Conn Hallinan

The recent agreement between Turkey and the United States to cooperate against the Islamic State in Syria brings to mind the sociologist C. Wright Mills’ description of those who make American foreign policy as “crackpot realists”: realists about advancing their careers, crackpots about the policies they pursue. On paper, the plan allows the U.S. to … Continue reading “Behind Washington’s ‘Crackpot’ Deal with Turkey to Fight ISIS”

If you want a sleepless night – or month – just listen to what Western security officials are saying these days about a possible confrontation with Russia. “If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States,” warned General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the U.S. Joint … Continue reading “Just Listen to What Western Officials Are Saying About Russia”

A quiet meeting this past March in Saudi Arabia, and a recent anonymous leak from the Israeli military, set the stage for what may be a new and wider war in the Middle East. Gathering in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh were Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, newly crowned Saudi King Salman, and the … Continue reading “The Dark Saudi-Israeli Plot To Tip the Scales in Syria”

Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world, bereft of resources, fractured by tribal divisions and religious sectarianism, and plagued by civil war. And yet this small country tucked into the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula is shattering old alliances and spurring new and surprising ones. As Saudi Arabia continues its air assault on … Continue reading “Yemen’s War Is Redrawing the Middle East’s Fault Lines”

The past six months have seen an incredible ratcheting up of tensions in the East and South China Seas, where the world’s three largest economies – China, the United States, and Japan – are caught up in an increasingly tangled web of territorial disputes, competing alliances, and historical grievances. In February, U.S. Secretary of State … Continue reading “Parsing the East Asian Powder Keg”

“So far as Syria is concerned, it is France and not Turkey that is the enemy.” – T. E. Lawrence, February 1915. It was a curious comment by the oddball but unarguably brilliant British agent and scholar, Thomas Edward Lawrence. The time was World War I, and England and France were locked in a death … Continue reading “ISIS: The Spoils of the ‘Great Loot’ in the Middle East”

British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery had three laws of war: One, never march on Moscow; Two, never get in a land war in Asia; Three, never march on Moscow. So why are the U.S., the European Union (EU), and NATO on the road to the Russian capital? And exactly what are they hoping to accomplish? … Continue reading “Marching on Moscow”

Happy families are all alike: every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina The opening to Tolstoy’s great novel of love and tragedy could be a metaphor for Europe today, where “unhappy families” of Catalans, Scots, Belgians, Ukrainians, and Italians contemplate divorcing the countries they are currently a part … Continue reading “Continental Drift: Europe’s Breakaways”

Is the Russian occupation of the Crimea a case of aggressive expansionism by Moscow or aimed at at blocking a scheme by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to roll right up to the Russia’s western border? WikiLeaks has revealed a secret cable describing a meeting between French and American diplomats that suggests the latter, … Continue reading “WikiLeaks, Ukraine, and NATO”

The Obama administration’s decision to directly supply weapons to the Syrian opposition may end up torpedoing the possibility of a political settlement. It will almost certainly accelerate the chaos spreading from the almost three-year old civil war. It will also align Washington with one of the most undemocratic alliances on the planet, and one that … Continue reading “Syria and the Monarchs: A Perfect Storm”