Ted Snider

In recent weeks, Saudi Arabia has made a number of subtle moves that are intriguing from both a regional and a broader Second Cold War perspective. Long a reliable friend of the US and, in recent years, an increasingly reliable friend of Israel, Saudi Arabia has recently made several exploratory moves beyond the boundaries of … Continue reading “Saudi Arabia: Shifting Alliances?”

The US is growing impatient waiting for Iran to return to the JCPOA nuclear talks, which is odd since they’re the ones who left the agreement, and they’re the ones who have done nothing to return to it, including returning the required sanction relief. Secretary of State Antony Blinken admonished Iran and said that "time … Continue reading “The Iran Nuclear Deal: The US Is Losing Patience; Iran Is Not”

"Sanctions," Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, told the UN General Assembly, "are the US’s new way of war with the nations of the world." At least nineteen countries are currently besieged by the economic warfare of US sanctions. As when they wage military war, the US is willing to accept the high civilian cost of … Continue reading “Sanctioning Yourself in the Foot”

The United States, the President swore, is "not seeking a new Cold War." But he is, and it didn’t have to be that way. The end of the Cold War could have been the end of the Cold War. Russia really didn’t want a new Cold War and has only been reluctantly drawn into it. … Continue reading “If It’s Not a Cold War, Why Does It Look So Much Like a Cold War?”

The Middle East was a crucial arena in the Cold War. It was then that Israel first acquired its value to the US as a bulwark against perceived Soviet penetration into the Middle East. The Soviet Union perceived US activity in the Middle East as encircling them on their southern border. Nations chose blocks, and … Continue reading “The Middle East and the Second Cold War”

President Biden’s words were hollow. The content had been cored because the words were empty of any real world content. On September 21, 2021, he told the UN General Assembly that the US is "not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocks." UN Secretary-General Antonio Gueterres disagreed, warning against the … Continue reading “If We Fight a New Cold War, Who Are We Fighting It With?”

On September 21, President Biden addressed the United Nations General Assembly for the first time. His speech was a confusing combination of boasts followed by lines that refuted those boasts. Here is an attempt to decode some of the biggest confusions. We Are Not Seeking a New Cold War Biden made the claim that America … Continue reading “Decoding Biden’s UN Speech”

At the beginning of his presidency, Barack Obama realized that the US was "overweighted" in the Middle East, fighting wars against countries that could not challenge American hegemony and "underweighted" in the Asia-Pacific region where there was a country, China, that could. So, Obama pivoted to Asia. The National Security Strategy of December 2017 ranked … Continue reading “How Provocative Are Australia’s Nuclear Submarines?”

On September 8, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that the US was getting tired of waiting for Iran: "I’m not going to put a date on it but we are getting closer to the point at which a strict return to compliance with the JCPOA does not reproduce the benefits that that agreement … Continue reading “Biden Shelves Diplomacy To Confront Russia and China”

On September 1, 2021, President Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House and continued the American push into Russia’s sphere of influence that has made Russia feel so threatened. Zelensky has been frustrated because he has been pushing for this meeting since his election in May 2019. Despite the delay, Biden … Continue reading “Ukraine, USA, Russia, and Spheres of Influence”