Michael Fox, a multimedia journalist based in Latin America with two decades of on-the-ground experience, dissects US interventions across the hemisphere—from the Monroe Doctrine’s enduring legacy and Trump’s “Dunro Doctrine” to the January 3rd invasion of Venezuela, capture of Nicolás Maduro, and parallels with the 1989 Panama operation under the guise of drug wars masking oil grabs and geopolitical plays against Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico. As host and producer of podcasts like Brazil on Fire, Stories of Resistance, and season two of Under the Shadow, Fox exposes the weaponization of AI-generated misinformation—fake crowds cheering US troops, manipulated images of Maduro’s detention—and hybrid warfare tactics that erode sovereignty while regional leaders like Gustavo Petro invoke the jaguar awakening resistance amid rightward governmental shifts in Chile, Argentina, and Honduras. Critiquing the true costs of bombings in Caracas—100 dead, millions traumatized—he contrasts mainstream narratives of “clean” tech strikes with harrowing victim testimonies from affected neighborhoods, revealing how US policies fuel migration yet demonize migrants as a boogeyman. Fox draws direct lineages to historical regime changes, puppet installations, and resource colonialism, emphasizing grassroots protests chanting “Down with the Monroe Doctrine” and Caribbean nations’ vocal opposition to boat strikes in their waters. His reporting for NPR, The Intercept, and The Nation prioritizes ground truth over viral fakes, unpacking the human toll of empire’s revival in a multipolar world

Katherine Sikkink, international relations scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School and leading constructivist theorist, argues that human rights are a social construction—not in the sense that violations are unreal, but that the legal frameworks protecting people from them were built through sustained struggle. Legally enforceable international human rights protections only came into existence with the covenants on civil, political, economic and social rights in 1976, and they continue to require active defence. On transitional justice, Sikkink draws on her landmark work The Justice Cascade (2011) and her ongoing research through the Transitional Justice Evaluation Team. Her comparative data across countries shows that nations which implement transitional justice—through prosecutions, truth commissions and reparations—experience fewer future human rights violations and a lower recurrence of war. Prosecutions that reach senior officials and heads of state produce the largest measurable impact. Sikkink traces the origins of transitional justice to Greece and Portugal after their dictatorships, followed by Argentina’s landmark 1985 junta trials. She highlights the creative legal strategies activists have used to overcome obstacles such as amnesty laws and statutes of limitations, including leveraging international treaty obligations that prohibit statutes of limitations for crimes against humanity. On the current era, Sikkink warns that the Trump administration’s reliance on what she calls “weaponised interdependence”—using hard economic and political power to coerce other states—may yield short-term compliance but it fundamentally erodes the trust and reputation that sustain long-term international relations. She also cautions that US democracy is under genuine threat, stressing that the upcoming midterm elections represent the single most important avenue for citizens to push back, urging American citizens abroad.

Kajsa Ekis Ekman, a Swedish author, literaty critic, and journalist, addresses the “two-front war” against women, marked by the conservative right’s abortion rights backlash and the progressive left’s problematic views on prostitution and gender identity. She critiques neoliberal and far-left perspectives on sex work, advocating for the term “prostitution” to highlight the dangers and exploitation within the industry, especially on platforms like OnlyFans. Kajsa also discusses the global exploitation of surrogacy and calls for its ban due to the suffering of women and commodification of babies. Furthermore, she criticizes the exploitation of empathy for women to justify military interventions and the selective empathy displayed by some feminists towards certain victims while ignoring others. Kajsa defends feminism as a relevant force against violence and inequality, emphasizing the importance of feminists focusing on the dialectical conflict between men and women and advocating for ad hoc movements and alliances to address specific issues like prostitution and surrogacy. She touches on the gendered fear-mongering used to garner support for geopolitical conflicts, the instrumentalization of women’s rights for Western agendas, and the need for feminists to hold their line and avoid conflating issues. She also reflects on the state of contemporary society, criticizing the pursuit of money and fame at the expense of values and equality, drawing parallels with the Epstein scandal and the P. Diddy documentary. Finally, Kajsa emphasizes the need for analytical tools that fit the task at hand, arguing that feminism is not a geopolitical tool and should not be used to justify military interventions or ignore the complexities of international relations.