PATRICK LAWRENCE: Arc of Decline
U.S. leaders would rather accept ever-more extreme isolation as the price of power than surrender any of it. It is remarkable how quickly the Biden administration is acquiring its stamp — the watermark it will leave on our parchment when…
Biden is Already Breaking Promises
Tony Blinken will be secretary of state with the élan and faux sophistication the nakedly bankrupt foreign policy requires if the U.S. pantomime is to be sustained another four years. It was inevitable that President Joe Biden would betray numerous…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Trump’s Foreign Policy Explained
Trump arrived in Washington as a New York property man unfamiliar with the permanent DC establishment, but determined to make deals where others dare not go. Chaos was the result. “Some friendly health advice to Iran,” President Donald Trump tweeted last Wednesday….
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Empire with a Human Face
The Biden people are unlikely to speak of a new cold war with China, but they appear likely to wage one all dressed up as a sophisticated trans–Pacific strategy. Those boneheaded Trump people explained their hostile, xenophobic, fated-to-fail policy toward…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Hillary Clinton at the UN?
Whether or not Biden appoints her, things are getting very brazen and very bitter, very fast. We are now told that President-elect Joe Biden may name none other than Hillary Clinton to be his ambassador to the United Nations. This…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Europe Going Its Own Way
Events of the past week show the Continent restoring some of its pre-1945 independence from U.S. hegemony. Those who come after us will look back and conclude we lived in a time of great moment. This is true in all sorts of…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Mike Pompeo’s Cold-War Fever
As this dreadful year draws near its close, the top U.S. diplomat has put us at far more risk of war than we were at its start. Will we start a war with Iran? Will we invade Venezuela? Will we…
Bravate di Guerra Fredda nel Pacifico
This Italian translation appeared on Sakeritalia. Prima è arrivata al Congresso la richiesta formale [in inglese] da parte del Dipartimento della Difesa per un assegno di 20 miliardi di dollari per aumentare la propria presenza in tutto il Pacifico. Un mese dopo la…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Cold War Escapades in the Pacific
There is a lot to read into this moment, but one thing’s clear. The U.S. doesn’t know what time it is. First came the Defense Department’s formal request to Congress for a $20 billion check to upgrade its presence across the Pacific. That…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Empire’s Last Stand
The origins of the first Cold War have been hopelessly blurred in the histories. We can watch this time. It is occurring before our eyes. In the early months of 1947, President Harry Truman and Dean Acheson, his secretary…