Chomsky Perspectives – serie

Admired by some, condemned by others, and feared by all—the military might of the West is undeniably colossal. In On Western Terrorism, world-renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky discusses Western power and propaganda with filmmaker and investigative journalist Andre Vltchek. It offers the perfect introduction to Chomsky’s significant political thought and provides an accessible approach for anyone who wishes to better understand the West’s fraught role in the world. Beginning with stories of the New York newsstand where Chomsky started his political education as a teenager, the discussion broadens out to encompass colonialism, imperial control, propaganda, the Arab Spring, and drone warfare. Chomsky and Vltchek offer a powerful critique of the legacy of colonialism, touching upon many countries including Syria, Nicaragua, Cuba, China, Chile, and Turkey. Updated with a fresh design and a new foreword by Chomsky, On Western Terrorism remains an influential and powerful critique of the West’s role in the world, inspiring all who read it to think independently and critically.

In a potent act of myth busting, Noam Chomsky turns his critical gaze upon the Kennedy Administration and draws controversial parallels between the Presidency of JFK and that of Ronald Reagan, with particular focus on the Vietnam War. For anyone persuaded that changing the world is simply a question of changing its leading figures this work will act both as a bitter pill and a powerful stimulant to action.

Chomsky ends his preface to Culture of Terrorism with the words, 'As the latest inheritors of a grim tradition, we should at least have the integrity to look in the mirror without evasion'. The tradition to which he is referring is none other than the Western imperial project and in encouraging Americans to pursue integrity, he dissects the events of just one year - 1986 - at the height of the Reagan Era and describes American involvement in acts of supreme state terror, both open and clandestine, to present a case study which has great relevance today and whose lessons must never be forgotten.

In the late 1980s, in the midst of Reagan's interventions in Central America, Chomsky travelled to Nicaragua and gave the lectures that became On Power and Ideology. The lectures provide a master class in foreign policy analysis from an intellectual at the height of his powers, covering everything from the US domestic basis of its overseas actions, to the pernicious concept of 'National Security' and its destabilising effect, to the broad framework of global imperial order which the United States seeks to maintain. A defining moment in the Cold War meets a defining moment in the career of one of its most important critics.

For decades, Noam Chomsky has been considered one of the most important critics of American's foreign policy in Central and Latin America and yet Turning the Tide is one of his only written works which makes that region its sole focus. At last back in print after almost thirty years, Turning the Tide explores such neglected but vital issues as Jimmy Carter's interventions in El Salvador, the violation of human rights in Nicaragua and Guatemala, and American involvement with death squads in many countries including Bolivia and El Salvador. For all activists and scholars whose work focuses on Central and Latin America, Turning the Tide remains essential.

With an extended new preface by the author.'One of the most important intellectuals alive' IndependentOne of Noam Chomsky's most important and renowed works, Fateful Triangle, is a devastating indictment of American and Israeli foreign policy which covers a sustained period of Middle East history from the formation of the State of Israeli to the Oslo Peace Accords. With a foreword by the late Edward Said, this powerful book belongs in the hands of anyone who wants a deep understanding of Israel and its relationship to Western power.

Exploring 'the great work of subjugation and conquest' which began with Columbus, in Year 501 Chomsky surveys the history of American imperial power in the ensuing 500 years that followed. Touching on everything from the British in India to the Americans in Beirut, Year 501 is a searing condemnation of the excesses of Western colonial and neo-colonial politics. For those seeking to understand the nature and structure of the imperial project as it reaches down to us today this work is a vital resource.

Pirates and Emperors, Old and New constitutes a collection of extended essays written between 1986 and 2001 which explore how "selected incidents of terrorism" are used as a cover for Western violence across the globe. Topics covered include the Lockerbie Bombing, the Second Palestinian Intifada and the attacks on the World Trade Centre. For those who want to understand the roots of American military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, recent interventions in Libya, and the on-going destruction of Palestine this collection remains invaluable.This edition first published 2002

The Political Economy of Human Rights is an important two volume work, co-authored with Edward Herman – also co-author of the classic Manufacturing Consent – which provides a complete dissection of American foreign policy during the 1960s and '70s, looking at the entire sweep of the Cold War during that period, including events in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Latin America. For those looking to develop a broad understanding of American foreign policy during the 20th Century this work has been a vital resource and is now available to a new generation of scholars and activists.

The second volume of The Political Economy of Human Rights remains one of the most controversial works produced by Chomsky to date. In a much discussed chapter on Cambodia, Chomsky and Herman questioned official Western narratives on the Khmer Rouge and suggested that the evidence available did not match up to the assertions being made at that time. These claims would resurface in a recent controversy with the Continental philosopher Slavoj Zizek and readers will now be able to judge for themselves the veracity of Zizek's claims. The work also contains important analysis of Western interventions across Indochina, including Vietnam and Laos, and provides a searing critique of American imperial aspirations in the region.

Rogue States is a collection of essays written by Chomsky in the late 1990s, all of which subvert the United States foreign policy discourse and the notion of the “rogue state”, turning the focus of criticism inwards and demonstrating how Western powers fail to uphold their own standards of conduct. Among the topics considered are the Balkans Crisis, the embargo against Cuba, and US intervention in Latin America, all of which provide important lessons for today from one of our most eminent and insightful teachers.

From East Timor to the Middle East, from the nature of democracy to our place in the natural world, from intellectual politics to the politics of language, Powers and Prospects is a vital compilation of Chomsky's writings on a broad array of subject material. Chomsky lifts the veil of distortions that conceals the workings of history and social policy, and reveals how the 'new' world order is little more than a remarketing of the old. No admirer of Chomsky can afford to be without this timeless selection of his thought.First published in 1996.