Hyperbolic warnings about allegedly disastrous consequences of a Tymoshenko presidency are demobilizing Western support for Ukrainian reforms and defense My recent article “What Would a Tymoshenko Presidency Mean?” for the Ukraine Alert of Washington’s Atlantic Council has caused indignation among numerous Ukrainian experts and journalists – some of them hitherto close colleagues and professional friends. […]
The prominent Western commentator of post-Soviet affairs Taras Kuzio has recently come forward with a barrel of English-language attacks on Ukrainian opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko – so far, the clear front-runner in Ukraine’s upcoming presidential elections in March 2019. Kuzio has placed several critical and partly denigrating texts about Tymoshenko in reputed analytical outlets, such […]
According to prosecutors, the trial of Patrick Ho was simply business. The Chinese financier, found guilty of orchestrating a multi-million dollar bribery scheme in Africa, wasn’t the victim of a US smear campaign as his defense claimed. No, he was simply brought to justice for violating US laws while working for an US-based organization. Yet […]
United States foreign policy has lacked an aspirational guiding principle for a generation. One reason might be the historic volatility of political parties, unlike anything in the past century. United States foreign policy has a record of long-term trends that depend in part on the political parties in power. During the Cold War, for example, […]
President Trump’s pronouncements always generate froth, by his words and in the reporting and recrimination that follows. But in Brussels, before his Helsinki meeting with Putin, he did, again, call NATO obsolete. Once any President raises it, the question takes on a life of its own. And if NATO’s value is in doubt, who should be […]
Allies, partners, and adversaries, all caught in the storm of current of U.S. foreign policy, may be waiting for a long while for the harsh winds to die down.
Whatever the impact of a new national security team, and whether or not President Trump actually meets with Kim Jong Un in the next few months, the fundamental problems with North Korea remain the same. Former U.S. negotiator Evans Revere notes that we have heard Kim’s line before. Still, the atmospherics around around the question are […]
Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, or “the base” as its known by locals of the surrounding township of Alice Springs in central Australia, was established in the late 1960s as a key site for US intelligence gathering. The largest part of its operations is to serve as a signals intelligence ground station for satellites in […]
It is easy to brush off North Korea’s behavior as irrational, but the fact that the Kim regime consolidated and has maintained power since 1948 says otherwise. If North Korea was truly an irrational actor, it would not have been able to survive this long. And to have maintained a three generation dictatorship while being […]
In their June 26 meeting President Trump and Prime Minister Modi voiced their mutual admiration as the nations grapple with a complex relationship.
Sherkoh Abbas, head of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria, warns of the dangers posed by Saudi Arabia and Turkey and argues in favor of Kurds as better allies for Americans.
As the other great power which borders North Korea, Russia offers the U.S. a tricky avenue, but avenue nonetheless, to resolve the DPRK situation peacefully.
Stressing only the expediency of resolving the DPRK issue, the U.S. risks not seeing the forest for the trees in the overall scheme of U.S-China relations.
Trump’s proposed budget cuts 28% from the State Department’s funding, reducing foreign aid and de-funding a range of programs.
In its current form and function, the United Nations is on course to become irrelevant. Times are rapidly changing and while its model has been static, at best.
