A Conversation With Atif Kubursi

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Lawless World

In the purely notional realm of international law, nothing is more fundamentally unlawful than the war Israel-USA launched on Iran on February 28, 2026.

Like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, almost four years earlier, the conjoined entity’s assault on the Islamic Republic was an act of naked aggression, pure and simple.

Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the “threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,” for any reason other than self-defense, as provided for under Article 51, which Israel-USA cannot claim.

Well, who cares? The ruination of the UN Charter, the trampling of its most sacred injunctions and canonical legal conventions, is not something most world leaders lose sleep over, certainly not in the morally enlightened West.

For those like Mark Carney, an international banker now serving as Canada’s 24th Prime Minister, it’s the disruption of global supply chains, trade in fossil fuels and other lucrative commodities, and the integrity of the procedural rules governing the smooth functioning of trade and financial systems (“rules-based international order”) that matter the most.

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In search of words to capture how lawless the world Mr. Carney waxed nostalgically for in Davos actually is – a world of colossal inequality, insatiable corporate greed, apartheid, genocide, and other monstrous crimes, live-streamed on ‘social media’; a world where laws count for nothing, and no one comes to their defense; not even their supposed Western guardians – worried observers turn to Antonio Gramsci.

Antonio Gramsci was a fierce critic of Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime. Jailed in 1926, the Italian Marxist died there in 1937. His famous words live on, summing up darker times Gramsci could never have imagined:

“The old world is dying,” Gramsci wrote, “and the new world struggles to be born … Now is the time of monsters.”

The GPM speaks about these dark, monstrous times with Atif Kubursi.

Atif Kubursi is Professor Emeritus of Economics at McMaster University, and the President of Econometric Research Limited. Since joining the United Nations Industrial Organization as a Senior Development Officer in 1982, Kubursi led missions to Indonesia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sudan, and Egypt. In 2006 he was appointed Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.

Professor Kubursi has published extensively on macroeconomics, economic development strategies, international trade, and regional planning centering on the environment. He joined McMaster University as an Assistant Professor of Economics in 1969, and became a full professor in 1981. He is currently a Professor Emeritus.

Listen to our conversation in today’s podcast. Click on the play button above, or go here.

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