Neutrality Studies

Iran looks far harder to break than many in the West assumed. Pascal Lottaz talks with Dr. Pietro Shakarian and Eldar Mamedov about Iranian Azerbaijan, Armenia, Israel, Turkey, failed diplomacy, and the wider South Caucasus fallout from the war. Links: Eldar Mamedov at Quincy Institute: https://quincyinst.org/author/eldar-mamedov/ Eldar Mamedov on X: https://twitter.com/EldarMamedov4 Dr. Pietro A....

Not just Cuba, but the entire Caribbean region is under intense US threat from blockade, hunger, bombing, and old colonial habits dressed up as foregin policy. Today, I speak with Dr. Richard Byron-Cox, a Caribbean-born author with a PhD in public international law, about Cuba’s deep crisis, Haiti’s long suffering, and the wider struggle of small states facing raw power. The discussion moves from...

Former CIA analyst, Larry Johnson is quite sure; there is no "grand strategy" or "4D Chess" going on. The US/Israeli coalition war against Iran is just a rolling disaster (academics would call it "path dependent) in which one bad decision leads to the next and by now a ground invasion with US boots on the ground is basically inevitable because they already went through the...

This conversation is a direct challenge to the moral claims of Western philosophy in the face of Gaza. I speak with Professor Dr. Irfan Ahmad, professor of anthropology and sociology at Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul. The discussion looks at Habermas as a major German public intellectual, then moves into Western Marxism, colonial blind spots, and the way Palestine is pushed out of the moral fra...

The old Western order looks more brittle, more violent, and more desperate than at any point in recent memory. In this conversation, I speak with German author and playwright Fabian Scheidler about his book "The End of the Megamachine" and the deeper system of militarism, capital, media power, and linear force that he argues is driving ecological collapse, war, and political decay. Fabia...

So long and thanks for nothing. Despite the fanfare around a ground invasion of Iran, the troop withdrawals from the region speak a different langauge. Iran is on the verge of driving the americans out of the entire Gulf region, proofing that the US/Israeli War of Aggression against Iran is built on bad judgment and false confidence. I speak again with Rainer Rupp, a former German intelligence off...

What if the world at the moment seems insane because the people running its conflicts are in fact clinically psychotic? This is what I discuss today with the retired psychiatrist Dr. Niall MacLaren. We talk about his biocognitive model and how a craving for dominance dictates the actions of modern empires. His book, Narcisso-Fascism, explains why nations act like playground bullies and why we keep...

Crime in the united states is not a bug, it’s a feature. That explains actually a lot also about its illegal foreign policies. The US as a political entity is deeply intertwined with crime syndicates and explicitly illegal acts under international and local law. Epstein was not at all an exception. These shady dealers are part and parcel of how US politics works. Luckily, there are great academics...

The Iran War is going horribly. If Donald Trump knows this or not and which type of information he is being fed we don't know. But the idea of sending ground troops to occupy islands in front of Iran is either utter disregard for reality or a desperate move to somehow turn the tide of the war around. Here to discuss this is Prof. Steven Starr, an Emeritus Professor of the University of Missour...

Donald Trump seems to think that "signalling deescalation" by announcing that hits on Iranian gas facilities have been further suspended until April 6 would lull Iran into believing they are safe for now. But we know that the US is finishing its troop amassment in the region. The logical conclusion: the US is planning another sneak attack over a weekend with the hope that once markets ar...

The scale of the strategic mistake the US made in attacking Iran is slowly becoming apparent, and it is leading to ever more desperate moves by the US-Israeli axis. Dr. Arta Moeini, who is intimately familiar with both the Iranian and US political systems, explains the extent of these miscalculations and their impact on the regional balance of power, while Lasha Kasradze examines the facts on the...

Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University, updates us on the war from Teheran: He predicts that the Americans are actually going to do boots on the ground since they are that desperate and it will lead to mass-slaughter of the troops trying. The resolve of Iran seems unbroken and the capability to strike invading troops not just from the shore lines but from any place in Iran is a thre...

The Political West is risking it all. Under US leadership, the old colonial empires that never got over their loss of power are about to launch the largest global war since the 1940s. And for what? With Lasha Kasradze from Georgia and Arthur Khachikian from Armenia, I trace the risks, the fear, and the brutal logic of the failing western empire. Links: Neutrality Studies substack: https://pascallo...

The Iran War is a multi-decade history of step-by-step escalation to get to total war and the peak of the strategy is around the corner. Today I'm speak with Patrick Henningsen, American journalist, geopolitical analyst, and founder of 21st Century Wire. Links: Patrick Henningsen on 21st Century Wire: https://21stcenturywire.com Patrick Henningsen on Substack: https://patrickhenningsen.substac...

The Iran War is not about what you see. But about what you can't consume. Join me for a talk with professor Warwick Powell on his newest book about the Thermodynamic economy. Warwick's book: https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Dr-Warwick-Powell/dp/9699293209 Support us on substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com Shop and Donations: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourthwall.com

The US has turned its "protection promise" into a war trap. Not only is Washington deliberately throwing its Gulf allies under the bus to absorb Iran's firepower, but it is also intentionally wrecking their oil and gas industries. The US benefits hugely, as it remains one of the sole open producers and suppliers of oil and gas. In combination with the recent regime change operation i...

The illegal attack on Iran—as many illegal wars before—is not a bug but a system feature. One, however, that is doomed to self-destruct its host. It is the inevitable outcome of the rent-seeking and society corrupting logic of the capitalist system the West is built around. The expansionary and often genocidal logic embedded in the core of the US empire drives entire classes within the West toward...

The war is getting worse with the Israeli regime striking at nuclear power facilities in Iran. At the same time, Iran's parliamentary speaker announces 'eye for an eye' doctrine in the war. Clearly, the US/Israeli tag-team is has not given up on the dream of subduing Iran with a bombing campaign alone. Yet, as Larry Johnson points out, that didn't work even in the Second World War...

The strategic discipline of Iran's military and governance structure is defeating the US/Israeli mass-bombing campaign. Iran establishes that no level of decapitation strikes can in fact degrade its ability to strike against targets in the region. With every passing day, the air-war of attrition tilts in favour of Tehran—albeit at a terrible human cost due to the intentional targeting of civil...

Update March 19 with Professor Seyed M. Marandi from Tehran: As the war drags on and the US/Israelis keep killing Iranian leaders and civilians, Iran's military strategy is not changing and actually producing first results. Donald Trump just put out a tweet that his coalition will not attack Iranian oil fields anymore and that they want Iran to do the same. The symmetrical strikes are driving...

The War against Iran is getting worse and worse for the United States. Its navy can't even get close to the "theater" of war and the inadequacy of its naval assets is now out in the open. My guest today, UK navy officer (Commodore) Steve Jermy explains the various parts of the US maritime quagmire. Support us on Substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com Shop and Donations: https://...

The political West has killed countless millions over the decades, yet pretends to be a force for good. What will happen once it's forced to face its own inhumanity? Today, I discuss the many narrative interpretations of our common global reality with Prof. Manuel Ramos. Manuel's Article on Bucha: https://manueljoaoramos.substack.com/p/the-bucha-affair-marchapril-2022 Manuel on Substack: h...

China's silence in the first weeks on Iran was not a mistake. Beijing is highly strategic in its approach to the latest US war of aggression, and it's quite surprising what's behind the reasoning. Today I'm talking again to Mr. Sheng Zhang, a Chinese West-Asia expert who explains the driving rationale behind China's approach to the Iran War. Support us on substack: https://pasc...

The US War of Aggression against Iran is escalating into a scenario worse then Vietnam... within 3 weeks! The level of damage done to US facilities in the region is unprecedented and Iran will never allow those assets back. What's next for an empire drunk on imagenary military power? I'm speaking to Stas Krapivnik for an update on the war. Support us on Substack: https://pascallottaz.subst...

For decades Israel pretended to be an innocent country established after the horrors of the holocaust for the protection of the Jews. Turns out, it was all a lie. The zionist project is much older and has little to do with the wishes of the Jews when it was established. Inherently a christian doctrine, Zionism was always a plan to resettle the jews of Europe even against their will and to dominate...