Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani’s assassination demonstrates to the world the United States’ overt amorality and indifference to international law.
Sky News Podcast: The British Intelligence and Security Committee on Russia
On this edition of the Sky News Daily podcast with Dermot Murnaghan, we examine the fallout to the Intelligence and Security Committee report which claimed Britain “took its eye off the ball” over Russia. [Professor Richard Sakwa appears and adds some sanity to the conversation at 18:30].
Gordon Hahn: Hope Against Hope in Paris
The Paris 2019 meeting of the Normandy Four in its new format (Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy in place of Petro Poroshenko) achieved the minimum necessary to sustain hope for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the Donbas.
Richard Sakwa: Greater Russia: Is Moscow out to subvert the West?
Russia today is presented as out to subvert the West.
Nadya Glebova: Russia’s Real Reasons for Partnering with Iran
Moscow has a vested interest in the state of affairs in the Persian Gulf; it has tried its best to contain the impact that the U.S.-Iranian crisis could have on its own national security.
Lev Golinkin: Canada’s Nazi Monuments
Why does Canada have not one but several memorials to Nazi collaborators? And why, when statues are toppling all over the world, have Canadian Jewish groups remained silent?
Ted Galen Carpenter: Samantha Power in Bosnia: A Poster Child for Toxic Advocacy Journalism
Samantha Power’s performance regarding the Bosnian war was a textbook example of especially toxic advocacy journalism in international affairs.
Drew Holden: Remember the Steele dossier?
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?
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.
Global Zero statement on the passing of Dr. Bruce Blair
Derek Johnson, Executive Director of Global Zero, released the following statement on behalf of the organization regarding the recent passing of Dr. Blair…
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.