Obama’s Dithering, Dickering, Dire Foreign Policy
Last week was a stinging passage for President Obama as he tried and mostly failed to find support, at home and abroad, for his plan to bomb Syrian military facilities. Things will not improve for the beleaguered administration in days to…
Obama’s Gambit on Syria Belies a Clear Mideast Policy
President Obama surprised allies and enemies alike when he stepped back over the weekend from plans to bombard Syria in response to Bashar al–Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons. Taking policy toward errant regimes in the Islamic world off autopilot—attack…
Syrian Crisis Exposes Obama’s Failed Mideast Policy
The U.S. response to the escalating Syria crisis requires more thought than emotion, and it has to reach across the board—to Egypt, to Iran, to the friendly, repressive Saudis and the friendly, repressive emirates, to the antagonizing Russians. In a word,…
How Obama Got It Wrong in Egypt
President Obama has just made a fateful choice in Egypt. He has chosen a side in the violent confrontation between supporters of the nation’s first elected president and the army generals who deposed him in a coup six weeks ago….
Obama’s Putin Policy: Flinch and Retreat
Washington and Moscow have a lot to talk about, but President Obama canceled the scheduled one-on-one meeting with President Vladimir Putin next month, as the two had planned. The Syrian crisis, a multitude of questions concerning Iran, nuclear arms reductions,…
Why the U.S. Is Crashing in the Middle East
Is it too soon to suggest that the Obama administration’s Middle East policy is collapsing? An unusual spurt of news from across the region points to failed US policies: (1) The U.S. has been outpaced in the region since the Arab…
The Global Economy Takes a Baby Step Forward
It’s starting to look like that longed-for moment many of us thought would never arrive. Economies around the world have just clocked in with some good news. How shall we read it? It is too soon to declare we have…
How the Spooks Will Sink the Trade Pact with Europe
It is supposed to be the largest trade agreement ever forged between two countries. But the Trans–Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership never looked promising. And now that the US and Europe have completed a first round of talks, it is…
Why It’s Time to Talk to Our New ‘Iranian Friends’
It is exactly a month since Iranians went to the polls in very high numbers and elected Hassan Rouhani their new president, and already most of the pundits and scribblers are wrong.Those elections were not supposed to make any difference. One…
The Coup in Egypt: A Failure Greater than Morsi
The removal from power of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s duly elected president will never change one irrefutable truth: If you applaud or support military coups in democracies—even young, wrongheaded democracies—you aid in the making of a very messy world. Only a…
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