Washington’s Mess Damages U.S. Global Standing
Nobody will ever put up a neon sign or a billboard announcing that the U.S. has taken another step toward decline in its global position. Neither is American decline inevitable, as the so-called “declinists” habitually assert. It is not. Decline…
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…
Obama’s Dithering, Dickering, Dire Foreign Policy
Last week was a stinging passage for President Obama as he tried and mostly failed to find support, at home and abroad, for his plan to bomb Syrian military facilities. Things will not improve for the beleaguered administration in days to…
Syrian Crisis Exposes Obama’s Failed Mideast Policy
The U.S. response to the escalating Syria crisis requires more thought than emotion, and it has to reach across the board—to Egypt, to Iran, to the friendly, repressive Saudis and the friendly, repressive emirates, to the antagonizing Russians. In a word,…
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…
How the Spooks Will Sink the Trade Pact with Europe
It is supposed to be the largest trade agreement ever forged between two countries. But the Trans–Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership never looked promising. And now that the US and Europe have completed a first round of talks, it is…
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…
As the Middle East Unravels, the US Pulls No Strings
Much of the Middle East is suddenly coming unglued–with it, years of US effort to encourage democratic order in the region will go to waste. It is time for Washington to do something very smart–nearly nothing. Syria and Egypt are…
European Austerity Does a 180 as Lagarde Weighs In
It will not be long before we look back on this year’s meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which conclude Monday, and see a turning point in the global economic crisis. Europeans, who have suffered the…
The Cold War Heats Up Between the U.S. and N. Korea
When Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced last Friday he would deploy14 new missile interceptors on the West Coast to thwart a potential nuclear attack from North Korea, the U.S. was squarely placed back in the Cold War. Hagel was responding…
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