Latest news with #TheWaroftheEndoftheWorld
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - Ideas die in silence: Trump has quietly killed the Wilson Center
Recently, a federal judge temporarily blocked one of President Trump's efforts to fire federal employees. Similarly, independent agencies, one after another — including, most recently, the U.S. Institute for Peace — have been successful in court in blocking attempts to dismantle congressionally chartered institutions. The one glaring exception is the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. For reasons only he can explain, Mark Green, the president of the Wilson Center when Elon Musk's DOGE arrived, walked away without a fight. Founded by President Richard Nixon and supported by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the Wilson Center was created to be part of the 'Republic of Letters.' It was a window into America's psyche at a time when the nation believed it would shape the world of ideas and win the global intellectual debate against communism. Great Republicans built the Wilson Center, and leaders from across the political spectrum sustained it. Admittedly, the work of the Wilson Center isn't quite as tangible as that of, for example, U.S. Agency for International Development. The destruction of the center, however, marks the end of an ambitious, decades-long project to shape public debate and support unique scholarship worldwide — the slow-motion death of ideas. The Wilson Center helped shape the intellectual trajectory of thinkers who are now viewed as among the greatest of all time. Mario Vargas Llosa reimagined Brazil's only historical famine, bringing Canudos to a global stage. 'The War of the End of the World,' among his other books, helped earn him the Nobel Prize in Literature — a recognition for Vargas Llosa, but also for the idea that scholarship can shape national memory. John Lewis Gaddis, already a Cold War historian of note, decided that the Wilson Center would house his exploration of different perspectives on that long struggle. With the Cold War International History Project, he searched high and low for primary-source documents behind the Iron Curtain that would enlighten and educate Americans on how others saw and explained the same events — altering our understanding of the Cold War and challenging our impulse to navel gaze. The Wilson Center saved lives — literally. When Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East Program and a renowned Iranian American scholar, was held in solitary confinement in Iran's Evin Prison in 2007, the center mounted a campaign to free her. President Lee Hamilton reminded the world of who she was and what she meant — to the U.S., to Iranian scholarship, to human dignity. A year later, the ayatollah himself relented and Esfandiari was freed. The center wasn't just where great thinkers came to work — it was where many staged their launch. When a young Tom Friedman returned from the Middle East, where he was the first Jewish correspondent for the New York Times in the region, he found a home at the center. There, he wrote 'From Beirut to Jerusalem,' the book that set the stage for a new era of foreign affairs journalism. Decades later, a 20-something Ben Rhodes honed his craft at the center. Hired by Hamilton, he worked on the 9/11 Commission and Iraq Study Group Report. In the years to follow, Rhodes would come to reinvigorate American foreign policy and American values a few blocks up the street — at his desk inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, as an Obama speechwriter and a deputy National Security Advisor. And then there were the women of the center: Gloria Steinem; Madeleine Albright, when she was still a scholar, not yet a diplomat; former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), who served as the center's president; and Nina Jankowicz, one of the most vocal and visible intellectuals against disinformation. Each left her mark and carried forward the Wilsonian ideal that scholarship and public service are not opposing callings, but one and the same. The Wilson Center's demise under a second Trump administration was never a foregone conclusion. It operated primarily on private funding, costing the government a negligible amount. What's more, the center has never been one to go gently into the dark night. In 1998, the House slashed its budget to the brink of closure, but the Senate stepped in. Ideas prevailed. And yet, this time is different. Without a leader to defend it in court, as many other congressionally chartered institutions have done, the Wilson Center is slowly being dismantled and picked for parts. Other think tanks in Washington are attempting to keep the center's scholarship alive by absorbing some of its programs. The private funding that supported it — tens of millions of dollars — will mostly end up in the Trump administration's coffers, because donors are too afraid to ask for it back. Those donors who paid for programming that can no longer be implemented and asked for their unused funds back have been refused. With the dismantling of the Wilson Center and the threats to universities across the country, the future of American scholarship is now uncertain. The impact of unrecognized talent, policy unpursued and unshared ideas will be felt most acutely in the coming years. But this much we do know — the Wilson Center's quiet dismantling is not just the story of one institution's fall, but a warning about what we lose when we stop defending the spaces that nurture inquiry, elevate dialogue and believe in intellectual leadership. The lesson of the Wilson Center is that American global and intellectual leadership won't end in a dramatic way, all at once. It will fade away into the background, unsupported. Ideas die in silence. And this time, silence won. Jana Nelson is a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere. She worked for the Wilson Center as an intern, research assistant and consultant between 2008 and 2010. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Ideas die in silence: Trump has quietly killed the Wilson Center
Recently, a federal judge temporarily blocked one of President Trump's efforts to fire federal employees. Similarly, independent agencies, one after another — including, most recently, the U.S. Institute for Peace — have been successful in court in blocking attempts to dismantle congressionally chartered institutions. The one glaring exception is the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. For reasons only he can explain, Mark Green, the president of the Wilson Center when Elon Musk's DOGE arrived, walked away without a fight. Founded by President Richard Nixon and supported by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the Wilson Center was created to be part of the 'Republic of Letters.' It was a window into America's psyche at a time when the nation believed it would shape the world of ideas and win the global intellectual debate against communism. Great Republicans built the Wilson Center, and leaders from across the political spectrum sustained it. Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here Admittedly, the work of the Wilson Center isn't quite as tangible as that of, for example, U.S. Agency for International Development. The destruction of the center, however, marks the end of an ambitious, decades-long project to shape public debate and support unique scholarship worldwide — the slow-motion death of ideas. The Wilson Center helped shape the intellectual trajectory of thinkers who are now viewed as among the greatest of all time. Mario Vargas Llosa reimagined Brazil's only historical famine, bringing Canudos to a global stage. 'The War of the End of the World,' among his other books, helped earn him the Nobel Prize in Literature — a recognition for Vargas Llosa, but also for the idea that scholarship can shape national memory. John Lewis Gaddis, already a Cold War historian of note, decided that the Wilson Center would house his exploration of different perspectives on that long struggle. With the Cold War International History Project, he searched high and low for primary-source documents behind the Iron Curtain that would enlighten and educate Americans on how others saw and explained the same events — altering our understanding of the Cold War and challenging our impulse to navel gaze. The Wilson Center saved lives — literally. When Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East Program and a renowned Iranian American scholar, was held in solitary confinement in Iran's Evin Prison in 2007, the center mounted a campaign to free her. President Lee Hamilton reminded the world of who she was and what she meant — to the U.S., to Iranian scholarship, to human dignity. A year later, the ayatollah himself relented and Esfandiari was freed. The center wasn't just where great thinkers came to work — it was where many staged their launch. When a young Tom Friedman returned from the Middle East, where he was the first Jewish correspondent for the New York Times in the region, he found a home at the center. There, he wrote 'From Beirut to Jerusalem,' the book that set the stage for a new era of foreign affairs journalism. Decades later, a 20-something Ben Rhodes honed his craft at the center. Hired by Hamilton, he worked on the 9/11 Commission and Iraq Study Group Report. In the years to follow, Rhodes would come to reinvigorate American foreign policy and American values a few blocks up the street — at his desk inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, as an Obama speechwriter and a deputy National Security Advisor. And then there were the women of the center: Gloria Steinem; Madeleine Albright, when she was still a scholar, not yet a diplomat; former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), who served as the center's president; and Nina Jankowicz, one of the most vocal and visible intellectuals against disinformation. Each left her mark and carried forward the Wilsonian ideal that scholarship and public service are not opposing callings, but one and the same. The Wilson Center's demise under a second Trump administration was never a foregone conclusion. It operated primarily on private funding, costing the government a negligible amount. What's more, the center has never been one to go gently into the dark night. In 1998, the House slashed its budget to the brink of closure, but the Senate stepped in. Ideas prevailed. And yet, this time is different. Without a leader to defend it in court, as many other congressionally chartered institutions have done, the Wilson Center is slowly being dismantled and picked for parts. Other think tanks in Washington are attempting to keep the center's scholarship alive by absorbing some of its programs. The private funding that supported it — tens of millions of dollars — will mostly end up in the Trump administration's coffers, because donors are too afraid to ask for it back. Those donors who paid for programming that can no longer be implemented and asked for their unused funds back have been refused. With the dismantling of the Wilson Center and the threats to universities across the country, the future of American scholarship is now uncertain. The impact of unrecognized talent, policy unpursued and unshared ideas will be felt most acutely in the coming years. But this much we do know — the Wilson Center's quiet dismantling is not just the story of one institution's fall, but a warning about what we lose when we stop defending the spaces that nurture inquiry, elevate dialogue and believe in intellectual leadership. The lesson of the Wilson Center is that American global and intellectual leadership won't end in a dramatic way, all at once. It will fade away into the background, unsupported. Ideas die in silence. And this time, silence won. Jana Nelson is a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere. She worked for the Wilson Center as an intern, research assistant and consultant between 2008 and 2010.
Morocco World
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Morocco World
Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Laureate and Chronicler of Latin America, Dies at 89
Rabat – Mario Vargas Llosa, one of Latin America's most celebrated writers and a Nobel laureate, died on Sunday in Lima at the age of 89. His son, Alvaro Vargas Llosa, shared that his father passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by family. For more than half a century, Vargas Llosa shaped global literature with his sharp intellect and fluid prose. He stood at the forefront of the Latin American literary boom, not just as a novelist but as a public thinker unafraid to take political stands. In 2010, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for a body of work that includes Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter , The War of the End of the World , and Death in the Andes . But long before the international acclaim, he built his career on stories that questioned power and identity, often digging into Latin America's most turbulent moments. His voice rang loud in books, essays, and newspapers. In Peru, where he was born in 1936, he lived through dictatorship, revolution, and economic collapse. In 1990, he stepped into politics, launching a campaign for the presidency during a time of crisis. His run ended in defeat against Alberto Fujimori, a little-known academic who would later face prison for corruption and human rights abuses. After the loss, Vargas Llosa moved to Spain but kept close ties to Latin America. He became a fierce critic of authoritarian governments, especially those led by the new generation of leftist leaders. Despite his political involvement, he insisted that literature remained his true home. Read also: François Ozon Sets His Film Adaptation of Camus's The Stranger in Morocco His fiction often drew on personal history. The Time of the Hero , his first novel, drew from his experience at a Peruvian military academy. In A Fish in the Water, he recounted his childhood and political ambitions with striking honesty. His work earned admiration for its formal boldness. He shifted points of view, jumped across time, and gave voice to characters caught in the machinery of politics, faith, and revolution. Not all his stories came from political history. The Bad Girl , published in 2006, told the story of a long, obsessive romance, and many saw it as a late-career high point. Vargas Llosa never separated literature from life. His relationship with Gabriel García Márquez, once warm, ended in a public falling out in 1976. They never reconciled. Over time, Vargas Llosa's shift away from revolutionary ideals placed him at odds with many of his contemporaries. His break with Fidel Castro in the 1970s marked a turning point, politically and personally. He described himself not as a politician but as a writer who had once stepped into politics out of necessity. Yet his views continued to stir debate long after he left the campaign trail. His personal life also made headlines. At 19, he married Julia Urquidi, a woman ten years older and the former wife of his uncle. Their unusual story inspired Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter . Years later, he married his cousin Patricia, with whom he had three children. That marriage ended in 2015 after he began a relationship with Spanish socialite Isabel Preysler, which later dissolved in 2022. Peru's President Dina Boluarte called him 'the most illustrious Peruvian of all time.' That sentiment echoes far beyond Peru. For many readers across the world, Vargas Llosa's novels served as a mirror to power, violence, and human contradiction. He leaves behind pages filled with struggle, complexity, and beauty, a legacy that belongs not only to Peru, but to literature itself. Tags: BooksLiteratureMario Vargas LlosaNobel LaureatePeruvian literature
Dubai Eye
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Dubai Eye
Nobel prize-winning novelist Mario Vargas Llosa dies at 89
Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who enchanted readers with his intellectual rigour and lyrical prose for five decades and nearly became president of his country, died on Sunday aged 89. He died in the country's capital Lima surrounded by his family and "at peace," his son Alvaro Vargas Llosa, a well-known political commentator, said on X. A leading light in the 20th-century Latin American literature boom, Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2010 for works like Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Death in the Andes, and The War of the End of the World. But early on he abandoned the socialist ideas that were embraced by many of his peers, and his dabbling in politics and conservative views annoyed much of Latin America's leftist intellectual class. In 1990, he ran for president of Peru, saying he wanted to save his country from economic chaos and a Marxist insurgency. He lost in the run-off to Alberto Fujimori, a then-unknown agronomist and university professor who defeated the insurgents but was later jailed for human rights crimes and corruption. Frustrated by his loss, the writer moved to Spain but remained influential in Latin America, harshly criticizing a new wave of strident leftist leaders led by then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In his dozens of novels, plays and essays, Vargas Llosa told stories from various viewpoints and experimented with form, moving back and forth in time and switching narrators. His work crossed genres and established him as a foundational figure in a generation of writers that led a resurgence in Latin American literature in the 1960s. His books often examined the unnerving relationships between leaders and their subjects. The Feast of the Goat (2000) details the brutal regime of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo, while The War of the End of the World (1981) tells the true story of a fanatical preacher whose flock dies in a deadly war with Brazil's army in the 1890s. "His intellectual genius and vast body of work will remain an everlasting legacy for future generations," Peru's President Dina Boluarte said in a post in X, calling him the "most illustrious Peruvian of all time." Born to middle-class parents in Arequipa, Peru, on March 28, 1936, Vargas Llosa frequently drew from personal experience and his family, at times inserting characters based on his own life into his tales. His acclaimed debut novel, The Time of the Hero (1963), was loosely based on his teenage life as a cadet at a military academy in Lima, while his 1993 memoir, A Fish in the Water, focused on his 1990 presidential run. Other works expressed deep concern for his country. The Storyteller (1987) deals with the clash of Indigenous and European cultures in Peru, while Death in the Andes (1993) recounts the haunting years of the Shining Path guerrilla movement. As his range of experiences grew, Vargas Llosa continuously experimented. The Bad Girl (2006) was his first try at a love story and was widely praised as one of his best. In the 1970s, Vargas Llosa, a one-time supporter of the Cuban revolution, denounced Fidel Castro, maddening many of his leftist literary colleagues like Colombian writer and fellow Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In 1976, the two had a famous argument, throwing punches outside a theatre in Mexico City. A friend of Garcia Marquez said Vargas Llosa was upset that the Colombian had consoled his wife during an estrangement but Vargas Llosa refused to discuss it. Vargas Llosa became a staunch supporter of free markets mixed with libertarian ideals. Despite being outspoken on political issues, Vargas Llosa said he was a reluctant politician when he ran for president of Peru. "In reality, I never had a political career," Vargas Llosa once said. "I took part in politics under very special circumstances ... and I always said that whether I won or lost the elections, I was going back to my literary, intellectual job, not politics." His personal life was worthy of a novel itself - and indeed, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977) was loosely based on the story of his first marriage at the age of 19 to Julia Urquidi, 10 years his senior and the former wife of his mother's brother. His second wife was his first cousin Patricia - but he left her in 2015 after 50 years for the charms of Isabel Preysler, the mother of singer Enrique Iglesias. That relationship ended in 2022. He had three children, including Alvaro, with Patricia.
Gulf Today
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Peruvian writer and Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa dies age 89
Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who enchanted readers with his intellectual rigor and lyrical prose for five decades and came close to being president of his country, died on Sunday aged 89. He died in the country's capital Lima surrounded by his family and "at peace," his son Alvaro Vargas Llosa, a well-known political commentator, said on X. A leading light in the 20th century Latin American literature boom, Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2010 for works like "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter," "Death in the Andes," and "The War of the End of the World." But early on he abandoned the socialist ideas that were embraced by many of his peers, and his dabbling in politics and conservative views annoyed much of Latin America's leftist intellectual class. In 1990, he ran for president of Peru, saying he wanted to save his country from economic chaos and a Marxist insurgency. He lost in the run-off to Alberto Fujimori, a then-unknown agronomist and university professor who defeated the insurgents but was later jailed for human rights crimes and corruption. Frustrated by his loss, the writer moved to Spain but remained influential in Latin America, where he harshly criticized a new wave of strident leftist leaders led by then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Mario Vargas Llosa is pictured as he visits an exhibition about his work "Mario Vargas Llosa, La liberte et la vie (Freedom and life)," at the Maison de l'Amerique Latine on September 13, 2010 in Paris. AFP In his dozens of novels, plays and essays, Vargas Llosa told stories from various viewpoints and experimented with form -moving back and forth in time and switching narrators. His work crossed genres and established him as a foundational figure in a generation of writers that led a resurgence in Latin American literature in the 1960s. His books often examined the unnerving relationships between leaders and their subjects. "The Feast of the Goat" (2000) details the brutal regime of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo, while "The War of the End of the World" (1981) tells the true story of a fanatical preacher whose flock dies in a deadly war with Brazil's army in the 1890s. NOVELS FED BY EXPERIENCE Born to middle-class parents in Arequipa, Peru, on March 28, 1936, Vargas Llosa lived in Bolivia and the Peruvian capital Lima. He later made a home in Madrid, but retained influence in Peru, where he wrote for newspapers about current events. Vargas Llosa frequently drew from personal experience and his family, at times inserting characters based on his own life into his tales. His acclaimed debut novel, "The Time of the Hero" (1963), was loosely based on his teenage life as a cadet at a military academy in Lima, while his 1993 memoir, "A Fish in the Water," focused on his 1990 presidential run. Other works expressed deep concern for his country. "The Storyteller" (1987) deals with the clash of Indigenous and European cultures in Peru, while "Death in the Andes" (1993) recounts the haunting years of the Shining Path guerrilla movement. "An author's work is fed by his own experience and, over the years, becomes richer," Vargas Llosa told Reuters in an interview in Madrid in 2001. As his range of experiences grew, so did his writing. Vargas Llosa continuously experimented with perspective and his subjects. Isabel Preysler (left) and writer Mario Vargas Llosa arrive at the red carpet of the Goya Film Awards Ceremony in Madrid, Spain, Feb. 6, 2016. AP "The Bad Girl" (2006) was his first try at a love story and was widely praised as one of his best. DENOUNCED CASTRO, CHAVEZ In the 1970s, Vargas Llosa, a one-time supporter of the Cuban revolution, denounced Fidel Castro, maddening many of his leftist literary colleagues like Colombian writer and fellow Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In 1976, the two had a famous argument, throwing punches outside a theater in Mexico City. A friend of Garcia Marquez said Vargas Llosa was upset that the Colombian had consoled his wife during an estrangement but Vargas Llosa refused to discuss it. Vargas Llosa became a staunch supporter of free markets mixed with libertarian ideals. Despite being outspoken on political issues, Vargas Llosa said he was a reluctant politician when he ran for president of Peru. "In reality, I never had a political career," Vargas Llosa once said. "I took part in politics under very special circumstances... and I always said that whether I won or lost the elections, I was going back to my literary, intellectual job, not politics." His personal life was worthy of a novel itself - and indeed, "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" (1977) was loosely based on the story of his first marriage at the age of 19 to Julia Urquidi, 10 years' his senior and the former wife of his mother's brother. His second wife was his first cousin Patricia - but he left her in 2015 after 50 years for the charms of Isabel Preysler, the mother of singer Enrique Iglesias. That relationship ended in 2022. He had three children, including Alvaro, with Patricia. Reuters
