Now that its been thoroughly discredited, anyone care for a trip down memory lane about how folks in the media hyped it up because it made Trump look bad?
Analysis
Daniel Larison: Buttigieg’s Syria ‘Do Somethingism’
Buttigieg has no foreign policy experience to speak of, so he has resorted to using Obama’s argument that judgment is more important than experience. If he doesn’t have good judgment, either, why should anyone want to entrust him with the presidency?
Fred Weir: Steele Dossier
About the Steele Dossier. From the beginning I was nagged by the question of whether anyone had seriously dug into its provenance? I mean, the chain of custody is critical in evaluating evidence, isn’t it? But that didn’t seem to matter to most conversations about it for the longest time. The impression was left hanging that Christopher Steele, crackerjack agent, had got the inside stuff straight from people in or near the Kremlin. [Read more…] about Fred Weir: Steele Dossier
Robert Wright: What is Progressive Realism?
Recently Michael McFaul, ambassador to Russia under President Obama, expressed puzzlement about a term he had been hearing – a label adopted by some people on the left who aren’t happy with the emerging outlines of the Biden administration. “In the debate about the future Biden foreign policy I’m seeing people self-identify as ‘progressive realists’,” he tweeted.
Paul Robinson: Garbage In, Garbage Out
I’ve complained before about the habit of the intelligence community of inviting evidence from a very narrow group of experts, occupying what can only be called an extreme position. Well, here we go again.
Daniel Larison: Trump Won’t Save New START
Much like the president’s feigned interest in a “better deal” with Iran, his interest in a “bigger deal” on arms control is just an excuse for hostility to the existing agreements.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: Defund the Pentagon: The Liberal Case
Cutting the defense budget by a modest 10 percent could provide billions to combat the pandemic, provide health care and take care of neglected communities.
Lyle J. Goldstein: America Must Do More To Support Peace In Ukraine
The relevant leaders need not be depressed by the results of the first Zelensky-Putin summit in Paris. Instead, they should redouble their efforts to achieve a set of breakthrough compromises at the next iteration. The time for skillful and creative diplomacy is at hand and Europe’s future hangs in the balance.
Von Jörg Lau and Bernd Ulrich: Something New in the West
Last week twelve renowned foreign policy experts demanded that Germany not separate itself from the U.S. This is the wrong approach, respond Jörg Lau and Bernd Ulrich.
Melvin Goodman reviews new book by CIA and Pentagon chief Bob Gates
Gates’ distortions of intelligence on the waning strength of the Soviet Union and the interest of Soviet leaders in pursuing arms control and disarmament as a path to Soviet-American detente; this was the source of George Shultz’s anger toward Gates.
Derek Leebaert: Postwar Delusions: Why America Keeps Making Mistakes Abroad
Historians of American foreign relations – like many journalists who write of war and national security since 1945 – have succumbed to intellectual lethargy, much like Washington’s foreign policy community has succumbed.
Ramon Marks: America’s Days of International Policing are Over
The United States can no longer act as the lone, dominant military power around the globe.
James Carden: Meet the Cold War Liberals
A truly progressive foreign policy must put questions of war and peace front and center. Addressing America’s post 9/11 failures, military overextension, grotesquely bloated defense budget, and the ingrained militarism of our political-media establishment are the proper concerns of a progressive U.S. foreign policy. But it is one that would place the welfare of our own citizens above all.
David McKean and Jason Bruder: Why the U.S. Needs a Strong Diplomatic Corps
Today, the level of international goodwill toward the United States and its credibility as an effective global power is at a low ebb.
Patrick Lawrence: After Exceptionalism
In a superb essay [PDF download in link] to see out the year, journalist and author Patrick Lawrence dissects the myth of American Exceptionalism. Lawrence observes that “the intellectual confinements exceptionalist beliefs impose have debilitated us for decades. We are now greatly in need of genuinely new thinking in any number of political and social spheres, even as we deny ourselves permission to do any.” The question remains: from where will this new thinking come? Happy New Year from ACEWA.
VIDEO: Kim Iverson: On the Russia Bounties Story
Kim Iverson tackles the New York Times’ controversial story on the Russia-Taliban connection.
Stephen F. Cohen: How impeachment battle is impacting US-Russia relations
Princeton and NYU Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies Stephen F. Cohen tells Larry King how Donald Trump’s impeachment battle is viewed in Russia, and how it’s impacting U.S.-Russia relations.
David S. Foglesong: With Fear and Favor: The Russophobia of ‘The New York Times’
Disregarding all past experience, journalists, politicians, and foreign policy experts have simply assumed that the claims of Russian bounties for killing American troops are true. They—and we—should know better.
Matthew Petti: The Race To Take Over the House Foreign Affairs Committee Is Heating Up
Current committee chair Rep. Eliot Engel (D–N.Y.) will lose his seat in 2021, as local middle school principal Jamaal Bowman knocked Engel off the Democratic in a primary election upset last month.
Daniel Larison: The ‘Blob’ Embraces Buttigieg
More than 200 foreign policy and national security professionals, including dozens of veterans of the Obama administration, on Monday are endorsing Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg for president.