Journal Entry #28
Discernment NORFOLK, CONN., NOVEMBER 26— I spent a very agreeable evening Friday, day after Thanksgiving, at a friend’s house in Hartford—he a professor of Iberian studies at Trinity College. A few hours before arriving, I had filed a column now…
American policy totally failed in Syria — let’s be thankful
Despite media obfuscation, last week’s meeting between Putin and Assad suggests a new order in the Middle East I kept hearing National Public Radio programs this week to the effect that liberals and “progressives,” not to mention those in the…
Trump’s foreign policy is confused — but it isn’t really Trump’s
Trump had one consequential moment during his Asia trip — and everyone in the rudderless American media missed it No sooner did Donald Trump return a week ago from his 12-day escapade in Asia than the bickering began. Did the…
Journal Entry #27
A forest of manipulated images. NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 13— In my last Cú Chulainn entry, I began to set down a few remarks about the compromise of the Democratic National Committee’s mail systems in mid–2016. These were my first comments…
Trump in Beijing—Devoid of a Strategy, While Xi Deploys China’s
Next to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, and its alliance with Moscow, Washington’s preference for perpetual conflict looks pitifully bankrupt. A tour of the Forbidden City, dinner in the Great Hall of the People, a review of the People’s Liberation…
Tragedy of the Rohingya: The Burmese crisis and the nation-state
Where did the human rights disaster in Myanmar come from? Believe it or not, the Catalan situation is related A number of readers wrote last week, either via the comment thread or email to my website, in response to a column…
Journal Entry #26
NEW YORK, October 31—A reader (and a new and generous supporter) wrote just yesterday to raise a matter that comes regularly to mind these past few months. “I would very much appreciate an update regarding your current thinking about the…
Trump Goes to Asia—but the Pentagon Gets There First
Mattis confirms policy with Manila, Tokyo, and Seoul before the president’s first trip across the Pacific. At the end of this week our president is to set off on an 11–day sweep through Asia—five nations plus two regional forums, one…
The Catalan crisis: Is the contemporary nation-state in jeopardy?
Spain’s clumsy government has made a difficult situation worse. That doesn’t mean the nation should be dismembered We reach a grim moment in the crisis between Catalonia and the Spanish state. And it has come hard and fast since late…
Dumb and dumber: Trump’s foreign policy repeats decades of American mistakes
Trump’s foreign policy is entirely incoherent. But it’s just a stupider continuation of everything since 1945 Topic of the week seems to be Donald Trump’s foreign policy. This is about right. Annual reviews of a president’s record managing America’s conduct…
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