China’s New Development Bank: How Obama Blew It in the Pacific (Again)
When China launched a new multilateral lending institution last October amid fanfare in the Great Hall of the People, the Obama administration had already spent many months opposing it. It urged Beijing not to go forward; then it lobbied allies…
Tom Cotton’s war on reality: The GOP will recognize no limits
The extreme right will risk global conflict to preserve the fading dream of America’s eternal hegemony That letter Republican senators, 47 of the 54 now seated, sent to Iran this week to sabotage the Obama administration’s nuclear talks is preposterous…
A Nuclear Deal with Iran Starts to Look Likely
Will we or won’t we have an international deal defining Iran’s nuclear programby the negotiators’ self-imposed deadline? There are two weeks left. This is now the kind of cliffhanger the London bookmakers usually offer odds on. My wager is that…
Germany’s New Policy Plan Puts the US on Catch Up
It takes a strong nation, as opposed to one that’s merely powerful to rethink the way it conducts its foreign relations. Germany now proves the point, and Americans should sit up straight and take a long look. This is nothing…
Why 2015 Will Make or Break a Spate of Global Alliances
U.S., Russia, Iran, China, Europe all face loyalty tests Call it the “Year of Tenuous Ties” as new alliances take shape Obama has to rethink his approach to both Russia and China Last January this column nominated 2014 as “the…
“Have we forgotten how beautiful it is to be on fire for justice?”
No matter the country, our foreign policy seems to make the same mistake over and over. What’s behind this pattern? “Novelists write the secret histories of nations.” I am not sure who made this bull’s eye remark. But I cite…
We’ve corporatized the planet: The unseemly secret about America’s foreign policy
In Ukraine, however, these efforts seem to have failed. Here’s why that’s a good thing We do not read much about Ukraine lately, do we? With unseemly speed, among the most important developments of the last few years has fallen…
An Obama Failure with Iran Seems Inevitable
A year ago, under skies as sunny as we’ve had lately, Iran’s just-elected president, Hassan Rouhani, had his premiere at the United Nations and popped open the door to a settlement on his nation’s nuclear program and a cooperative relationship…
What a Deal Between Ukraine and Russia Could Look Like
All eyes will focus this week on Minsk where Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko. After coming close to armed confrontation over the aid-laden convoy Russia sent into Ukraine’s eastern region last week, the encounter…
How Obama Lost Friends in Europe and Influence Globally
Bad comes to worse in the Obama administration’s ties with Europe. Obama’s trans-Atlantic crisis is less dramatic than his other foreign policy failures: Syria, Egypt, the Mideast, China. But the implications of this debacle could prove profoundly significant—politically and diplomatically,…
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