Ruben Andersson

Nov 10, 2024 | nytimes.com | Ruben Andersson |David A. Keen

"Give war a chance," the maverick strategist Edward Luttwak implored at the tail end of the Clinton administration. The quest for durable peace, he thought, was habitually interrupted by those liberal do-gooders who refused to let wars " burn themselves out."Spool forward some 25 years and war is being given a whole lot of chances, from Israel's onslaught on Gaza and Lebanon to weaponized famine in Sudan to the long, grinding war in Ukraine.

Feb 24, 2024 | taipeitimes.com | David A. Keen |Ruben Andersson

By David Keen and Ruben Andersson In Constantine Cavafy’s poem Waiting for the Barbarians, the much-feared barbarians never turn up. “Now, what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?” the poem asks. “Those people were a kind of solution.”People seem to have become addicted to useful “barbarians.” From terrorists and drug lords to human smugglers and even refugees, politics increasingly revolves around simplified threats and facile solutions.

Feb 15, 2024 | almendron.com | David A. Keen |Ruben Andersson

En el poema de Konstantinos Kavafis «Esperando a los bárbaros», los tan temidos bárbaros nunca llegan. «¿Qué será ahora de nosotros sin los bárbaros?», se pregunta el poema. «Eran una especie de solución». Parece que nos hemos vuelto adictos a tener «bárbaros» útiles. Terroristas, narcotraficantes, contrabandistas de personas, hasta los refugiados: la política gira cada vez más en torno de amenazas simplificadas y soluciones fáciles.

Feb 5, 2024 | theguardian.com | Ruben Andersson

Just like the war on drugs and the war on terror, efforts at stopping population movement by force often just fuel the problem. But for many claiming to confront the perceived threat, that suits all too well. By Ruben Andersson and David Keen How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

Dec 14, 2023 | theguardian.com | Ruben Andersson |David A. Keen

Look at the business of tackling the migration crisis in Europe, and you will find evidence not of some one-off failure to plan ahead, or a policy initiative gone wrong through unexpected circumstances. Rather, you face something akin to a complex crime scene where the damage, the ostensible “mistakes”, and the cover-ups have all been systematic.