Trump’s Next Challenge: Russia Returns to Afghanistan
America’s 16-years in Afghanistan has so far resulted in 2,216 dead soldiers, 20,049 casualties, and an estimated $800 billion in direct war costs — not including veterans’ health and pension payments that could reach $400 billion before it’s all over….
Tillerson’s Asia Trip Could Signal the End US Soft Diplomacy
It was clear as soon as Rex Tillerson arrived in Tokyo late Wednesday that the new secretary of state’s first trip to Asia could turn out to be a mission impossible. In a six-day tour of three nations, the unproven…
If France Elects Le Pen, Another Country Will Have Been Scared Stupid
The French, along with the rest of Europe, were on the edges of their seats before the American elections last autumn: Who will it be—a right-wing populist disrupter or a centrist favoring liberal economics, open borders, global institutions, and a…
Trump Has No South China Sea Strategy—and Needs One Fast
The South China Sea question is rolling toward the Trump White House like a long, low Pacific wave. Whenever it breaks, the president’s going to need a strategy he doesn’t seem to have yet. The strategy is just a piece…
North Korea’s Missile Test Leaves Trump with Three Options
You have to hand it to Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s unpredictable president: Launching a new ballistic missile just as President Trump and Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe were meeting in Washington couldn’t have been more provocative. Factor in the assassination of…
Trump’s Tough Stance on Iran: Nothing to Gain, a Lot to Lose
President Trump said all along he was going to go after the Iran nuclear pact—another of his “worst evers.” During his campaign, he promised more sanctions, a promise which he has now kept after Iran fired a ballistic missile test…
Trump Talks to Putin, and Suddenly Ukraine’s in Play
Fighting erupted in Ukraine after many months of uneasy but consistent calm after Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the U.S. and Russian presidents, finally spoke for the first time last weekend by telephone. Instantly, the Trump White House is faced…
Trump Just Blew His Chance to Renegotiate NAFTA
President Donald Trump’s determination to upend the accords that frame American trade policy are taking root. Even before Trump spiked the Trans–Pacific Partnership on Monday, the White House had signaled that the new president would renegotiate the North American Free…
Trump’s Blunders on NATO and Russia Make Our European Allies Cringe
If you thought Donald Trump’s foreign policy positions were politically calculated toss-offs, think again. The interview he gave The Times of London last week put the world on notice: The views Trump expressed as he campaigned last year—notably on NATO,…
On Day One, Trump Faces Two Huge Foreign Policy Challenges
Barack Obama isn’t handing Donald Trump any portfolio of foreign-policy successes as he passes the baton the next president. Trump is about to step into a world that his peace-prize-winning predecessor has made measurably more unstable and dangerous than it…
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