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 #223: Happy New Year from Kim Jong-un 6 Jan 2019 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…
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 30 Nov 2018 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…
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,…
BLOG Post #215: On Dealing with China 18 Sep 201826 Sep 2018 (Note: A slightly different version of this article has been published as "The China Conundrum" at https://www.chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/the-china-conundrum.) A Self-Confident China Ever since China’s economic reforms began in 1978, the goal…
BLOG Post #210: At Home and Abroad, Trump Abandons Human Rights (Part 1) 7 Jul 20187 Jul 2018 In January 1941, with the prospect looming of US involvement in another European war, President Franklin Roosevelt spoke of America’s purpose in the world: to protect and promote “four freedoms.”…
APB APB: A Dangerous Game of Chicken 6 Apr 20186 Apr 2018 As the “tit-for-tat” trade fight between the US and China escalates, Donald Trump is likely to find that he doesn’t “know China” the way he once thought. When he said…
American Politics and the World… Post #148: Bannon’s Coup 31 Jan 201727 Feb 2017 Stephen K. Bannon, Donald Trump’s chief strategist, has been elevated to the Principals Committee of the National Security Council, the top tier of national-security policymakers.* It is the first…
American Politics and the World… Post #135: Our Worst Nightmare Has Come to Pass 9 Nov 201627 Feb 2017 The American people voted for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by nearly 800,000 votes.* But Trump was right: the system is rigged, meaning that thanks to our outdated and illogical…
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…
American Politics and the World… Post #118: Cowgirl Diplomacy? Foreign Policy Under Hillary Clinton 24 May 201627 Feb 2017 America’s mainstream media, ever attracted to the splashy rather than the serious, has a new topic to occupy the time until Election Day: President Trump. What will he do first? …
BLOG… Post #117: Evaluating Obama’s Foreign Policy Record 15 May 201627 Feb 2017 So you’re not excited by Donald Trump’s announcement of his first foreign-policy acts as president: building the Mexico Wall, the No-Muslims Wall, the End-of-NATO Wall, and the China Trade Wall. …
BLOG… Post #115: Sanctions and Defiance in North Korea 23 Apr 201627 Feb 2017 Part 1: Sanctions—A Failed Strategy (Note: This is the first of a two-part commentary on North Korea. The second part will discuss the North’s latest weapons programs, which have evidently…
