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2Jul 20192 Jul 2019

Post #238: Trump-Kim III: Making History Without Making Progress?

Taking a few steps onto North Korean soil, and posing for pictures with a friendly dictator, seem to fit Trump-era…

29Jun 20192 Jul 2019

Post #237: The Trump Way of War

Notice how similar are the Trump administration’s interactions with Iran and North Korea? The pattern in both cases is dangerous,…

21Jun 201921 Jun 2019

Post #236: Iran—Who and Where is the Threat?

The official US narrative on Iran is that it is an escalating threat to “peace and security” in the Middle…

BLOG

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

24 Feb 201923 Feb 2019

Unrelenting Warming The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report for 2019 indicates that most experts point to environmental problems as being the most serious threats to global stability—just as they…

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 #226: On China, the US Public Stands Apart

5 Feb 20194 Feb 2019

Why isn’t the American public as agitated about China as are the Trump administration, the mainstream media, and even many China specialists? In a recent article (www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/01/31/china-gap/), Daniel Drezner, a…

BLOG

Post #225: Trump’s Crusade in Latin America

28 Jan 201927 Jan 2019

What we are witnessing in Venezuela is a Latin America policy that draws from the Cold War and the era of US interventions, when regard for democracy and international law…

BLOG

Post #224: The Shame of the 1 Percent Continues

21 Jan 201927 Jan 2019

Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Sir David Attenborough called on government and business leaders to support, with practical plans, “United Nations decisions on…

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…

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