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,…
China’s Strategy Has Completely Eluded Washington
The Chinese dragon, awake and alert for some time, is suddenly stretching its arms and embracing what it thinks with conviction is its destiny as a Pacific power. Will the American protectorate in place for 70 years hold, they ask…
John Kerry’s policy of surrender: His failures are redefining American exceptionalism
Perhaps the secretary of state knows what he is doing: His many failures actually point to a smarter foreign policy We have just marked a year since John Kerry launched himself, at 69, as America’s chief diplomat. And for most…
The world is right to hate us: Arrogance, ignorance and obscene foreign policy
This White House was supposed to be different. But our arrogant foreign policy has been the same since the 1950s Every time we overhear American diplomats talking when we are not supposed to, the conduct of American foreign policy sounds…
State of Foreign Policy: Not a Sharp Picture
The blogs and newspapers tell us President Obama will be firing on all cylinders when he delivers his State of the Union speech Tuesday. He plans to push the reset button, reassert command and drive an agenda, and declare a…
I want American foreign policy to fail
Drones, wiretapping foreign leaders, NSA out of control: Change will only come when our foreign policy truly fails It is difficult, and it will never be any other, to be an American and write in an American publication that the…
Rethinking American exceptionalism
It’s time to revisit one of our founding myths This article originally appeared on The Globalist. Myths enclose those who believe in them. They are not subject to debate or rational consideration. One cannot hold them up to the light…
Why Syria Is Obama’s Foreign Policy Proving Ground
It is getting hard to count all the surprises arising from the Syrian crisis. And there are more coming. Outcomes unthinkable even a week ago can now be responsibly imagined—and pursued. Atop this columnist’s wish list: (1) Relations between Washington…
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