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….
THE REVELATIONS OF WIKILEAKS: No. 8—Busting the Myth WikiLeaks Published Nothing on Israel & Syria
One myth about WikiLeaks is that it favors U.S. enemies and declines to publish documents against them, while another legend is that WikiLeaks, for obscure reasons, is soft on Israel, reports Patrick Lawrence. As WikiLeaks continued its document releases, and as major news organizations continued…
THE REVELATIONS OF WIKILEAKS: No. 7— Crimes Revealed at Guantánamo Bay
“Gitmo Files” lifted the Pentagon’s lid on the prison, describing a corrupt system of military detention resting on torture, coerced testimony and “intelligence” manipulated to justify abuses at the base, writes Patrick Lawrence. Today we continue our series The Revelations of…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Iranian General’s Intent
Given the gravity of last week’s drone assassination, the State and Defense Departments must prove their claims against Qassem Soleimani. AFAQ–TV, a satellite station broadcasting from Baghdad, ran a brief video clip last May of Ali Khamenei speaking to a small gathering….
PATRICK LAWRENCE: A Sudden-Seeming Power Shift in the Middle East
Despite the high-speed impression created by events in the past few weeks, the shifting trends of Russian and U.S. influence on the region have been underway for years. Rarely do world events move at the velocity they now assume in the…
Why Russia Is Emerging as the World’s Indispensable Diplomatic Power
Moscow, working in concert with others, has set courses toward the diplomatic resolution of several key conflicts. There was a remarkable succession of events in the skies over Syria earlier this month. I see lessons in what happened that none…
Bibi’s downfall: Is the most dangerous man in the Middle East done for?
Benjamin Netanyahu has set Israel, and the entire Middle East, on a path toward doomsday. Will his fall matter? The political future of Benjamin Netanyahu is at last in doubt. With the Israeli police report recommending criminal charges against the…
A Conversation With Richard Falk
The scholar, adviser to governments and civil-society groups, and advocate of Palestinian rights speaks on international law and world affairs. It is hard to place Richard Falk in any category that usefully describes the man. Princeton scholar, international lawyer, adviser…
Trump and Jerusalem: Will his “hard power” realism backfire bigly?
Like much of Trump’s foreign policy, the Jerusalem decision recognizes ugly facts about the U.S. role in the world Clarity is preferable to ambiguity even when the clear picture is grim. So I have found in many circumstances, and so…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Assassins & Iran
Any thought of Biden and his people riding into town on white horses to save the nuclear deal is strictly naïve. I was on the telephone with a friend in Tehran Sunday and found myself telling him about a Christmas card…