War and Peace

Article

The Forgotten Epidemic

The bishops once used their influence to encourage nuclear disarmament. Can they do so again now?

By Alexander Stern

January 9, 2025

Nuclear Weapons

War and Peace

Bishops

Article

Syria’s Uncertain Future

After more than a decade of conflict, the ouster of Bashar al-Assad has thrown the future of Syria into doubt.

By Miles Doyle

December 24, 2024

Middle East

Foreign Affairs

War and Peace

Feature

A Crisis in Paradise

A photo essay documents life in Mozambique, which has been torn apart by conflict since 2017.

By Núria López Torres and Agus Morales

December 20, 2024

War and Peace

Africa

art

Article

Sacraments of War

"Christians ought to oppose idolatry of the state and the military by being an alternative to the politics of war."

By Philip G. Porter

December 11, 2024

War and Peace

U.S. Catholicism

Theology

Article

In Defense of White Flags

Just-war theory means that surrender can never be off the table—not despite the justice of one’s cause, but because of it.

By Gerald W. Schlabach

December 10, 2024

Religion

Politics

War and Peace

Article

Discommoding a Sidewalk

"For me, Holy Week 1971 was unusual. I spent it in jail. As a representative of Commonweal."

By Peter Steinfels

November 13, 2024

The Last Word

War and Peace

History

Commonweal Centennial

Article

Netanyahu’s Chilling Threat

The seeds of peace will be planted in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East when justice comes for the people of Palestine.

By Joseph Phillip Amar

October 15, 2024

Article

Chess with the Wehrmacht

They were the grandfathers that Germans my age shuddered over in dread. What had Opa done during the war?

By Rand Richards Cooper

October 15, 2024

Commonweal Centennial

History

War and Peace

Article

Toxic Relationship

Being Israel’s trusted ally does not require the United States to be Netanyahu’s protector—much less his enabler.

By Dominic Preziosi

September 20, 2024

Article

Memory & Prayer

Philip Metres’s newest collection of poetry speaks as eloquently as ever against empire—but he grounds the writing in this book in his own family’s story and history.

By Zach Czaia

September 19, 2024

Article

Before & After

Two books on 1933 help us understand history at a fateful turning point.

By Costică Brădăţan

September 18, 2024

History

War and Peace

Nonfiction

Article

‘Out of the Vortex’

David Jones’ 'In Parenthesis' is "the greatest work of modernist poetry you’ve never read."

By Jared Marcel Pollen

September 16, 2024

War and Peace

Literature

Arts

Article

To Wander or Stay Put?

"Clinging to space closes off any hope for peace, while exile exposes the Jews to the dangers of the Diaspora."

By Rabbi Philip Graubart

September 10, 2024

Middle East

Religion

War and Peace

Feature

Already Victorious

Ukrainian Olympians have endured two years of wartime hardships to prepare for the Paris games.

By Susana Girón

July 26, 2024

Ukraine

Sports

War and Peace

Article

A New Arms Race

It is time for the growing threat of nuclear war to take its rightful place at the center of our debates about foreign policy.

By Miles Doyle

July 8, 2024

War and Peace

International

Russia

Article

Illiberal Liberations

Nathan Perl-Rosenthal’s book can guide us through turbulent conversations about revolution, social change, and the founding of America.

By Regina Munch

June 11, 2024

History

Nonfiction

War and Peace

Article

Antisemitism in Paradise

In the months since October 7, antisemitism has reared its ugly head in the most idyllic places.

By Viva Hammer

June 10, 2024

Jewish-Christian Relations

War and Peace

Foreign Affairs

Article

Nonviolence Against Nazism

Contrary to the oft-hurled objection to peace movements, "But what about Hitler?,” nonviolent action was successful enough to pique imaginations even under Nazi occupation.

By Gerald W. Schlabach

June 4, 2024

Politics

War and Peace

Article

On Nuclear Disbelief

From the archives: Knowing what nuclear weapons can do, and knowing we'll probably never be rid of them, it's clear why military men tell themselves, and everybody else, the bombs will never be used.

By Thomas Powers

May 28, 2024

War and Peace

From the Archives

Domestic Affairs

Article

Whitewashing War Crimes

A new report uses absurd reasoning to let Israel and the United States off the hook for violations of international humanitarian law.

By Alexander Stern

May 21, 2024

War and Peace

Foreign Affairs

Article

Rejoice in Revolution

The campus movement is about making neighbors with those in Gaza.

By Ariana Orozco

May 10, 2024

Middle East

War and Peace

Politics

Feature

Christianity in the Middle East

Christians in the Middle East see themselves not just as abandoned, but as betrayed. How did we get here?

By Joseph Phillip Amar

April 1, 2024

Middle East

History

Muslim-Christian Relations

War and Peace

Article

Suicide as Protest

The contradiction inherent in Aaron Bushnell's suicide muddled his message: he tried to defend the dignity of Palestinians while violating his own.

By Santiago Ramos

March 26, 2024

War and Peace

Article

No More Military Aid to Israel

Nothing less than an end to U.S. military aid will get the attention of Netanyahu.

By The Editors

March 21, 2024

Article

A Lesson from My Father

"Once, when Dad was still on the streets, I heard from someone that he showed up at the Easter Vigil. How did he even know when it was?"

By Timothy P. Schilling

March 8, 2024

Religion

Spirituality

War and Peace

Article

Gaza and Jewish Memory

The National Library of Israel curates a “national memory database” of the October 7 massacre.

By Tzvi Novick

March 5, 2024

Middle East

War and Peace

Politics

Article

New Mothers in Gaza

The conflict in Gaza has been particularly cruel to pregnant women and newborns.

By Regina Munch

February 26, 2024

Motherhood

War and Peace

Foreign Affairs

Article

Betraying Ukraine

The Biden administration has failed to articulate its overall objectives in Ukraine.

By The Editors

February 23, 2024

Article

No End in Sight

What’s become clear since the Hamas attacks on October 7 is that security in the Middle East cannot be enforced with missiles or ceaseless bombing.

By The Editors

January 22, 2024

War and Peace

Foreign Affairs

Editorial

Article

‘Wild Butchery of Souls’

What poet Ishion Hutchinson recovers of West Indian World War I soldiers is the way in which their wounds, lives, and deaths persist.

By Phil Klay

January 2, 2024

War and Peace

Books

Poetry

Article

… In December 1939, Jacques Maritain, arguably the most important Catholic … and freedom. In the fire of such events, Maritain cautioned, reason has a duty to see … involvement in the escalating conflict in Europe had much immediate effect. Most …

By Jacques Maritain

December 26, 2023

War and Peace

From the Archives

Article

Advent in a Time of War

One central problem for Christians now is how to reconcile two of the beatitudes in our lives as citizens—how to be peacemakers while also thirsting for justice.

By The Editors

December 4, 2023

Article

Fragile Bonds in the Holy Land

In Israel-Palestine, the war is destroying networks of friendship and cooperation that were once seeds of hope.

By Santiago Ramos

December 1, 2023

Middle East

War and Peace

Politics

Article

Unchristian

To honor those killed in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel in recent weeks, the least we can do is keep bigotry from festering and spreading in our communities.

By Jordan Denari Duffner

November 28, 2023

War and Peace

Islam

Jewish-Christian Relations

Middle East

Foreign Affairs

Article

The Israel-Palestine Conflict

A collection of Commonweal's writings on the Israel-Palestine conflict since 2009

By The Editors

November 14, 2023

Middle East

Foreign Affairs

War and Peace

Article

Thirty Days in Jerusalem

"There’s regular routine. There’s emergency routine. And there is wartime routine. The only thing I know about this routine is that it’s never routine."

By Abi Dauber Sterne

November 10, 2023

War and Peace

Middle East

Article

Waist Deep in the Big Muddy

Has the United States learned anything from Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan? The same assumptions that led us into those conflicts have now led us to Ukraine.

By Andrew J. Bacevich

September 7, 2023

War and Peace

Ukraine

Music

Article

The Coup in Niger

After the ousting of democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum in Niger, questions arise about the role of Western presence in the region.

By Regina Munch

August 27, 2023

Article

War & Penance

As we reflect on the end of the war in Afghanistan, the Church’s penitential practices can help us examine our consciences, individually and collectively.

By Philip G. Porter

May 29, 2023

War and Peace

U.S. Catholicism

Article

Reading ‘Pacem in Terris’ in 2023

Reading ‘Pacem in Terris’ today, when the U.S. has its second Catholic president, reveals how politically impotent Catholics and the papacy have become since then.

By Massimo Faggioli

May 20, 2023