Photo Credit: Staff Sgt. Jonathan Snyder, United States Air Forces Central/DVIDS By Andrew C. Jarocki It’s increasingly popular and bipartisan to call for an end to “forever wars” like Afghanistan. President Biden seems to have recognized this reality, writing on the campaign trail that “staying entrenched in unwinnable conflicts drains our capacity to lead on … Continue reading Forever Is Now: Leaving Afghanistan
By Ethan Kessler One of my college professors, a State Department veteran and Cold Warrior whose office bore a picture of him with President Gerald Ford in Vladivostok in 1975 (talking Michigan football, as proud Wolverines are inclined to), always liked to talk about a Soviet diplomat he spoke with as the U.S.S.R. was nearing … Continue reading Strategic Autonomy and Future U.S.-India Partnership
Image Source: Belta News By Anastasia Couch When the Belarus protests were still burgeoning, Minsk officials arrested 33 men for suspected involvement with Russia’s private security group, Wagner. A Minsk-based source reports that the arrested men held alleged connections with two known citizens of Belarus who each face criminal counts of instigation and suspicion of … Continue reading Belarus Arrests Realign Attention to the Shadow World of Russia’s Private Military Companies
The Xinjiang delegation at the 2019 National People's Congress (Reuters) By Alison O'Neil A Tense July: The US Sanctions XPCC Recent events in Xinjiang – along with other domestic and foreign policy decisions encompassing everything from cybersecurity to maritime law to tensions over Taiwan and Hong Kong – have shifted the global conversation on China … Continue reading What Could the XPCC Sanctions Mean for Xinjiang and the US?
Image: CNS photo/Paul Haring By Andrew Jarocki “Blessed are the peacemakers,for they will be called children of God.”– Matthew 5:9 “The Pope?” scoffed Stalin, “And how many divisions does he have?” It is tempting to dismiss the Vatican, a tiny city state entirely reliant on moral suasion, as irrelevant in this era of renewed great … Continue reading Blessed Are the Dealmakers?
Image: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters By Solomon Bennett The foreign policy priorities outlined during the RNC reflect a foreign policy of contradictions. The tendencies of President Trump and the Republican Party—distain for federal government, friendliness with powerful moneyed interests, and policies of austerity and privatization—are increasingly incongruent with national priorities both domestically and internationally. In 2016, President … Continue reading Foreign Policy at the RNC: Crisis and Contradiction
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, with a virtually present Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany (Getty Images) By Zack Blumberg As its leaders try to push ahead with grand ambitions, the EU is waylaid by itself. When Germany officially assumed the European Union (EU) Council presidency on June 1 of this year, its … Continue reading In the COVID era, the EU is its own stumbling block
Image from AFP By Samuel Leiter On Sunday, Iranian officials confirmed that an explosion on July 2nd was caused by sabotage, but declined to reveal the culprit saying “how this explosion took place and with what materials ... will be announced by security officials in due course.” In July, a previously unknown group called the … Continue reading Iran Confirms Recent Natanz Attacks Were Sabotage as Cyberwar with Israel Appears to be Escalating
Joe Biden delivers his nomination acceptance speech at the socially distanced Democratic National Convention August 20, 2020 (NBC News) By Solomon Bennett The 2020 Democratic National Convention and the release of the 2020 Democratic Party Platform signify a number of critical steps that the United States can take to repair the damage wrought by the … Continue reading A Crossroads of Vision at the DNC
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto leader of the UAE By Ethan Kessler Last week, in a small ceremony in the Oval Office, Israel signed a treaty with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), normalizing relations between the two Middle Eastern powers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also … Continue reading What Does the UAE-Israel Treaty Mean for the Middle East?
