“Putin will not talk to Obama under pressure,” American journalist Josh Rogin was told late last week by a close associate of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. If Russia’s President will no longer call or accept calls from the President Obama, this strikes me as...
Obama in Asia: Washington Extracts Rent-free Basing From the Philippines
As U.S. President Barack Obama descends on the Philippines, Manila and Washington are rushing to complete negotiations on an Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation (AEDC) between the two countries. The Philippines’ territorial disputes with China are one major...
Obama’s Drone Wars Undermine American Values
Earlier this month, CIA-operated drones killed as many as 55 people in Yemen in several separate strikes. Although it was claimed that those killed were “militants,” according to press reports at least three civilians were killed and at least five others...
Bombers Launch Election Attacks Across Iraq: 84 Killed, 164 Hurt
An Economist’s Case for a Non-Interventionist Foreign Policy
The Naval War College, based in Newport, Rhode Island, runs a special 11-month course for foreign Navy officers. On February 3, the Naval War College held a special morning session at the Hoover Institution, where I am a research fellow. I was invited to speak. The...
Obama’s Asian Pivot Stumbles
For those of us who wondered "whatever happened to the ‘Asian pivot?’" the answer is now in: it was the diplomatic-strategic equivalent of vaporware, i.e. it was never a Serious Thing in the first place. For those not familiar with the foreign policy...
Abu Ghraib Never Left Us
Originally posted at TomDispatch. In mid-April, Abu Ghraib was closed down. It was a grim end for the Iraqi prison where the Bush administration gave autocrat Saddam Hussein a run for his money. The Iraqi government feared it might be overrun by an al-Qaeda offshoot...
Iraq Bombs Syria While Attacks Leave 41 Killed, 63 Hurt
Revenge Killings in Baghdad Raise Casualties to 69 Killed, 37 Wounded
The Kiev Gambit
The statement signed last week in Geneva was correctly seen as an attempt to buy time by all the parties involved – Russia, the Atlantic Empire, and the coup regime in Kiev. But while Moscow may have stalled to give the volatile situation on the ground time to calm...