With Mattis Gone, Trump Is Already Sowing More Global Chaos In just a few weeks, we’ve seen a serious uptick in odd U.S. foreign policy moves and anonymous leaking, and that isn’t good for anyone except Putin.
Trump Is Facing a Real Crisis — But It’s in Syria, Not at Our Border Bolton and Pompeo were supposed to clear up confusion over troop withdrawal from Syria. Instead, the U.S. appears to have two contradictory policies.
Trump Misses the Signs That North Korea’s Dictator Isn’t Really His Friend As Trump touted his diplomatic win, Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s speech made it clear that he wants more U.S. concessions, and isn’t ditching his nukes.
Trump Ended 2018 by Rewarding Putin for Another Year of Bad Behavior In many ways, this administration has been a disappointment to Russia — but with his recent foreign policy moves, Trump might make it up to Putin.
Jim Mattis Couldn’t Avoid Trump’s Influence He’ll leave the Trump administration with his personal reputation intact, but the larger values he sought to protect are diminished.
What the Senate’s Bipartisan Rebuke to Trump Means for Yemen — and U.S. Policy The consensus on Middle East policy is fading fast, and there’s more ahead on the fight over U.S. support for the Saudi-led war.
Macron Wanted to Lead the World. Now He’s Struggling to Lead France. Despite positioning himself as a foil to Trump and a leader on climate change, Macron will be lucky if he can quell France’s yellow vest protests.
foreign policy
Dec. 6, 2018
Why Nuclear Weapons Are Shaping Up As a Big 2020 Campaign Issue Last time that happened, George H.W. Bush wasn’t just alive, he was a candidate.
Trump Kept a Low Profile at the G20, But Still Left His Mark The G20 is meant to foster global cooperation, but with authoritarian and nativist leaders on the rise, it turned out to be Trump’s kind of crowd.
Trump’s Response to Russia-Ukraine Crisis Will Only Encourage Putin’s Aggression The recent naval clash warranted a strong response from the U.S. Trump canceling a scheduled meeting with Putin via tweet wasn’t it.
Unlawful, Alarming John Kelly Order Allows Use of Force by Troops at Border There is no such thing as a “Cabinet order,” and the White House chief of staff has no authority to command anyone except White House employees.
Trump Doesn’t Understand What the Khashoggi Scandal Means for Saudi Relations He can refuse to hear evidence and shrug off reports of MBS’s involvement, but he won’t be able to ignore the consequences of the journalist’s murder.
Don’t Let Trump’s Slights Overshadow Lessons From World War I Remembrances If you look past Trump’s usual affronts, the memorials offered messages about nationalism and weakened alliances that are still relevant today.
North Korea Doesn’t Care About Trump’s Post-Midterms Agenda Trump seems to have put North Korea on the back burner, insisting relations are “fine” — but they probably won’t stay that way for long.
Trump’s Sanctions Won’t Change Iran’s Behavior, But Could Boost Its Hard-liners The move increases pressure on Iran’s relatively moderate government, but it’s unlikely to advance the Trump administration’s ambiguous policy goals.
global politics
Oct. 30, 2018
Angela Merkel’s Exit Is Yet Another Blow to European Stability For 14 years, the German chancellor defined both the promise and the limits of EU politics. It’s unclear how – or even whether – she can be replaced.
global politics
Oct. 29, 2018
Bolsonaro’s Victory in Brazil Should Feel Worryingly Familiar to Americans The rise of Brazil’s Trumpian president-elect is more extreme reflection of our own politics — and a cautionary tale for the U.S.
foreign policy
Oct. 26, 2018
Putin Violated an Arms Treaty. Trump Ditching It Makes the Nuclear Threat Worse. Trump thinks if Russia does it, the U.S. should ignore the INF Treaty, too. But helping erode a treaty that curbed the arms race isn’t the answer.
foreign policy
Oct. 20, 2018
The U.S. Has Deep Ties to Saudi Arabia — But Disentangling Ourselves Is Possible Pulling away from Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi is a risky prospect. Trump clearly isn’t interested, but there are steps U.S. lawmakers could take.
Nikki Haley’s Rare Feat: She Did It Her Way, Not Trump’s Despite significant foreign policy differences in the GOP, she managed to avoid alienating either faction — or her notoriously volatile boss.
With New NAFTA Deal, Trump Avoids Disaster But Falls Short on Big Trade Promises Canada has signed on to a deal that shores up and modernizes the existing trade system, but fails to address major issues that animated Trump voters.
foreign policy
Sept. 25, 2018
The President Treats the U.N. to a Good Old-Fashioned Trump Rally The president’s nationalist speech was a list of things that the United States does and doesn’t see as threatening.
foreign policy
Sept. 24, 2018
Donald Trump Is Going to Try a Tricky Balancing Act at the United Nations Trump wants to mount a defense of American sovereignty to please his base while selling allies on shared sacrifice.
international affairs
Sept. 12, 2018
The Threat Posed by Europe’s Far-Right Surge Is Much Bigger Than One Election Gains by a right-wing party in Sweden weren’t as big as many feared, but a small win over extremism shouldn’t obscure the broader danger.
Trump’s Trade Deal With Mexico Is Both Totally Fake and Extremely Important It probably won’t come to anything. But that doesn’t mean it’s not reshaping American trade policy.
international politics
Aug. 17, 2018
Why We Should Be Unsettled that Germany Is Debating Acquiring Nuclear Weapons The terms of the debate are disturbing, whatever route the German government decides to take.
5 Takeaways and One Surprise From Mike Pompeo’s Congressional Testimony The secretary of State appeared before Congress to answer questions for the first time since the NATO and Helsinki summits.
foreign policy
July 16, 2018
7 Takeaways From Trump’s Catastrophic Meeting With Putin It was a very, very, very good day for the far right and the Kremlin.
What to Watch For at the Trump-Putin Summit In the worst-case scenario, Trump could endorse Russian aggression that undermines the Western alliance.
foreign policy
July 11, 2018
There Is No Cleaning Up the Foreign-Policy Mess Trump Is Making Our allies are learning that Trump’s personal pique means a great deal — and decades of commitments and partnership mean very little.
foreign policy
July 9, 2018
Even the Best-Case Scenario for Trump and NATO Is Grim Even the idea of a positive or neutral meeting that signals to Moscow that the alliance is still united is ridiculous.
foreign policy
June 13, 2018
Some Questions Foreign Policy Experts Are Asking About the Trump-Kim Summit Before anyone declares victory, let’s try to establish some basic facts about what comes next …
foreign policy
June 12, 2018
The Winners and Losers of President Trump’s Meeting With Kim Jong-un Both Trump and Kim benefitted personally, but diplomatic norms, and everything they’re meant to protect, took a hit.
foreign policy
June 10, 2018
Trump Is Making Decline Great Again Six fundamental truths that Kim Jong-un and the rest of the world now know about Trump on the eve of the Singapore summit.
global economy
June 7, 2018
How Will We Know When the Trade War Starts? The response of our allies shows that Trump has taken the U.S. into unknown territory — and the health of the global economy is on the line.
foreign policy
May 31, 2018
The Trump-Kim Summit May Be Back on — But Success Is Still a Long Shot While the North Koreans understood that Trump’s cancellation was just a ploy, the two sides remain miles apart on substance.
foreign policy
May 24, 2018
What Happens When You Treat Nuclear Diplomacy Like a Reality-TV Show Trump has had his share of political successes from his reckless, narrative-focused approach. But the real-world dangers are building.
foreign policy
May 22, 2018
Trump Pushes a New International Order Based on U.S. Bullying The administration thinks military might, and threatening to use it, are key. Iran and North Korea developments show the plan is off to a shaky start.
Israel and Palestine Just Slid Further Away From the Possibility of Peace Trump’s embassy move is an illustration of how far gone the situation in Israel and Palestine is.
foreign policy
May 8, 2018
Trump Continues to Rebrand America As Weird and Flaky Pulling out of the Iran deal breaks a long U.S. foreign-policy tradition of avoiding surprises — and it works against all the president’s goals.
Did Peace Just Break Out Between North and South Korea? Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in have taken a step toward a new future for their respective countries. But will they take a step back?
foreign policy
Apr. 24, 2018
Europe Reveals Its Latest Strategy for Managing Trump It’s a two-pronged affair with Emmanuel Macron leading the charm offensive and Angela Merkel talking tough.
foreign policy
Apr. 14, 2018
Don’t Mistake Trump’s Airstrikes for a Strategy The new round of “precision” strikes on Syria don’t lay the groundwork for anything but perpetual bombing runs.
The Moral High Ground on Syria Is Empty Every power that could help stop the killing has decided that their own interests outweigh dead innocents.
Mattis Had a Nearly Impossible Task. Now Trump Is Making It Even Harder. From Syria withdrawal to sending troops to the border, squaring Trump’s desires with military policy is a tall order. How long can Mattis keep it up?
foreign policy
Mar. 29, 2018
With Kim Jong-un Meeting, China Tells the U.S. It Won’t Be Ignored Xi Jinping threw off summit calculations, and the U.S. must respond with patience and diplomatic skill. Too bad Trump’s team possesses the opposite.
john bolton
Mar. 23, 2018
John Bolton, Lover of Drama and Wars, Is a Terrible Fit for His New Job The national security adviser facilitates sound White House decision-making. Trump hired a super-hawk known for scheming and outbursts.
foreign policy
Mar. 13, 2018
The Mess Rex Tillerson Is Leaving Behind He has been fired as secretary of State. His legacy is chaos at the institution he ran.
foreign policy
Mar. 9, 2018
8 Takeaways From Trump Agreeing to Meet Kim Jong-un Here’s what prompted Kim’s stunning invitation, why Trump is game, and what he must do to avoid squandering this opportunity.
trump administration
Mar. 3, 2018
Grown-ups Are Not Running America’s Foreign Policy A group of Model U.N. teenagers could probably pick and execute policies better than this administration.
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