No one was more surprised than Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu when he learned of Donald Trump’s intention to reopen negotiations with Iran over its nuclear-weapons program. At an April 7 meeting in Washington, Netanyahu almost certainly expected to move forward on plans for a potential Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear-weapons and ballistic-missile programs, perhaps […]
READ MORE.Saturday’s US-Iran proximity negotiations highlighted the choice between two very divergent futures for Tehran’s nuclear-weapons program. One path would have Washington re-enter witless negotiations with the ayatollahs, with no evidence they have made a strategic decision to abandon their decades-long quest for weapons of mass destruction. The alternative is military action against Tehran’s nuclear facilities, […]
READ MORE.What does Trump really intend? What is bluff, braggadocio, and bargaining and what is not? Because he does not have a philosophy or a national-security strategy, and often doesn’t seek pre-conceived objectives, observers from left to right are often confounded. Trump is the very epitome of “transactional,” his one immutable focus being himself. Accordingly, assessing […]
READ MORE.Donald Trump has confirmed since 20th January that he is an aberration in American politics. That was clear in his first term, but many refused to acknowledge reality, fervently hoping his second term would be a legacy-building project. Their mistake was assuming that their definition of “legacy”—what normal political leaders see as solidifying a positive […]
READ MORE.Donald Trump’s jarring Oval Office confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky symbolizes what is wrong with Trump’s dysfunctional approach to foreign policy. In what seemed like a television comedy show, Trump accused Zelensky of everything from risking World War III to having no cards to play in defending his homeland from Russia’s unprovoked aggression. Trump […]
READ MORE.Ukraine’s Volodomyr Zelensky is “a dictator without elections,” with only a four percentapproval rating( https://www.newsweek.com/what-trump-has-said-about-zelensky-since-2022-2039000 ). The war in Ukraine( https://apnews.com/article/trump-speech-congress-transcript-751b5891a3265ff1e5c1409c391fef7c ) is “madness” and “senseless.” While it is true Russia iscurrently “pounding” Ukraine, “probably anyone in that position would be doing that rightnow( https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crknjxj3n4zo ).” Kyiv is “more difficult, frankly, to dealwith” than Moscow.This […]
READ MORE.T.S Eliot would not have minded Robert Kaplan expropriating the title of his mostfamous poem for his latest book, Waste Land. Kaplan’s focus on the decline of the West and thebirth of modernism were among the poem’s themes(175), and his latest tour de force on theunhappy state of the world is decidedly pessimistic on many […]
READ MORE.Responsible advisers and GOP lawmakers should redirect his focus to other targets, especially the EU. Last week’s Trump-Vance-Zelensky train wreck proved that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is on increasingly shaky ground. Starting with Donald Trump’s Feb. 12 phone call with Vladimir Putin about the Ukraine war, things got worse when Mr. Trump called Volodymyr […]
READ MORE.Vladimir Putin was the only winner in last week’s Oval Office grudge match between Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump harmed US national security by ignoring our profound, long-standing interest in European stability, which we learned through the 20th Century’s two hot world wars and one Cold War. Ensuring our enemies do not […]
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Donald Trump’s remarks on the Gaza Strip after his February 4 meeting with Israeli Prime Minster Bibi Netanyahu precipitated enormous controversy and confusion. They were not idle musings, but written in advance. Typically, Trump wandered off-script, speculating about using US military force in Gaza, which White House handlers walked back the next day. Trump himself […]
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