BLOG Post #368: A Big Deal: China’s Middle East Diplomatic Coup 26 Mar 202325 Mar 2023 A Big Deal for Some By any stretch of the imagination, the March 10 announcement of China’s brokering of a Saudi Arabia-Iran agreement to resume diplomatic relations and exchange security…
BLOG Post #367: Deepening Tensions on the Korean Peninsula Demand New Thinking in Washington 18 Mar 202318 Mar 2023 The Mounting Danger Tensions on the Korean peninsula have reached a new level of intensity. North Korea’s foreign ministry issued a statement Feb. 17 in anticipation of another round of…
BLOG Post #363: More on the China Balloon Episode: Much Ado About Very Little 13 Feb 202322 Feb 2023 (The China Balloon Incident has three phases. We have just exited Phase 2. In Phase 1, “Discovery,” the Biden administration went into action mode on finding that a Chinese “spy”…
BLOG Post #358: China’s COVID Uprising 4 Dec 20227 Jan 2023 Significant dissent in China reared its head for the first time since the Tiananmen uprising in 1989. In many of China’s major cities, protesters joined hands to denounce the COVID…
BLOG Post #357: The Biden-Xi Summit in Bali 22 Nov 202222 Nov 2022 Some Reasons for Optimism The much-ballyhooed first in-person summit between Pres. Biden and Xi on November 14 went off pretty well. Biden clearly communicated the US belief that a…
BLOG Post #343: China’s Surveillance State and Its Meaning for Us 5 Jul 202229 Jul 2022 The audio of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/64174/52-chinas-surveillance-state-and-ours.mp3 The Tools of Surveillance In a recent commentary, I discussed the visit to China of the UN’s chief human rights official…
BLOG Post #341: Co-opted: The UN’s Misguided Mission to Xinjiang 16 Jun 202215 Jun 2022 The audio version of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/62559/49-co-opted-the-uns-failed-mission-in-xinjiang.mp3. A Genocidal Policy The top UN human rights official recently traveled to Xinjiang province in China, hoping to persuade Beijing’s leaders…
BLOG Post #340: The Arsenal, But Not of Democracy 4 Jun 202210 Jun 2022 The audio version of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/61577/48-an-arsenal-but-not-of-democracy.mp3 America is awash with weapons, and the tragic consequences are before us every day. The world is also awash with…
BLOG Post #339: Biden, Taiwan, and Strategic Ambiguity 27 May 202228 May 2022 An audio version of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/60974/47-biden-taiwan-and-strategic-ambiguity.mp3 Defending Taiwan At a stopover in Tokyo during his Asia trip, President Biden was asked whether the US would “defend Taiwan”…
BLOG Post #335: The Coming Old New Order 30 Apr 2022 From Cold War to Cold War A principal lesson of the war in Ukraine is that the Cold War never ended. German reunification, the Soviet Union’s collapse, new entries…
BLOG Post #333: Crimes of War 13 Apr 202211 Apr 2022 The audio version is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/56499/42-crimes-of-war.mp3 Mass Violence in Our Times In just the past few years, we have witnessed mass violence directed at innocent people in many places: China’s…
BLOG Post #327: Putin’s War 24 Feb 202225 Feb 2022 Shortly after Joe Biden took office, a distinguished political science professor (whom I won’t name) advised the new administration to engage with Russia in order to stop the Chinese threat.…
BLOG Post #325: China’s Careful Dance Around the Ukraine Crisis 6 Feb 20225 Feb 2022 The podcast of this blog may be heard at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/50923/34-china-russia-relations-and-the-ukraine-crisis.mp3 Reports out of Washington suggest worry over a Russia-China partnership that would facilitate Vladimir Putin’s presumed ambition to absorb Ukraine…
BLOG Post #323 – Destroying Democracy: China in Hong Kong 11 Jan 202211 Jan 2022 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 Kong over to China under an agreement that was supposed…
BLOG 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…
BLOG POST #312: The China Initiative, A Flawed and Dysfunctional Policy 22 Sep 2021 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…
BLOG… Post #305: Influence Peddling, A Threat to Democracy and a Humane Foreign Policy 1 Aug 2021 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,…
BLOG 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…
BLOG Post #283: Mike Pompeo’s Crusade against the red menace 13 Dec 202012 Dec 2020 Thanks in good part to the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, McCarthyism is alive and well in the US. Pompeo has become one of America’s leading dogmatist, ranting and railing…
BLOG Post #279: In Defense of Confucius Institutes 30 Oct 202029 Oct 2020 Readers may be surprised to learn that while disputes between the US and China over trade, human rights, and the pandemic are making headlines, educational exchange programs are Washington’s chief…
In the Human Interest - Mel Gurtov 