President Obama’ graduation speech at the military academy at West Point sent mix signal about the priorities of American foreign policy and American leadership (read Michael Crowley’s analysis on the address). First of all, the central point of his speech dealt with his perceived principal threat to the U.S., radical Islamic terrorism. Many experts tend to […]
President Barack Obama’s West Point commencement address last week was not an announcement of a new direction in American foreign policy — it was a defense of the policy path already chosen. The most significant takeaway from the speech — if not its biggest headline — was the president’s commitment to international institutions. Obama reminded his audience […]
After an absence of more than 20 years, American forces will return to the Philippines under a 10-year agreement reached between the two countries on Monday in conjunction with U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Manila. The Enhanced Defense Cooperation agreement seeks to broaden U.S. access to bases on a rotational, temporary basis, and […]
Over the weekend, the New York Times published an article titled “In Cold War Echo, Obama Strategy Writes Off Putin.” It caught my eye because it used the catchphrase – Cold War – that politicians as policymakers, journalists as conveyers and we as an audience have grown familiar with. Literary devices go a long way […]
As the Ukrainian crisis escalates, President Barack Obama has been busy making the diplomatic rounds trying to build support against the unilateral attempts by Crimea to break away from the new government in Ukraine. President Obama said the United States is examining a series of economic and diplomatic steps to “isolate Russia,” and he called […]
Last weekend, Israeli media sources the Times of Israel and Channel 10 reported that United States President Barack Obama did not support Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace efforts. The Times of Israel article wrote, “Citing unnamed sources close to the negotiations, Channel 10 news said that Kerry sought Obama’s ‘political backing for confrontation […]
My last post noted how the blockbuster memoir by Robert M. Gates reinforces the points many observers have made about the defects of the Obama administration’s national security process. The revelations also bolster my own argument that President Obama and his team share a good deal of the responsibility for the ongoing crisis in relations between Washington and Hamid Karzai’s government […]
In earlier posts (here, here, and here), I argued that the Obama administration’s national security process is plagued by extreme insularity, centralization and politicization. This is a widely held criticism, regularly repeated not just by the president’s detractors but also former administration staffers and friendly commentators. And the new revelations by Robert M. Gates, the much-respected national security […]
In a rare slap in the face to Beijing, last week the U.S. flew two of its unarmed B-52 bombers into China’s newly-established East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone. The air defense zone had been recently created in order to assert Beijing’s claim to disputed territorial waters of the East China Sea and to […]
Being an American professor living in Africa and teaching international relations, I have been involved in numerous debates about my country and its foreign policy. Obviously you get your mix, some pro-U.S. and some not. To try and make better sense of the situation, I decided to embark on a little pet project in […]
In earlier posts (here, here,here and here), I’ve argued that the Obama administration’s national security process is plagued by extreme insularity, centralization and politicization. Ultimately, however, these institutional problems are a reflection of the person sitting in the Oval Office. The deepening Obamacare fiasco has raised plenty of questions about President Obama’s leadership qualities. But two reports this […]
Expect the number of nuclear weapons in Asia to increase over the short to medium term according the latest edition of Strategic Asia 2013-14, aptly titled Asia in the Second Nuclear Age. Nuclear states across the region are all looking to further develop or enhance their nuclear arsenals, namely Pakistan, India, China and North Korea. […]
The U.S.-India relationship is enveloped these days by grand rhetoric. But for a reality check on the state of bilateral affairs, look no further than the summit meeting between President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh two weeks ago. The get-together was designed to inject new energy into a partnership that just a few […]
There can be no denying the fact that U.S. President Barack Obama’s cancellation of his trip to Southeast Asia, October 6-12, where he was scheduled to attend to attend the APEC Economic Leaders meeting in Bali, Indonesia, then the East Asia Summit in Brunei, followed by visits to Malaysia and the Philippines, is extremely unfortunate. […]
By Manuel Langendorf With a heightened sense of urgency to act on Syria, Washington is resorting to moral arguments. What appears to have been a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, has made a potential U.S.-led military strike against the Syrian government a very real possibility. Shocking videos of dozens of dead […]