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In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

Critical appraisals of foreign affairs and politics from a global-citizen perspective

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Tag: engagement

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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 #262: Weaponizing the Virus

22 May 202021 May 2020
China is “the central threat of our times,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in January 2020. Since then, the Trump administration has done everything it can to pump up…
BLOG

Post #252: No Room for Dialogue

3 Jan 20203 Jan 2020
“Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak, and he’s ineffective. So the only way he figures that he’s going…
BLOG

Post #249: Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and the Insecurity of China’s Leadership

5 Dec 20195 Dec 2019
Hong Kong is in chaos, with no sign that the protesters will yield on their demands. Mass incarceration and indoctrination of Uyghurs and other Chinese Muslims has become so widely…
BLOG

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

21 Jun 201921 Jun 2019
The official US narrative on Iran is that it is an escalating threat to “peace and security” in the Middle East and must be stopped. Step by step, with Mike…
BLOG

Post #234: Why the Trade War with China is So Dangerous

4 Jun 20193 Jun 2019
The trade war with China that Trump so confidently predicted would result in a great new deal now threatens to become a permanent feature of US-China relations. Why that is…
BLOG

Post #232: Baiting Iran

14 May 2019
Ever since Donald Trump became president, regime change in Iran has been a prominent US aim. Trump began by backing out of the nuclear deal and imposing harsh sanctions, setting…
BLOG

Post #231: National Security—A Dangerous Confusion

7 May 201927 May 2019
This blog also appeared in Informed Consent, May 6, 2019, https://www.juancole.com/2019/05/backward-ignoring-interference.html There is a dangerous confusion in US national security policy when evaluating relations with Russia and China. The Trump…
APB

APB: Trump and Kim, Act II

28 Feb 201928 Feb 2019
Trump was correct to describe denuclearization last June as a lengthy “process” that one summit meeting could not achieve. However, the second summit, in Hanoi at the end of February…
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 #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

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 #216: A Victory for Diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula

29 Sep 20182 Oct 2018
On September 18 leaders of North and South Korea signed a September Declaration to advance inter-Korean cooperation and the possibility of the North’s denuclearization. Critics immediately dismissed the agreement for…
BLOG

Post #212: Some Dare Call It Treason

19 Jul 201819 Jul 2018
Is Donald Trump not merely gullible, uninformed, and indifferent but actually treasonous when it comes to Russia? More and more high-profile people are saying so. He’s acting like “a Russian…
BLOG

Post #208: What Happened? Assessing the Singapore Summit

13 Jun 201813 Jun 2018
“Peace and prosperity,” “lasting and stable peace,” “peace regime,” “denuclearization,” “new US-DPRK relations”—these fine words and phrases dominate the joint statement of Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un. Yet it’s difficult…
BLOG

Post #146: How to Make Enemies

26 Jan 201727 Feb 2017
  About two weeks ago I wrote a blog, “Unfit to Command,” which argues that Donald Trump lacks the temperament, intelligence, and leadership qualities to be in charge of US…
American Politics and the World…

Post #142: Unfit to Command

9 Jan 201727 Feb 2017
  During the presidential campaign a significant number of former senior foreign policy and national security officials from both parties spoke in no uncertain terms about Donald Trump’s qualifications to…
American Politics and the World…

Post #133: Left Unsaid at the Third Debate

21 Oct 201627 Feb 2017
Donald Trump waited one day before delivering the punch line to his sad joke, “I will keep you in suspense” about respecting the election results.  “Unless I win,” he said…
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…

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  • Post #368: A Big Deal: China’s Middle East Diplomatic Coup
  • Post #367: Deepening Tensions on the Korean Peninsula Demand New Thinking in Washington
  • Post #366: No Exit: Two Ukraine Peace Proposals Going Nowhere
  • Post #365: The Coup in Israel
  • Post #364: China and Europe: Profits versus Principles

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