Has Erdoğan Turned Turkey From an Ally Into an Enemy?
When the heedless Recip Tayyip Erdoğan ordered Turkish jets to bomb Kurdish targets in Syria and Iraq this week—ignoring vigorous American objections—he faced the Trump administration with a question it can’t flinch from much longer: Is Turkey turning from a…
Journal Entry #19
NORFOLK, Conn., April 28—The pimping of ordinary human emotions in the name of the tragedies others suffer is often nearly as infradig as the events the pimp attempts to score against. I wish, in the context I’ll now describe, more…
With Iran in His Crosshairs, Trump Has One Risky Chip to Play
This PDF document is the original version, as filed, of the column posted on April 20. Looks like Iran is next on the list of foreign-policy bad guys Team Trump has in its crosshairs. In an assertive statement Wednesday, Secretary…
How Our Foreign-Policy Elites Manufactured the Korea Crisis
The attack on the Syrian airfield was a message to North Korea and China—and a demonstration of Trump’s capitulation to the imperial clique. The crisis over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic-missile programs now builds to a perilous pitch with no…
Journal Entry #18
LAKE WARAMAUG, CONN., APRIL 18—I recently finished a pair of pieces for The Nation concerning the modestly ambitious topic of the liberal order, as the global system within which we live is known. They were not marked as a two-part…
Trump’s ‘Tough Guy’ Foreign Policy Falls Flat with Russia and China
Now that Russia and China have jumped to the top of Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda, how’s the president doing with Washington’s two most important relationships outside the Atlantic alliance? The crises in Syria and North Korea have suddenly complicated…
Journal Entry #17
NORFOLK, Conn., April 9—The evening of March 19, 2003, a Wednesday, was cold, winter-dark, and snowy where I live in the Litchfield Hills. How well I recall it. I was at the home of close friends, Sara and the late…
Trump Acts on Obama’s ‘Red Line’ by Launching Missiles at Syrian Targets
This PDF document is the original version, as filed, of the column posted on April 6. A week ago, administration officials said that ousting Syrian President Bashar al–Assad was no longer the U.S. priority. After Obama and then-Secretary of State…
The Crisis of the Liberal Order and Pankaj Mishra’s ‘Age of Anger’
Fundamental reformation is required, if we are to do better than the world he describes. When we speak or write about “the liberal order,” what do we mean? Most people use this phrase as if its definition and validity are…
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