American Politics and the World… Post #130: Notes from the First Debate 28 Sep 201627 Feb 2017 Now that a few days have passed since the first Clinton-Trump debate, I want to offer a few evaluations. Prior to the debate, pundits said that Trump needed to moderate…
BLOG… Post #129: Carrots or Sticks? Addressing North Korea’s Fifth Nuclear Test 20 Sep 201627 Feb 2017 As many experts predicted, North Korea (DPRK) followed another ballistic missile test with its fifth nuclear-weapon test on September 9. The event continues a pattern of testing increasingly sophisticated weapons…
BLOG… Post #128: The Dark Side of United Nations Peacekeeping 15 Sep 201627 Feb 2017 United Nations peacekeeping operations (PKOs) involve over 125,000 soldiers deployed in sixteen countries, with a total budget of nearly $8 billion. Their missions range from interposing themselves between combatants…
BLOG… Post #127: Mission Impossible in the Middle East 1 Sep 201627 Feb 2017 We all know from personal experience how difficult it is to burn the candle at both ends when we’re trying to satisfy two people who are at odds with one…
American Politics and the World… Post #126: How Trump Deals 16 Aug 201627 Feb 2017 The revelation from a New York Times investigation that Donald Trump’s chief campaign adviser, Paul Manafort, was on the take with the former pro-Russian Ukraine president should come as no…
BLOG… Post #125: Our Deteriorating Environment: Is Anybody Listening? 5 Aug 201627 Feb 2017 Since beginning my blog in January 2014, I have written several pieces on the urgency of dealing with climate change and other large-scale environmental challenges—challenges that I have argued constitute…
American Politics and the World… Post #124: Break-in: The Kremlin-Trump Connection 26 Jul 201627 Feb 2017 Richard Nixon had “The Plumbers.” Donald Trump, it seems, has the Russians—either the FSB (Federal Security Service, formerly the KGB), the GRU (military intelligence), or some pro-Moscow outside group. Nixon…
American Politics and the World… Post #123: Donald Trump—A “Unique and Present Danger” 23 Jul 201627 Feb 2017 “There can be no prosperity without law and order.” If you saw Donald Trump delivering those words—he repeated “law and order” three more times—you had every reason to think you…
BLOG… Post #122: China’s Bad Day in Court 13 Jul 201627 Feb 2017 As had been widely expected, the Permanent Court of Arbitration under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) ruled on July 12 in favor of the Philippines’…
BLOG… Post #121: Unintended Consequences and the Warfare State 7 Jul 201627 Feb 2017 “The danger is, as ever with these things, unintended consequences.” So wrote Prime Minister Tony Blair to President George W. Bush in 2002, as Bush prepared to invade Iraq (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/07/06/full-text-annotated-tony-blairs-2002-iraq-memo-to-george-bush). …
BLOG… Post #120: Is Brexit the End of the World? 27 Jun 201627 Feb 2017 To judge from a New York Times front-page article that appeared two days after the British vote to withdraw from the EU, the entire post-World War II global financial and…
BLOG… Post #119 – Too Close for Comfort: The Dangerous US-China Maritime Dispute 11 Jun 201627 Feb 2017 The Background Two recent close encounters between US spy planes and Chinese jets spell trouble for relations between Washington and Beijing. The first occurred over the South China Sea…
In the Human Interest - Mel Gurtov 
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