Electing Biden: One Year Later

Sunday marked one year since Americans elected Joe Biden president. And on his first year report card, Americans give him a failing grade. Only 42% of Americans approve of Biden’s performance. Biden may have received a failing grade, in part, because on several key...

read more

Saudi Arabia: Shifting Alliances?

In recent weeks, Saudi Arabia has made a number of subtle moves that are intriguing from both a regional and a broader Second Cold War perspective. Long a reliable friend of the US and, in recent years, an increasingly reliable friend of Israel, Saudi Arabia has...

read more

Sanctioning Yourself in the Foot

"Sanctions," Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, told the UN General Assembly, "are the US’s new way of war with the nations of the world." At least nineteen countries are currently besieged by the economic warfare of US sanctions. As when they...

read more

The Middle East and the Second Cold War

The Middle East was a crucial arena in the Cold War. It was then that Israel first acquired its value to the US as a bulwark against perceived Soviet penetration into the Middle East. The Soviet Union perceived US activity in the Middle East as encircling them on...

read more

Decoding Biden’s UN Speech

On September 21, President Biden addressed the United Nations General Assembly for the first time. His speech was a confusing combination of boasts followed by lines that refuted those boasts. Here is an attempt to decode some of the biggest confusions. We Are Not...

read more

Biden Shelves Diplomacy To Confront Russia and China

On September 8, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that the US was getting tired of waiting for Iran: "I’m not going to put a date on it but we are getting closer to the point at which a strict return to compliance with the JCPOA does not reproduce...

read more