Ted Snider

In February 2019, the election in Venezuela did not go the way the U.S. had scripted it. So, the U.S. stuck with the script and ignored the election. Though Hugo Chávez’ successor, Nicolás Maduro, easily won re-election to a second term, the U.S. ignored the result and recognized their choice as the legitimate leader of … Continue reading “Failed Coup: Is the U.S. Ready to Abandon Guaidó and Reintegrate Venezuela into the Global Community?”

US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speak often on the phone. But on a phone call in June, the conversation went very differently. Biden told Zelensky that he had just authorized $1 billion for more military assistance. Instead of thanking Biden, Zelensky complained about what he wasn’t getting and began listing the … Continue reading “The Biden Zelensky Relationship: Who to Trust?”

In his March 21 press briefing, State Department spokesman Ned Price told the gathered reporters that “President Zelenskyy has also made it very clear that he is open to a diplomatic solution that does not compromise the core principles at the heart of the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.” A reporter asked Price, “What are you saying … Continue reading “It Was Never About Ukraine”

Once a year, Cuba raises its head above the fence around America’s backyard and calls out to the world to condemn its imprisonment. And, once a year, the US, despite all its lofty rhetoric of international order and democracy, ignores the voice of the United Nations General Assembly and goes on starving the people of … Continue reading “The Cuba Embargo: Isolating America”

As the intense combat and missile strikes show, peace is still a distant hope in Ukraine. But, for the first time in a long time, a faint diplomatic pulse has been found. In early November, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and privately pushed him to "signal an openness to … Continue reading “Signs of Diplomacy in Ukraine? Finding a Faint Pulse.”

For months, the US refused to hold any diplomatic talks with Russia. Then, suddenly, on November 6, it was revealed that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan "has been in contact with Yuri Ushakov, a foreign-policy adviser to Mr. Putin" and with Russia’s Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev. Sullivan then went to Kiev for talks with … Continue reading “Is this the Time for Peace?”

Xi Xinping and Vladimir Putin have said that their "relationship even exceeds an alliance in its closeness and effectiveness." They have said that the "friendship between the two States has no limits" and that it is "a relationship that probably cannot be compared with anything in the world." But China has seemed very restrained in … Continue reading “Checking In On China-Russia Relations”

There is no scarcity of reasons to despair of hope for a push for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine. Thirty Democrats in the House were pilloried for suggesting only that the US open diplomatic channels parallel to full military and economic support for Ukraine. When Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded to a Turkish … Continue reading “Look Who’s Talking – Slivers of Hope in Ukraine”

On October 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would not use nuclear weapons; on the same day, US President Joe Biden said he would. Two days earlier, at talks being held between the US, Japan and South Korea, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman explained that the "ironclad" US commitment to defending Japan and … Continue reading “First Strike: The US and the World’s Most Dangerous Nuclear Policy”

America’s top diplomat for negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran said on October 30 that the US is not going to "waste time" trying to keep the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal alive. President Biden’s special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, said that “It is not on our agenda. We are not … Continue reading “US Admits Iran Is Not Building a Nuclear Bomb”