Ted Snider

On May 28, U.S. President Joe Biden gave an interview to Time. His delivery and content were concerning for a number of reasons. Biden, at times, seemed misinformed and detached from reality. Sometimes, he seemed off message; other times, he seemed convinced by his own talking points. But four answers he gave were especially alarming … Continue reading “Joe Biden’s Time Interview Should Set Off Alarms”

On the eve of a Ukraine Peace Summit in Geneva that did not talk about peace and did not include Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin set out Russia’s peace proposal to end the war. Putin’s peace proposal contains little that is new and is largely consistent with what he has been saying since the beginning … Continue reading “Encouraging War in Ukraine, New York Times Misses the Point”

On June 10, the Security Council adopted a U.S. resolution for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza. The vote was 14-0 with Russia abstaining. There are many odd features of the resolution: especially who proposed it and who has accepted it. At stage left and stage right are the Israeli and Hamas negotiating teams. … Continue reading “Gaza Ceasefire Proposal: Diplomacy or Magic Trick?”

After being promised a future in NATO in 2008, Ukraine is still waiting for membership. At last year’s NATO summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s pleas for membership, or at least a timeline to membership, was unceremoniously rebuffed by the alliance. “Ukraine isn’t ready for NATO membership,” President Joe Biden said at the July 2023 NATO gathering. … Continue reading “NATO When You Don’t Want It; No NATO When You Do”

In 2011, a White House official described President Obama’s foreign policy approach to Libya as “leading from behind.” It was an approach that did not go well, and soon the U.S. was acting as the rebel’s air force over the skies of Libya in a war that ended in disaster. In recent weeks, several of … Continue reading “Is Biden Leading From Behind on Ukraine?”

On May 20, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri. Officials in Washington lashed out against the court and began preparations to … Continue reading “America’s Ugly History with the International Criminal Court”

Recently, there have been a number of indicators of the waning impact of  threats by the U.S. government. Attempts to advance the U.S. government’s foreign policy interests by making threats in Niger, at the International Criminal Court, and in China have recently all failed to bring about their desired outcome. On March 16, 2024, the … Continue reading “It’s Time for Diplomacy, Not Threats”

There are a number of questions that could be asked about U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken singing “Rockin’ in the Free World” in a bar in Kiev. The first is regarding the appropriateness of singing a song while hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers are being wounded or killed every day in a new Russian push. … Continue reading “Did the U.S. Give the Go-Ahead to Strike Russia with Long Range Missiles?”

Long ago, the U.S. government stopped listening to other countries’ governments, as reflected in its recent series of vetoes in the Security Council and in its unprecedented isolation in the world. But recently, and more dangerously, the U.S. government officials have stopped listening to themselves. This is not an entirely new phenomenon for key people … Continue reading “When Did America Stop Listening to Itself?”

When a solution to a problem has not worked, throwing more of the same solution at the problem is folly. That’s what the U.S. seems to have done with the recent signing into law of another $61 billion in aid for Ukraine. Sometimes that folly is inflated. A series of recent hints and revelations suggests … Continue reading “The Recent Risk of Escalation in Ukraine”