FEATURED

24Feb 201923 Feb 2019

Post #227: Game Over? Report Card on Our Planet’s Environment

Unrelenting Warming The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report for 2019 indicates that most experts point to environmental problems as…

5Feb 20194 Feb 2019

Post #226: On China, the US Public Stands Apart

Why isn’t the American public as agitated about China as are the Trump administration, the mainstream media, and even many…

28Jan 201927 Jan 2019

Post #225: Trump’s Crusade in Latin America

What we are witnessing in Venezuela is a Latin America policy that draws from the Cold War and the era…

APB

APB: Trump’s Nightmare Budget

14 Mar 201913 Mar 2019

Two things can be said with certainty about Trump’s 2020 budget request: It is DOA, dead on arrival, in the House; and it is a political document, catering to his…

APB

APB: Trump’s 2020 Alarm Bells

The all-consuming goal of Donald Trump’s life is to win. We have seen the lengths to which he will go to avoid losing, whether the loss involves real estate, a…

APB

APB: Trump and Kim, Act II

28 Feb 201928 Feb 2019

Trump was correct to describe denuclearization last June as a lengthy “process” that one summit meeting could not achieve. However, the second summit, in Hanoi at the end of February…

APB…

National Emergency?

15 Feb 201915 Feb 2019

Donald Trump’s power play in order to get his border wall built would seem to be unconstitutional on its face. But courts may well uphold his action. “Congress’s delegation to…

BLOG

Post #223: Happy New Year from Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-un looked quite cosmopolitan on January 1 as he made his annual New Year’s address to the nation from the comfort of a paneled office, wearing a spiffy Western-style…

BLOG

Post #222: Road to Ruin: Trump’s Middle East Retreat

22 Dec 201822 Dec 2018

The flight of the generals is now complete with the resignation of General James Mattis—the last of the four generals to depart, and the last to give up the naïve…

BLOG

Post #221: Weaponizing Humanitarian Aid

13 Dec 201813 Dec 2018

Long ago, US foreign aid programs honored the principle that humanitarian aid should be treated separately from economic and military assistance to governments. Public Law 480 (popularized as “Food for…

APB

What the Chinese are Saying About the Trade Summit

3 Dec 20183 Dec 2018

Kicking the can down the road is a familiar way to avoid dealing with a problem. That is what happened in the Trump-Kim talks in Singapore on denuclearization, and it…

BLOG

Post #220: China Policy: Disappointment is No Excuse

Greg Sargent writes in the Washington Post (November 30): For years after Deng Xiaoping’s decisive turn toward modernization in the late 1970s, U.S. business executives and diplomats supported not only…

APB

APB: The Play’s the Thing

16 Nov 201815 Nov 2018

The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is a tragedy, and it is of a piece with the related tragedy of US-Saudi relations. Weeks ago I outlined a play in four…

BLOG

Post #219: Is China a “Responsible Great Power”?

31 Oct 201830 Oct 2018

President Xi Jinping would like everyone to pay attention to how China is exerting leadership in world affairs as a “responsible great power.” While the Trump administration is in retreat,…

APB

The Khashoggi Affair: A Murder Mystery in Four Acts

17 Oct 201817 Oct 2018

Act 1 (Washington, DC): Upon learning of the disappearance and possible murder of the Saudi journalist and critic, Jamal Khashoggi, Pres. Trump expresses concern and vows to get to the…

BLOG

Post #218: Getting Away with Murder

In March I wrote about the visit to Washington of Saudi Arabia’s new leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. At the time most of the media were reporting uncritically about…

BLOG

Post #217: Waiting For Hitler

11 Oct 201819 Oct 2018

If there is one thing I have learned as a political analyst, it is that there is no such thing as "never again." Use of weapons of mass destruction against…

BLOG

Post #216: A Victory for Diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula

29 Sep 20182 Oct 2018

On September 18 leaders of North and South Korea signed a September Declaration to advance inter-Korean cooperation and the possibility of the North’s denuclearization. Critics immediately dismissed the agreement for…

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