Biden’s Oval Office address was a sales pitch
A primetime address in the Oval Office is the pinnace of presidential speechifying. Ronald Reagan used the room in 1986…
How Macron is preparing for Trump’s return
We are still fifteen months away from the 2024 U.S. presidential election, but much of the world is already busy trying to…
What would Trump’s second-term foreign policy look like?
Former president Donald Trump is in a world of legal trouble. Not only is he the first president in history…
Nato’s members still don’t see eye to eye on Ukraine
US President Joe Biden flew into Vilnius, Lithuania early on Tuesday with a big task ahead of him: to keep…
Macron has a point about Russian war crimes
French President Emmanuel Macron tends to rock the boat whenever he opens his mouth, saying hard truths that many of…
Why Saudi Arabia wants to be a peacemaker in the Middle East
The Middle East, etched into the Western psyche as a region prone to conflict, economic malaise and geopolitical rivalry, is…
Macron’s China controversy is a big nothingburger
French president Emmanuel Macron, the self-appointed leader of Europe, is having a not so great week. His multi-day visit to…
Macron tries to be the Xi whisperer
God bless Emmanuel Macron for his perseverance and self-confidence. The French president seeks to lead Europe and turn the continent…
It’s time for Congress to take back its war powers
On March 29, more than twenty years after the United States commenced Operation Shock and Awe in Baghdad, the Senate…
Contra the hawks, Biden’s defense budget keeps ballooning
This week we heard a lot about AUKUS, a trilateral initiative between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia that will…
How Afghanistan erred by thinking Biden would never leave
By now, the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is etched into history as a failure — one that punctured the…
Jimmy Carter’s second act was better than his first
Jimmy Carter is commonly depicted as one of America’s worst presidents. His four-year tenure is said to be a mishmash…
China won’t have gained much from its spy balloon
If you didn’t know any better, you might have thought China was preparing to unleash a large-scale invasion on the…
The case for staying calm about the Chinese balloon
If you didn’t know any better, you might think China was preparing to unleash a large-scale invasion on the continental…
Turkey’s heavy price for pressuring the Russians
If you enjoyed the weeks-long intra-NATO spat about whether to send heavy tanks to Ukraine, then you’re going to love…
South Korea toys with developing nuclear weapons
Yoon Suk-yeol isn’t a household name in the United States, but his comments this week have put him in the…
Venezuela’s anti-socialist opposition has faltered
2019 was a banner year for Juan Guaido, a relatively obscure Venezuelan lawmaker who announced to a crowd of thousands…
The Brittney Griner swap was nothing out of the ordinary
Viewed from a coldly logical perspective, releasing Viktor Bout for Brittney Griner is a highly lopsided trade in favor of…
Japan’s defense revolution
You don’t need to be an Asia specialist to recognize that China is undergoing a significant military modernization campaign. China’s…
Why Biden has given MBS immunity over the Khashoggi killing
For US President Joe Biden, Saudi Arabia is the problem that never goes away. First came his decision to refrain from slapping…
The Biden-Xi meeting was long overdue
The bilateral relationship between the United States and China is arguably the most important in the world today. The two…
Don’t expect the midterms to change our foreign policy
President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies were expecting a romp on Tuesday. So were many of the career prognosticators…
Why Biden is finished with Mohammed bin Salman
Saudi Arabia’s energy minister had some cheeky words for the Biden administration this week: don’t blame us for manipulating the…
Iraq is fracturing again
Political turmoil is nothing new in Iraq. The American invasion and occupation turned the country from a brutal dictatorship led…
Are sanctions against Russia actually working?
Six months ago this week, the United States and its European allies enacted one of the most comprehensive, stringent sanctions…
