Are Things Actually Looking Up in the Middle East?
It is only a faint outline—call it a pencil sketch—but the lines of a significantly remade Middle East are suddenly falling into place. We have to wait for the region’s leaders and the diplomats asserting the influence of interested outsiders…
Here Comes Obama’s Big Moment with Iran
It is still a thrill an hour in Washington. Do we have a government? Do we pay our bills? Two days of talks in Geneva this week will prove just as big. They begin Tuesday, the topic is Iran, and…
Stand up and fight, Mr. President!
The moment requires courage, conviction — and presidential leadership. How will President Obama respond? Remarkable doings at the U.N. this week. Remember these days. They are going to change the way we understand the dynamic in the Middle East —…
How Iran and Israel Put Obama in the Hot Seat
We begin a big, consequential week in world politics. This year’s UN General Assembly will put President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, in the same room, addressing the same heads of state, walking the…
Obama’s Putin Policy: Flinch and Retreat
Washington and Moscow have a lot to talk about, but President Obama canceled the scheduled one-on-one meeting with President Vladimir Putin next month, as the two had planned. The Syrian crisis, a multitude of questions concerning Iran, nuclear arms reductions,…
Why the U.S. Is Crashing in the Middle East
Is it too soon to suggest that the Obama administration’s Middle East policy is collapsing? An unusual spurt of news from across the region points to failed US policies: (1) The U.S. has been outpaced in the region since the Arab…
They still hate us: No one wants to be America, anymore
Forget the standard lunacy that emerging nations “hate our freedoms.” They just don’t want to be Westernized It is common enough, and true, to say that what happens in Egypt as it stumbles through its political dawn or dusk —…
Why It’s Time to Talk to Our New ‘Iranian Friends’
It is exactly a month since Iranians went to the polls in very high numbers and elected Hassan Rouhani their new president, and already most of the pundits and scribblers are wrong.Those elections were not supposed to make any difference. One…
Will the US Buy Obama’s Plan to end the War Machine?
It’s easy enough to say that President Barack Obama has just announced his intention to end the “war on terror.” This thought is welcome, but it is simply not enough.Obama’s speech at the National Defense University last week has implications…
The Global Fiscal and Political “Cliffs” of 2013
The U.S. “fiscal cliff” is one of many fiscal and political precipices to be faced globally in the New Year. Here’s a snapshot of how far the world will have to climb in 2013. SYRIA To begin with the hottest…
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