
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Hong Kong’s Inevitable Showdown
This reckoning with Beijing’s authority was baked into the cake 22 years ago when the Union Jack came down over Government House. It is impossible not to admire the bravery and commitment pro-democracy demonstrators display daily as they clog Hong…

PATRICK LAWRENCE: Finally Time for DNC Email Evidence
The crumbling of Russiagate focuses attention on the considerable evidence that Russian intelligence agencies charged with intrusion into DNC servers had nothing to do with it. Three years after the narrative we call Russiagate was framed and incessantly promoted, it…

PATRICK LAWRENCE: Brighter US-Iran Prospects
Despite the seemingly escalating risks of war, last week also produced an unexpected drift toward the mahogany table. There was no shortage of alarming incidents in and around the Persian Gulf last week. But the risks of open conflict between…

PATRICK LAWRENCE: Weaponizing the Dollar
The Trump administration’s incessant sanctions wars are curbing the dollar’s global hegemony and speeding the demise of U.S. empire. The signs are mounting steadily now. As the Trump administration weaponizes the dollar in defense of American hegemony, it…
Journal Entry #49
What we have made of ourselves. NORFOLK, CONN., JUNE 24—Two friends sent a couple of news items this week that prompt in Cú Chulainn a mood of sober reflection. Just who are we in the nineteenth year of our new…

PATRICK LAWRENCE: Accelerating Imperial Decline
Washington’s foreign policy towards Iran is driven by desperation rather than a reasoned understanding of a world in historically significant flux. That can lead only to a continuing succession of failures. The kinetic events of the past week in Washington,…

PATRICK LAWRENCE: Regrouping the Nuclear Dealmakers
There are three good reasons for Iran to go back to the table, says Patrick Lawrence. Does the Trump administration want to negotiate peaceably with Iran, or is it intent on bringing the Islamic Republic to its knees while setting…
Journal Entry #48
Memory and forgetting, power and the press. NORFOLK, CONN., JUNE 6—The New York Times carried an interesting opinion item in its Tuesday editions. This is worthy of comment all by itself, of course: Reflecting the Times’ very essential duties in…

PATRICK LAWRENCE: The US-China Decoupling
The long, dense economic relationship appears to have passed its peak, writes Patrick Lawrence. President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is swiftly taking a decisive turn for the worse. Step by step, each measure prompting retaliation, a spat so…

The Empire Podcast – Ep 106 Bolton-Pompeo Axis feat Patrick Lawrence
Guest: Patrick Lawrence. We discuss President Trump’s relationship with his chosen cabinet hawks, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton and what Lawrence sees as a foreign policy coup by the Bolton-Pompeo axis. Patrick Lawrence is a columnist and essayist who specializes…
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