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…
Trump’s Job No. 1: Recoup the Jobs, Wages and Security Lost to Trade Deals
President-elect Trump’s choice of Robert Lighthizer as his special trade representative, announced Tuesday afternoon, completes the first string of the new administration’s trade team. So it’s time to draw a couple of clear conclusions. Conclusion No. 1: Trump is a…
Trump Will Be Steadier on China Than His Taiwan Call May Suggest
There’s only one smart way to take all the heavy breathing since Donald Trump’s 10-minute telephone conversation last Friday with Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president. Ignore it: Most of what’s been ricocheting around the press last week misses the point by…
Trump’s Taiwan Kerfuffle—and How the Policy Wonks Got It Wrong
The claim that he had no idea of the political and diplomatic implications when he took his call from Taipei does not hold water. Are you paying attention to the commotion over Donald Trump’s 10-minute telephone conversation last week with…
5 Foreign Policy Challenges President-Elect Trump Faces Before He Unpacks
Foreigners always watch U.S. elections, but rarely with the edge-of-the-seat suspense evident as the votes were tallied Tuesday. With Donald Trump’s dramatic victory, they’re as much in the dark as we are. Pick your foreign policy: What’s he going to…
The Filipino President Just Set Off a Diplomatic Earthquake
Rodrigo Duterte’s tilt toward China is a fundamental shift in the Western Pacific power balance. It is one thing for a leader such as Vladimir Putin to send all of Washington and the media clerks serving it into a dither—as…
As Ties With Russia Grow Hostile, Three Dangers to Watch For
Now that Washington’s efforts to resolve the Syria crisis jointly with Moscow are a complete debacle, what else can get worse before President Obama cedes the White House to his successor? The answer could not be grimmer: U.S.–Russian relations across…
Why Clinton’s China Policy Puts More at Risk than Trump’s
The two confirmed presidential candidates we’ll have by the end of this week have little in common, except they’re both wealthy New Yorkers. Among the many differences between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, China policy ranks very high. How the…
Disarray in NATO Completes Obama’s Foreign Policy Legacy
As of Friday, when NATO concluded its most important gathering since the Cold War ended, the North Atlantic alliance has a full menu of new tasks. So does Barack Obama’s successor. With the Warsaw summit, Obama’s foreign policy legacy is…
The Defense Department is ruining America: Big budgets, militarization and the real story behind our Asia pivot
“Our defense contractors await your business.” That was the message behind Obama and Carter’s visits to Asia You have to tip the cap to Defense Secretary Carter. People in Washington spin things as a matter of course, as Ben Rhodes,…
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