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18Jan 202215 Jan 2022

TODAY IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND THE Broadcast Archive

#43 – The Popular Protests in Kazakhstan #42 – Destroying Democracy: China in Hong Kong #41 – Biden’s BBB Takes…

11Jan 202211 Jan 2022

Post #323 – Destroying Democracy: China in Hong Kong

An audio version of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/48006/32-destroying-democracy-china-in-hong-kong.mp3 On July 1, 1997 the United Kingdom formally handed Hong…

30Dec 202130 Dec 2021

global citizen interviews VIA ZOOM

Prof. Dali Yang at the University of Chicago is a leading analyst of Chinese politics. He has written extensively on…

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Post #322: The Battle Over Cobalt

22 Dec 202111 Jan 2022

The audio version of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/46515/30-the-battle-over-cobalt.mp3 Today’s commentary is about a valuable mineral that is the subject of intense international competition. Not a new subject: In past…

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Post #321: Downhill from the Summit for Democracy

19 Dec 202125 Dec 2021

The just-concluded Summit for Democracy was intended to be a rallying point for democratic and nearly-democratic states, with pep talks on confronting rising authoritarianism and building democratic institutions. One hundred…

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Post #320: Putin’s Democracy Problem: Civil Society and Ukraine

Vladimir Putin is trying to accomplish two very dangerous tasks at once: the destruction of civil society in Russia, and the withering away of international support for a democratic Ukraine.…

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Post #319: The US and Yemen: Putting a Disreputable Policy Right

29 Nov 202128 Nov 2021

An audio version of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/44803/27-the-us-and-yemen-putting-a-disreputable-policy-right.mp3 In Yemen, Saudi Arabian and Iranian interests collide, a civil war involving multiple parties has devastated the country, important issues of…

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Post #318: Finding Common Ground with China

18 Nov 202117 Nov 2021

Readers note: An audio version of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/44104/26-finding-common-ground-with-china.mp3 “It seems clear to me we need to establish some common-sense guardrails,” President Biden told President Xi Jinping…

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Post #317: Israel’s New Leadership Offers Nothing New to Palestinians

13 Nov 202112 Nov 2021

A podcast of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/43705/25-israels-mistreatment-of-palestinians-continues.mp3 How have Israeli-Palestinian relations changed since the end of the right-wing Netanyahu government? The short answer: Not much; a right-wing government…

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Post #316: Dim Prospects for Climate Mitigation

An audio version of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/42834/23-dim-prospects-for-climate-mitigation.mp3. Just in time for the COP26 UN climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, the Biden administration has released the National…

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Post #315 – Gravy Train: Corporate Profiteering on National Defense

21 Oct 202110 Nov 2021

A podcast of this blog is also available at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/42179/22-gravy-train-corporate-profiteering-on-national-defense.mp3 A long time ago, Gordon Adams introduced the term “iron triangle” to characterize the interlocked relationship of the Pentagon’s military…

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Post #314 – Dissecting North Korea’s Missile Tests

12 Oct 202112 Oct 2021

North Korea is carrying out one missile test after another lately, at the same time indicating (or is it?) interest in talks with South Korea about reducing tensions. Late…

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Post #313 – Donald J. Trump: Traitor

28 Sep 202127 Sep 2021

The audio of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/40623/20-donald-trump-traitor.mp3. The Coup Attempt “There is an unfolding assault taking place in America today,” President Biden said in Philadelphia on July 13.…

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POST #312: The China Initiative, A Flawed and Dysfunctional Policy

President Biden is continuing the disengagement policy toward China that began under Donald Trump, with strong bipartisan support. Many people may not be aware that the opposite policy once…

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Post #311: The US and Yemen: Putting a Disreputable Policy Right

15 Sep 202114 Sep 2021

In Yemen, Saudi and Iranian interests collide, a civil war involving multiple parties has devastated the country, a humanitarian crisis has been going on for several years, and important issues…

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Post #310: The Road to Afghanistan is Littered with Bad Calls

2 Sep 20211 Sep 2021

Inevitably, given the sorry state of American politics these days, Joe Biden will be blamed by many people for the humiliating US defeat and withdrawal from Afghanistan. But he is…

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Post #309: Game of Thieves in the Amazon

19 Aug 202127 Aug 2021

Here is the audio version (broadcast August 17, 2021): The UN-appointed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a new report, based on the latest scientific findings, that once…

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Post #308: The Afghanistan Debacle

An audio version of this blog is available at: https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/37657 Over a nearly twenty-year period, the war in Afghanistan is estimated to have cost about $2.2 trillion and resulted in…

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Post #307: Reclaiming Patriotism

In an interview August 12 on MSNBC, Dr. Anthony Fauci commented that one way to be patriotic is to get vaccinated. That view prompted a thought I’ve been having…

Post #306: Pegasus and the Global Surveillance Business

9 Aug 202110 Aug 2021

Listen to an audio version of this blog at https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/37159 We have just learned about a powerful spyware known as Pegasus, manufactured and leased by the Israeli company NSO Group…

Post #305: Influence Peddling, A Threat to Democracy and a Humane Foreign Policy

A shorter audio version of this blog is available at: https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/36759 Modern-day democracy has numerous weaknesses, as we’ve been made well aware: policy differences that cannot be resolved, corruption,…

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Post #304: Presidential Warmaking

14 Jul 202114 Jul 2021

A podcast of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/35072 Presidential Prerogatives Once upon a time, American leaders only went to war when, in accordance with the Constitution, Congress declared it. …

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Post #303: Intervention in Haiti?

11 Jul 202120 Jul 2021

Available on podcast: https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/35814/intervention-in-haiti.mp3 "The poorest country in Latin America.” Haiti is seemingly forever defined by that phrase. No matter who is in power, no matter how much foreign aid…

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Post #302: Saving the US-Iran Nuclear Agreement

24 Jun 20216 Jul 2021

Note: This post is also available as a podcast at https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/34028 Despite the best efforts of the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu to disrupt the nuclear talks with Iran by…

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Post #301: The Pentagon’s Untouchable Budget

11 Jun 20215 Jul 2021

This post is also available as a podcast at https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/33010 Did you really think that electing Joe Biden would mean major reductions in military spending and the shift of Pentagon…

Post #300: Saving Democracy in America

6 Jun 20216 Jun 2021

To the Reader: It seems only right and proper that I celebrate my 300th blog on a patriotic note, with a plea to save our democracy and quash the Big…

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Post #299: War Over Taiwan? Avoiding a US-China Miscalculation

2 Jun 20211 Jun 2021

This blog is available as a podcast: https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/32051 A shorter audio version can be accessed at "Today in Foreign Affairs" on the website. The Increasing US Commitment to Taiwan Taiwan…

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Post #298: After the Cease-fire: Peace or War?

24 May 202123 May 2021

This blog is also available as a podcast via podserve.fm: https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/31406 U.N. Secretary General António Guterres urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to go “beyond the restoration of calm to start…

Post #297: To Sanction Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Add Them to the State Department’s List

20 May 202120 May 2021

(Note to Readers: This post is co-authored with Dr. Larry Kirsch, an economist and former managing partner of IMR Health Economics. It follows on #296,”Getting Back to Basics in Policy…

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Post #296: Getting Back to Basics in Policy on Israel

14 May 202115 May 2021

“The problem with the Middle East is that you can try to turn your back on it, but it won’t turn its back on you,” says Martin S. Indyk, former…

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Post #295: North Korea is Back on the US Agenda

23 Apr 202119 Apr 2021

North Korea is rattling America’s cage again. It sent a reminder call when it recently fired off multiple short-range missiles after denouncing Washington for going forward with joint military exercises…

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Post #294: Ending the Race to the Bottom in Corporate Taxation

12 Apr 202112 May 2021

Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has proposed that the US and other countries that host multinational corporations (MNCs) impose a “global minimum corporate tax rate” that would help pay for Biden’s…

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Post #293: The US-China Dialogue of the Deaf in Alaska

30 Mar 202128 Mar 2021

Rules-Based Order? Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he knew, going into the first face-to-face meetings with China’s top two foreign affairs officials on March 17, that “we are fundamentally…

APB

APB: Repression in Myanmar (and an Invitation to a Presentation)

22 Mar 202125 Mar 2021

Democracy in Myanmar suffered a severe setback on February 1 when the Tatmadaw, the country’s military, seized power. The coup did not come as a complete surprise: the National League…

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Post #292: the Navalny case and US-Russia relations

21 Mar 202121 Mar 2021

(Note to Readers: This blog is the long version of my "Global Citizen" broadcast #4, which will be available March 23.) Joe Biden has barely had time to get reacquainted…

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Post #291: Where We Are and Where We’re Headed

5 Mar 20214 Mar 2021

As the Biden administration settles in, let’s pause to take stock of where American politics now stands. It’s not a pretty picture, but it has the potential for improvement. …

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Post #290: Biden’s Opportunity with China

23 Feb 202121 Feb 2021

The dominant view of China in both Washington and in American public opinion is that the United States faces an increasingly ruthless Chinese leadership, requiring that US policy restrain if…

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Post #288: A Progressive Agenda for Biden’s Foreign Policy

27 Jan 202126 Jan 2021

(Note to Readers: This overview of the challenging issues faced by the new administration will be followed by other blogs that examine US policy in greater detail, starting with the…

APB

APB: Our National Embarrassment

It is not enough that under Donald Trump the United States has withdrawn from major international organizations at a time of global need; that its president has humiliated and withdrawn…

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Post #287: The End of American Exceptionalism

9 Jan 20218 Jan 2021

Sedition Whatever you want to call the violent assault in Washington on January 6, 2021—a mob action, a siege, a coup attempt, a riot, domestic terrorism, an insurrection—the fault clearly…

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Post #286: Biden and the World: A First Look at His Foreign Affairs Team (Part 2)

31 Dec 20202 Jan 2021

In the previous post, I introduced the president-elect’s team: a group of serious professionals dedicated to halting and reversing America’s retreat from the world. But, I asked, will they…

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Post #285: Biden and the World: A First Look at His Foreign Affairs Team (Part 1)

27 Dec 202024 Dec 2020

Dream Team? President-elect Joe Biden has introduced his foreign policy and national security team, and it is certainly a far cry from the haphazardly organized group assembled under Donald…

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Post #282: Restoring Democracy, Strengthening the Right to Vote

27 Nov 202027 Nov 2020

As Americans look forward to a new era without Donald Trump, one thing stands out: the gap between the real and the ideal in American-style democracy is far larger…

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Post #281: Trump’s Game

13 Nov 202012 Nov 2020

What is Trump’s game? In defying the vote numbers and urging rejection of a Biden victory, does he seriously believe his own narrative about voter fraud? I doubt it;…

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Post #278: Trumpism Has Brought Democracy to Its Knees

19 Oct 202020 Dec 2020

In what we can only hope is its terminal phase, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to make a mockery of American democracy. Friendly foreign observers bemoan the…

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Post #277: Our Deranged President

In 2016 America’s electoral college gave Donald Trump the presidency. Within a few months we came to realize that this man has serious mental problems. Within a year, some psychologists…

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Post #276: Trump Unmasked

3 Oct 20203 Oct 2020

"I just want to say that the end of the pandemic is in sight,” Donald Trump said Thursday night. A day later he was airlifted to Walter Reed Hospital, down…

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Post #273: Trump’s China Diversion

12 Sep 202020 Dec 2020

The Trump administration’s orchestrated attack on China is commonly assumed to stem from upset over China’s human rights violations and its aggressive behavior in the South China Sea and along…

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Excerpt from my new book, “America in Retreat: Foreign Policy Under Donald Trump”

21 Aug 202021 Aug 2020

[Note to the Reader: The following excerpt is from the final chapter of the book. It was written earlier this year, but I think everything that has happened since gives…

APB

FYI Afghanistan

Here are a few sources from recent days with hopefully interesting ideas about the current situation in Afghanistan. A Zoom interview with Benon Sevan, a longtime senior official with the…

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