5 . 25 . 21
When liberalism was young, it had great faith in markets specifically, the ability of markets to ease social conflict. The theory had a French name, the
doux commerce thesis, and it went like this. Trade would encourage people to set aside tribal attachments and disagreements on big questions so that they could make money. Why argue about religion and politics when doing so could get in the way of business? As people became wealthier, the theory maintained, they would care less about divisive identities and issues; personal relations would thus become more tranquil and productive. This virtuous cycle would work both domestically and globally, creating greater peace and prosperity both within and among nations.
5 . 10 . 21
On April 24, in the annual White House statement commemorating the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenian Christians in Ottoman Turkey during World War I, President Joe Biden used the word that other presidents have long avoided: “genocide.” Among historians, the word is not controversial. The Ottoman government s ethnic cleansing campaign against Armenians from 1915–23 has long been seen as the prototypical genocide an attempt “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” Raphael Lemkin, the lawyer who drafted that definition of genocide for an international treaty on the subject, had the Armenian Genocide specifically in mind.
12 . 11 . 20
After 45 days of fierce fighting, the Second Karabakh War ended last month with a Russian-brokered ceasefire and an Armenian defeat. As I wrote in October, this war between Armenia and Azerbaijan was a conflict over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenians call by its historical name, Artsakh. It is populated by Christian Armenians but located within Azerbaijan, which is 97 percent Muslim. Karabakh declared independence from Azerbaijan in the 1990s and Armenians controlled the region, along with seven surrounding regions within Azerbaijan that Armenians seized as bargaining chips, for thirty years. Sporadic negotiations since the 1990s failed to resolve the conflict, and in September, Azerbaijan launched a military campaign to regain control.