Skip to content
In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

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

Search
  • BLOGMel’s long-form thoughts
  • APBComments on today’s news
  • ARTICLESCommentary by others
  • DOCS, REPORTS, NOTICESfrom NGOs, governments, etc.
    • MEDIAVideos, Cartoons and More
  • ABOUT MEL GURTOV and THIS SITE

Tag: US foreign policy

BLOG

Post #286: Biden and the World: A First Look at His Foreign Affairs Team (Part 2)

31 Dec 20202 Jan 2021
           In the previous post, I introduced the president-elect’s team: a group of serious professionals dedicated to halting and reversing America’s retreat from the world.  But, I asked, will they…
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 #280: Biden’s Jobs 1-10

8 Nov 2020
In the next several weeks, President-elect Joe Biden will be preoccupied with creating a 100-day action agenda.  It might be called "Operation Renewal." Here are my top-10 choices, in no…
BLOG

Post #278: Trumpism Has Brought Democracy to Its Knees

19 Oct 202020 Dec 2020
In what we can only hope is its terminal phase, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to make a mockery of American democracy.  Friendly foreign observers bemoan the…
BLOG

Post #271: The Israel-UAE Agreement: Good for a Few, Bad for Most

26 Aug 202025 Aug 2020
The Real Deal Commentators evidently desperate for good news are touting the Israel-United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreement as a welcome path to Middle East peace. The agreement trades Israel’s promise…
BLOG

Post #257: NUKES: The Unmentionable Election Issue (Part 2)

17 Mar 202015 Mar 2020
Getting to Zero Where are the Democrats? Why isn’t the present nuclear danger front and center in the Democrats’ presidential debates?  I can think of a few reasons.  First, Democrats…
APB

APB: Embarrassing Moments from Trump’s Visit to India

25 Feb 2020
Donald Trump abroad never ceases to entertain with his ignorance and misstatements. As India’s leaders learned from Trump’s previous visits to Saudi Arabia and China, all it takes is pomp…
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 #250: The Afghanistan Pentagon Papers

10 Dec 20199 Dec 2019
The war in Afghanistan, America’s longest, has cost about 2,300 US lives, over 20,000 wounded, and about $1 trillion. Now, thanks to the persistence of the Washington Post, we have…
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 #248: Getting Rid of Treacherous Friends

17 Nov 201916 Nov 2019
Backing the Wrong Horse, Again The United States has a long record of befriending the wrong people—authoritarian leaders who rely on military and police power to enforce social inequality and…
BLOG

Post #243: No War for Saudi Oil!

17 Sep 201922 Sep 2019
Even if US intelligence decisively shows that some of the drones and cruise missiles used in the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields originated in Iran, a decision to go…
BLOG

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

2 Jul 20192 Jul 2019
Taking a few steps onto North Korean soil, and posing for pictures with a friendly dictator, seem to fit Trump-era diplomacy better than a carefully laid out process. But unless…
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 #233: Another Fake “Emergency”

25 May 201924 May 2019
Just a few months ago Saudi Arabia’s leader, Mohammed bin-Salman (MBS), was on the defensive.  He had authorized the murder of an independent journalist, his domestic “reforms” had turned out…

Posts navigation

Older posts

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Recommended

  • Ending nuclear lawlessness
  • Andrei Lankov on the durability of the Kim Jong-un regime
  • Dali Yang reviews Minxin Pei’s book on endemic corruption in China
  • Best way to combat climate change? Don’t fly.
  • Moral corruption in the Trump camp
  • Bill Maher Skewers Trump Circle on Russia
  • Why Trump always takes the low road
  • “1984” in Xinjiang, China
  • Career US Foreign Service officer and China expert offers advice on US-China relations
  • Who profits from nuclear weapons?
  • John Holdren, former senior Obama S&T director, gives PowerPt rebuttal of all climate change deniers
  • World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: Second Notice
  • UN Special Rapporteur’s report on extreme poverty in America
  • Putin is not as invulnerable as we may think
  • Coming Extinction of the Great Barrier Reef
  • Bill McKibben on extreme weather
  • A philanthropist makes a grand pledge for conservation
  • Impeachment
  • Bernie Sanders’ foreign policy
  • A former nuclear regulator now wants to ban N-power
  • 900 Former Prosecutors Say Trump Guilty of Obstruction of Justice
  • Open Letter: China is not the enemy
  • The Dangerous Anti-China Consensus in the US
  • A patriotic ambassador tells the truth about Ukraine
  • US House Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Report
  • A Song for the Times
  • Making China a US Enemy is Counterproductive
  • Putting America back together
  • Gen. Mattis Denounces Trump
  • Goodbye, Donald Trump

Recent Comments

Tom Morehouse on APB: Our National Embarrassmen…
Alan Potkin on Post #287: The End of American…
Monte Khoshnevisan on APB: Our National Embarrassmen…
Mel Gurtov on Post #286: Biden and the World…
Bob Wise on Post #287: The End of American…

Search Posts

Archives

Follow me on Facebook

Follow me on Facebook

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 644 other followers

Follow by RSS

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

Journals with my recent articles

  • Asian Perspective Comments on the “Open Letter to the President and Congress on China Policy”
  • China-US Focus Chinese domestic and foreign policy; US-China relations
  • Counterpunch critical commentary from my blog on current affairs
  • Foreign Policy in Focus COVID-19 has contributed to US-China tensions instead of to cooperation.
  • Global Asia China’s flouting of human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang warrants US criticism, but not abandonment of engagement possibilities.
  • The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Articles on US-China relations and the End-of-Poverty Illusion in East Asia

Virtual Talk, Sept. 22, 2020: Book talk, "America in Retreat: Foreign Policy Under Donald Trump," Noon, at World Affairs Council of Oregon, register at https://www.worldoregon.org.

No upcoming events

Website Powered by WordPress.com.
Cancel