James Carden

Reprinted with permission from The Realist Review. Much has been made of Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky’s tête-à-tête in Saint Peter’s Basilica over the weekend. If nothing else, the optics were stunning: The US and Ukrainian president looked to be patching things up – perhaps the spirit of Pope Francis awakened the better angels of … Continue reading “The Path to Peace: Europeanization Then Normalization”

Reprinted with permission from The Realist Review. You’re thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don’t, I think that’s old Europe. If you look at the entire NATO Europe today, the center of gravity is shifting to the east and there are a lot of new members… ~ Donald H. Rumsfeld, January 2003 In … Continue reading “New Europe, Same Old Problems”

Reprinted with permission from The Realist Review. Only three months into his second term, Donald Trump’s national security team looks to be seriously divided. As I reported late last year as the administration was taking shape, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who led the transition and is known to have played a major role in vetting … Continue reading “Trump’s National Security Team Is a House Divided Against Itself”

Reprinted with permission from The Realist Review. Asked about the state of the war in Ukraine during a press gaggle last night on Air Force One, President Trump responded that the war is “a horrible thing that never should have started.” That war is horrible is an idea that seems lost on the Democratic foreign … Continue reading “The Unnecessary War”

Reprinted with permission from The Realist Review. Adam Entous’ “blockbuster” New York Times report confirmed what only a few of us reported only weeks into the war, that Washington has been a co-belligerent in the war in Ukraine in all but name. In a widely neglected article for the Asia Times on April 19, 2022, … Continue reading “Will China Seal Zelensky’s Fate?”

The tragic events in Syria over the weekend should, but will likely not, prompt reflection and rethinking on the part of many within the Washington establishment who were at the forefront of calling for the overthrow of the secular leader of multi-confessional Syria, Bashar al-Assad, beginning in 2011 when his government was the object of a coup attempt by Islamist … Continue reading “Islamist Takeover of Syria Proves Tulsi Gabbard Was Right”

Remarks at the Yerevan Dialogue on November 23.  Reprinted with permission from the American Committee for US-Russia Accord (ACURA). About a quarter of a century ago around this very time, a newly elected Republican president who campaigned on a promise of a more humble, less arrogant foreign policy was assembling his foreign policy and national … Continue reading “What To Expect From Trump II”

This article appears in the June 2024 issue, with the headline “A Wider War in Eastern Europe?” Reprinted from The Nation with permission from the authors. Violence continues to haunt Eastern Europe. the attempted assassination of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15 inevitably conjures up the memory of the assassination of Archduke Franz … Continue reading “The Perils of Wider War in Eastern Europe”

The first thought that came to mind while watching, albeit very reluctantly, a video of Secretary of State Antony Blinken “rocking out” on his guitar in a bar in Kiev was: What is wrong with these people? A friend and fellow journalist who I forwarded the video to responded with a one word email: “Gross.” … Continue reading “The Dignity Deficit of Rocking Out in Kiev”

Reprinted from The Nation with permission from the authors. Last week’s passage of the Ukraine aid package by both the House and the Senate showed if nothing else that bipartisanship – at least on matters of foreign policy – remains alive and well in Washington, with leading Democratic progressives joining Republican hawks to pass the … Continue reading “The Ukraine Aid Package Heightens the Risk of Escalation”