Why is everyone being so mean to Saudi Arabia? No doubt, the poor, beleaguered, misunderstood royals ask that question as they busy themselves squandering people’s wealth, imprisoning critics, attacking impoverished neighbors, and spreading Islamic fundamentalism....
Opposing war is a lonely task in Washington, D.C. Possessing the world’s largest and most powerful military encourages US administrations to use it. And use it they do – often. This attitude was captured by Madeleine Albright, then America’s UN ambassador, when she...
Joe Biden last week gave his maiden foreign policy speech as president. There was a stunning omission: No mention of Afghanistan. The Trump administration’s agreement with the Taliban provides for the withdrawal of U.S. troops by May 1. Is the president prepared to...
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced what is likely to be just the first reversal of many Trump administration policies, in this case Washington’s slavish subservience to the Saudi royal family. Indeed, Blinken’s immediate predecessor, Mike Pompeo, ended his...
President Joe Biden dropped by the State Department yesterday to praise the State Department and promote his views. The president offered a little bit of everything, a complex mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Good was the return of essential decency to American...
Dictators are supposed to be clever, smart, and effective. Otherwise, how could they rule over millions of people? Yet Vladimir Putin recently demonstrated the opposite. Rather than sweeping away all opposition, his factotums exhibited serial incompetence, failing to...
Foreign policy tends to be complicated and messy. International issues create an explosive imbroglio mixing economic, political, and security controversies. Human rights upsets almost every calculation since America’s friends can be even crueler than its foes. The...
One of Washington’s most dubious military commitments is the Persian Gulf. Concerned about the West’s heavy reliance on oil and Israel’s security, successive administrations turned the Middle East into a potential American war zone beginning in the 1970s. A half...
The Beer Belly Putsch, as the January 6 takeover of the Capitol has been called, created shock waves across the nation’s capital and around the world. It was never as serious as some observers suggested: the president had no coup plan and most of the ragtag protesters...
Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s newly appointed National Security Adviser, began issuing orders to Russia two days before his installation. Sullivan urged Moscow to release Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader arrested on his return to Russia on Sunday. Insisted...
