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Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has been denounced as a war criminal and celebrated as one of the most pragmatic statesmen of the 20th century. But historian Greg Grandin argues that something fundamental has been missed in the assessments of the now 93-year-old Kissinger. Grandin reflects on the philosophical underpinnings of Henry Kissinger's politics.

Many people fleeing the violence in Syria have made their way to Europe, but more than a million Syrians have entered, and still reside in, the small nation of Lebanon. Hassan Ahmad and Tori Porell recently traveled to Beirut as part of an IRAP/Berkeley Law delegation. They spoke with Syrian refugees, visited schools for Syrian children, and met with an LGBT advocacy group.

The oceans are in turmoil, but unfortunately most of it is out of sight and therefore out of mind. Environmental sociologist Stefano Longo explores the multiple threats to the oceans, from overfishing to coral reef collapse to ocean acidification. He weighs in on whether the notion of the “tragedy of the commons” is sufficient to explain the roots of the crisis. (Encore presentation.)

What role does the U.S. academic boycott of Israel play in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement? What kinds of resistance has the boycott movement encountered, and what's happened to the academic freedom and human rights of Palestinian scholars and students? Sunaina Maira helped launch the U.S. academic and cultural boycott initiative.

Akhil Gupta sees a growing tendency to view global poverty as a threat not to the acutely poor but to elites in the global North. Unchecked migration, terrorism, and disease vectors are seen as manifestations of that threat, against which elites now seek to protect themselves. This, according to Gupta, makes meaningful action to alleviate poverty less likely.