Renee Parsons

As long overdue negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) begin in early July under UN auspices, central to that discussion, by virtue of its international supremacy, will be the US export of arms that has facilitated the extensive sale of weapons around the planet. With only...

As President Obama has committed to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014, the recently signed Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) with Afghan President Hamid Karzai will implement an 'enduring' strategic partnership that extends a US presence in that country until 2024. A premise for the SPA...

For the first time in more than a decade, representatives from NATO's 28 member nations will meet in Chicago on May 21 for a two day conference.

With the European continent devastated at the end of WWII and an ominous Russian presence in eastern Europe, the emergence...

While the 'misconduct' of Secret Service agents with prostitutes in Colombia is a significant, if titillating scandal, most media reports have missed the tectonic political shift that surfaced at the recent Summit of the Americas meeting.

The Summit, an offshoot of the Organization of American States...

In an era when Occupy Wall Street protestors are beaten and arrested like hardened criminals, more than 40 years ago in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, there was another organized protest movement that captured the nation's attention as it spread from New Hampshire's Clamshell Alliance to the Abalone Alliance...

Despite an idealistic vision of the country's devotion to the Constitution and its Bill of Rights amendments, it may come as a shock to any American who has not been paying attention that the US government has been conducting illegal unconstitutional surveillance on its citizens for much of the last...

Soon after President Obama's speech before AIPAC's annual convention, the potential attack on Iran, which just a few weeks earlier had seemed so imminent, faded quietly into the background. Gone from the headlines were the daily threats of military options 'on the table' and bellicose rhetoric that did little to...

As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stepped off the plane in Afghanistan recently, he accurately summed up the evils of war. Arriving to calm Afghani reaction to the massacre of sixteen civilians in their homes by a U.S. soldier, Panetta said that "war is hell." The Secretary went on...

As if a decade of million dollar fines for their role in the collapse of Enron, World Com, the UK's Financial Services Authority, mortgage overcharges on active military personnel, misleading state and municipal governments with faulty...

After months of Republican presidential candidates embarrassing themselves and the party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt with religious zealotry dominating the primary season, the relentless assault on a woman's health care choices can be expected to continue as it distracts American voters from an authentic debate on other important...

In recent weeks, President Obama has wisely cooled his previously red-hot rhetoric in preparation for a US attack on Iran. Perhaps the reality of blow back on the US from another pre-emptive military attack on a mostly defenseless Mideast country gave the administration good reason to pause. Or perhaps it...

As the U.S. tightens its three decades of sanctions now joined by Britain, that action must evoke bitter memories of an earlier time and place in Iran.

In a classic example of history repeating itself, today's 'tough' sanctions by western powers to deny its oil access to international markets,...

It may appear to the unobservant that an attack on Iran has faded somewhat into the background but the level of back-and-forth threats, PR maneuvering and back-channel messaging continues to intensify on a fast and furious track with fears of a repeat of 2003 mistakes as the U.S. stumbles into...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently explained that, "I'm in this race because I care about Americans," and then went on to clarify that, "I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I'll fix it." If Mitt had been...

As the 2012 presidential election campaign kicks into high gear with a slate of mediocre candidates, it is ironic that 200 years after a population of 3 million produced a collection of Founding Fathers (including at least two polymaths; Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson) with natural leadership abilities to create...

As U.S. rhetoric intensifies with the prediction that Israel will attack Iran sooner rather than later, the president has an opportunity to stop war with an ace in the cards he has yet to play.

In a pre-Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer, the president said that...

The Obama Administration has been planning to send a supply of spare parts and maintenance equipment to Bahrain without triggering requirements of the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (AECA), asserting that "none can be used against protesters." In stating that the Bahrain sale does not meet the...

On Sunday night's 60 Minutes program, Scott Pelley opened an interview with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta with the question, "How many countries are we currently engaged in a shooting war?" Surprised by the question, Panetta, who laughed heartily as if Pelley had just told him a really humorous...

As an attack on Iran remains temporarily on the backburner and Syria, home to US-identified terrorist group Hamas, moves up the queue as the next target for military intervention, both are part of a larger strategy proposed to newly-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996.

The "Clean Break:...

As Bill McKibben and his environmental supporters bask in a well-deserved satisfaction of the now-infamous Keystone XL pipeline denial, a close reading of the president's statement indicates reason for concern.

In what would have otherwise been another slam-dunk for the petroleum industry, McKibben et al. can take credit for...