BLOG Post #170: All is Not Quiet on the Western Front 28 May 201727 May 2017 Donald Trump’s visit to NATO headquarters last week was consistent with two of his foreign-policy views: the need to pursue close relations with Russia, and skepticism about NATO's utility. Despite…
BLOG Post #169: Trump in Saudi Arabia: With Friends Like These 21 May 201720 May 2017 Donald Trump seems to be more popular in Saudi Arabia than in the United States. And the House of Saud knows just how to take advantage of that perception. Borrowing…
BLOG Post #168: Watergate II? A Scenario for Trump’s Resignation 17 May 201716 May 2017 “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” said Donald Trump to James Comey on February 14, a day after General Flynn…
BLOG Post #167: Our Imperiled Democracy 11 May 201710 May 2017 Ambitious national political leaders invariably face a problem: how to get things done in the face of competing interests and institutional rules. Democratic leaders generally learn how to accommodate those…
BLOG Post #166: Chemical Warfare in Syria: The Question of Responsibility (Part 1) 2 May 20171 May 2017 PART 1 Syria’s Guilt On April 4 chemical weapons were used in an attack on the Syrian city of Khan Sheikhoun in which about 80 people were killed and several…
BLOG Post #166: Chemical Warfare in Syria: The Question of Responsibility (Part 2) 2 May 20171 May 2017 PART 2 The Arguments of Supporters of Syria’s Claims Some readers may be inclined to believe the Syrian and Russian claims regarding the April 4 chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun,…
BLOG Post #165: No Exit? The NY Times and North Korea 24 Apr 201723 Apr 2017 Three opinion pieces on US policy toward North Korea have appeared in the New York Times in the past week. They deserve critical comment. The writers are all very capable…
BLOG Post #164: The Wrong Way and the Right Way to Influence Adversaries 18 Apr 201717 Apr 2017 The Shape-Shifter In my previous post I pointed to the difficulty people in the media are having in figuring out where Donald Trump’s administration stands on foreign policy issues. He’s…
BLOG Post #163: The Guesswork About Trump’s Foreign Policy 13 Apr 201714 Apr 2017 In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to respond with force to use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad’s government, various sources have, in my view, thoroughly misinterpreted the…
BLOG Post #162: Trump’s Shortsighted Intervention in Syria 9 Apr 20178 Apr 2017 Realism and Idealism Before April 6 The reaction of the Trump administration to the Syrian government’s use of sarin against innocent civilians raises important, and never resolved, questions about the…
BLOG Post #161: “They’ll Never Learn” Department: Trump and North Korea 5 Apr 20174 Apr 2017 As Donald Trump prepares to meet Xi Jinping, his administration is going down the old road of believing it can pressure China to solve the North Korea nuclear weapons problem—or…
BLOG Post #160: The Great Distracter 2 Apr 20172 Apr 2017 Three of Donald Trump’s latest ploys to distract attention from Russiagate have failed. First was Rep. Devin Nunes’ late night visit to the White House under escort by two staff…
In the Human Interest - Mel Gurtov 
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