-war-crimes/#respond Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:43:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296788 He’s out of ideas, a mind running on empty.  Increasingly, he is also short of reason, zapped by geopolitical addling and meddling.  Now that US President Donald J. Trump has reached an uneasy understanding with Teheran that a two-week ceasefire should apply to the warring parties (Israel, as usual, has its own elastic interpretation as it continues [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-hegseth-and-the-colonial-language-of-war-crimes/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bad-beginnings-the-end-of-new-start/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bad-beginnings-the-end-of-new-start/#respond Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294654 How awful could it get?  The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expired on February 5, terminating an era of arms control and imposed limits on lunatically contrived nuclear weapons programs of the United States and Russia.  The New START Treaty entered into force on February 5, 2011 and initially imposed a timeline of seven years for [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bad-beginnings-the-end-of-new-start/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-colby-review-aukus-and-lopsided-commitments/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-colby-review-aukus-and-lopsided-commitments/#respond Wed, 10 Dec 2025 18:25:02 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292208 In one of his many cutting observations about the fallibility of politicians, H. L. Mencken had this to say about the practical sort: “It is his business to convince the mob (a) that it is confronted by some grave danger, some dreadful menace to its peace and security, and (b) that he can save it.”  Regarding [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-colby-review-aukus-and-lopsided-commitments/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-ceasefire-in-name-only-gazas-prolonged-purgatory/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-ceasefire-in-name-only-gazas-prolonged-purgatory/#respond Tue, 02 Dec 2025 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291877 A ceasefire can be a strange thing.  The assumption, generally speaking, is that the parties to it restrain themselves for a period of time, ordering their forces and disciplining their charges from straying.  But straying happens, transgressions inevitable.  Some are genuine enough: silly misunderstandings, hot headed confusion, a fear that the other side has broken [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-ceasefire-in-name-only-gazas-prolonged-purgatory/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestinian-subordination-donald-trumps-gaza-peace-plan/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestinian-subordination-donald-trumps-gaza-peace-plan/#respond Thu, 02 Oct 2025 15:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1289438 He had moments of discomfort and embarrassment – pressed into calling the Qatari Prime Minister by his host to apologise for striking Doha and made to pay lip service to the prospect of a Palestinian state – but Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu had many reasons to be pleased. On September 29, President Donald Trump advanced a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestinian-subordination-donald-trumps-gaza-peace-plan/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gunfire-communication-with-zombie-hordes-the-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-and-the-idf/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gunfire-communication-with-zombie-hordes-the-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-and-the-idf/#respond Wed, 09 Jul 2025 18:07:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285979 It’s made to order.  First, eliminate the aid system after creating circumstances of enormous suffering.  Then, kill, starve, vanquish and displace those in need of that aid.  Finally: give the pretence of humanity by ensuring some aid to those whose suffering you created in the first place.  As things stand, the system of aid distribution [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gunfire-communication-with-zombie-hordes-the-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-and-the-idf/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/more-transparency-on-us-forces-in-australia/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/more-transparency-on-us-forces-in-australia/#respond Thu, 26 Jun 2025 15:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285503 It was a blast to a past wiped out by amnesia, social media and mental decrepitude.  Andrew Hastie, Australia’s opposition minister for home affairs, had been moved by an idea: greater transparency was needed regarding the US military buildup in Australia.  It was an inspiration overdue by some decades, but it was worthwhile in its [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/more-transparency-on-us-forces-in-australia/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/off-to-war-we-go-starmers-strategic-defence-review/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/off-to-war-we-go-starmers-strategic-defence-review/#respond Fri, 06 Jun 2025 15:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284663 Unpopular governments always retreat to grounds of lazy convenience.  Instead of engaging in exercises of courage, they take refuge in obvious distractions.  And there is no more obvious distraction than preparing for war against a phantom enemy. That is exactly where the government of Sir Keir Starmer finds itself.  Despite a mammoth majority and a dramatically diminished Tory [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/off-to-war-we-go-starmers-strategic-defence-review/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/secrecy-and-virtue-signalling-another-view-of-signalgate/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/secrecy-and-virtue-signalling-another-view-of-signalgate/#respond Wed, 02 Apr 2025 18:20:50 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281902 There has been a fascinating, near unanimous condemnation among the cognoscenti about the seemingly careless addition of Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic to the chat chain of Signal by US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz.  Condemnation of the error spans the spectrum from clownish to dangerous.  There has been virtually nothing on the importance of such leaks of national security information [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/secrecy-and-virtue-signalling-another-view-of-signalgate/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/far-from-benign-the-us-aid-industrial-complex/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/far-from-benign-the-us-aid-industrial-complex/#respond Sat, 15 Feb 2025 16:34:44 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1279803 The US aid program began in earnest in the early stages of the Cold War, with an intention to beat off the contenders from the Soviet bloc in the postcolonial world.  President Harry S. Truman proposed, in his 1949 inaugural address, “a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/far-from-benign-the-us-aid-industrial-complex/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/situation-critical-unrwa-and-its-continued-operations/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/situation-critical-unrwa-and-its-continued-operations/#respond Tue, 21 Jan 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1278718 In April last year, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the United Nations Security Council that “an insidious campaign to end UNRWA’s operations is under way, with serious implications for peace and security”.  Repeatedly, requests by the relief and works agency responsible for providing welfare and aid to Palestinians to continue its work, notably in northern Gaza, had been [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/situation-critical-unrwa-and-its-continued-operations/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/join-the-army-travel-to-exotic-distant-lands-and-radicalize/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/join-the-army-travel-to-exotic-distant-lands-and-radicalize/#respond Thu, 09 Jan 2025 16:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1278184 It has been popular to see political and religious radicalisation as something oddly separable from institutions of state. State institutions are meant to cope and cure the condition, not foster it.  Like some errant form, it takes place because of popular trends, messages floating in the detritus of the internet and the disrupting buzz and slurry of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/join-the-army-travel-to-exotic-distant-lands-and-radicalize/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/catching-pegasus-mercenary-spyware-and-the-liability-of-the-nso-group/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/catching-pegasus-mercenary-spyware-and-the-liability-of-the-nso-group/#respond Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:14:35 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1277572 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/catching-pegasus-mercenary-spyware-and-the-liability-of-the-nso-group/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/time-for-joe-biden-to-pardon-julian-assange/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/time-for-joe-biden-to-pardon-julian-assange/#respond Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1277313 Since making what was likely a life-saving plea deal to spare himself from the barbarities of the United States prison system, Julian Assange and his campaign are now focusing on the next step. Having been directly targeted by the speech-stomping apparatus, known as the US Espionage Act, and convicted under it, the US government made [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/time-for-joe-biden-to-pardon-julian-assange/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sectarian-risk-turkiyes-syrian-mission/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sectarian-risk-turkiyes-syrian-mission/#respond Mon, 09 Dec 2024 18:34:18 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1276865 Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan must be delighted about what is unfolding in Syria, though it is a feeling bound to be tempered by swiftly changing circumstances.  Iran’s Shia proxies have been weakened by relentless Israeli targeting and bombing.  Russia’s eyes and resources are turned towards war in Ukraine.  With reports that Syrian rebel groups are [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sectarian-risk-turkiyes-syrian-mission/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-syrian-civil-war-new-phases-old-lies/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-syrian-civil-war-new-phases-old-lies/#respond Thu, 05 Dec 2024 16:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1276673 A new bloody phase has opened up in Syria, as if it was ever possible to contemplate another one in that tormented land. Silly terms such as “moderate” are being paired with “rebels”, a coupling that can also draw scorn. What counts as news reporting on the subject in the Western press stable adopts a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-syrian-civil-war-new-phases-old-lies/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/south-africas-memorial-to-the-icj-more-evidence-on-israels-genocide/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/south-africas-memorial-to-the-icj-more-evidence-on-israels-genocide/#respond Mon, 04 Nov 2024 18:15:44 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1274795 The timing, as with so much in the ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon, was most appropriate. The Israeli Knesset had signalled its intent on crippling and banishing the sole agency of humanitarian worth for Palestinian welfare by passing laws criminalising its operations by 92 to 10 on October 28. The attack on UNRWA also [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/south-africas-memorial-to-the-icj-more-evidence-on-israels-genocide/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/raw-deals-the-continued-shafting-of-the-chagossians/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/raw-deals-the-continued-shafting-of-the-chagossians/#respond Thu, 17 Oct 2024 15:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1273838 The British government will return sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, whose residents were brutally displaced between 1965‒73, to Mauritius. In an October 3 joint statement between London and Port Louis, all but one of the Chagos Islands will be relinquished by Britain to Mauritian control. “Following two years of negotiation, this is a seminal moment [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/raw-deals-the-continued-shafting-of-the-chagossians/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-war-on-the-united-nations/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-war-on-the-united-nations/#respond Thu, 17 Oct 2024 15:46:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1273883 The United Nations is an easy body to hate.  At times, it seems to be effusion without substance, body with no backbone.  It was conceived in a fit of post-war idealism, when egos were humbled and hatred briefly stemmed.  Over the ruins of the Second World War, the builders were favored over the destroyers and mischief makers – [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-war-on-the-united-nations/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unrealisable-justice-julian-assange-in-strasbourg/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unrealisable-justice-julian-assange-in-strasbourg/#respond Fri, 04 Oct 2024 15:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1273196 It was good to hear that voice again. A voice of provoking interest that pitter patters, feline across a parquet, followed by the usual devastating conclusion. Julian Assange’s last public address was made in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. There, he was a guest vulnerable to the capricious wishes of changing governments. At Belmarsh Prison [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unrealisable-justice-julian-assange-in-strasbourg/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-eu-elections-the-march-of-the-right/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-eu-elections-the-march-of-the-right/#respond Fri, 14 Jun 2024 17:03:02 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1267822 The EU elections over June 6 to June 9 have presented a chaotically merry picture, certainly for those on the right of politics.  Not that the right in question is reliably homogeneous in any sense, nor hoping for a single theme of triumph.  A closer look at the gains made by the conservative side of politics, along [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-eu-elections-the-march-of-the-right/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-brutal-punishment-the-sentencing-of-david-mcbride/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-brutal-punishment-the-sentencing-of-david-mcbride/#respond Thu, 23 May 2024 15:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1266818 David McBride, the man who revealed that Australia’s special forces in Afghanistan had committed atrocities and faced a compromised chain of command, was condemned on May 14 to a prison term of five years and eight months. Without McBride’s feats, there would have been no Afghan Files published by the ABC. The Brereton Inquiry, established to investigate alleged [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-brutal-punishment-the-sentencing-of-david-mcbride/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-anti-unrwa-campaign-falls-flat/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-anti-unrwa-campaign-falls-flat/#respond Tue, 30 Apr 2024 16:15:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1265750 The Israeli authorities, in their campaign of remorseless killing, doctoring and adjusting the numbers of the Palestinian populace for whatever future awaits, have been found wanting on accusations that Hamas terrorists packed, stacked and filled UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). Not that this, in of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-anti-unrwa-campaign-falls-flat/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/killing-humanitarians-israels-war-on-aid-workers-in-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/killing-humanitarians-israels-war-on-aid-workers-in-gaza/#respond Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264573 Haaretz reported on April 2 that three missiles had been fired in rapid succession at the convoy by a Hermes 450 UAV on direction of a unit guarding the aid transport route. The troops in question claimed to have spotted what they thought was an armed figure riding a truck that had entered one of the aid [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/killing-humanitarians-israels-war-on-aid-workers-in-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/julian-assange-and-the-plea-nibble/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/julian-assange-and-the-plea-nibble/#respond Sat, 23 Mar 2024 16:42:48 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264063 Be wary of what Washington offers in negotiations at the best of times.  The empire gives and takes when it can; the hegemon proffers and in equal measure and withdraws offers it deems fit.  This is all well known to the legal team of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, who, the Wall Street Journal “exclusively” reveals, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/julian-assange-and-the-plea-nibble/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-flurry-us-congress-and-australian-mps-seek-julian-assanges-release/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-flurry-us-congress-and-australian-mps-seek-julian-assanges-release/#respond Mon, 22 Jan 2024 17:15:16 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1261085 Julian Assange, publisher of WikiLeaks, will be going into battle yet again, with the British justice system on February 20. Assange’s team will present arguments to the British High Court that his extradition to the United States to face 18 charges under the Espionage Act 1917 would violate various precepts of justice. His team hope to reverse [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-flurry-us-congress-and-australian-mps-seek-julian-assanges-release/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-argument-at-the-hague-we-are-incapable-of-genocide/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-argument-at-the-hague-we-are-incapable-of-genocide/#respond Wed, 17 Jan 2024 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1260876 Israel’s relationship with the United Nations, international institutions and international law has at times bristled with suspicion and blatant hostility.  In a famous cabinet meeting in 1955, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion famously knocked back the suggestion that the United Nations 1947 plan for partitioning Palestine had been instrumental in creating the State of Israel.  “No, no, no!” [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-argument-at-the-hague-we-are-incapable-of-genocide/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blocking-israels-supply-chain/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blocking-israels-supply-chain/#respond Wed, 03 Jan 2024 17:54:03 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1260156 If demography is destiny, as Auguste Comte tells us, then economics must be current, pinching reality.  The Israel-Gaza conflict is invigorating a global protest movement against the state of Israel which is seeing various manifestations.  From an economic standpoint, Israel can be seen as vulnerable in terms of global supply lines, potentially at the mercy of sanctions [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blocking-israels-supply-chain/feed/ 0