Donald Trump's victory in 2016 didn't happen in a vacuum. He adopted policies circulating through Europe and adapted them to America. Trump and Steve Bannon, who became his adviser on such things, saw Brexit in the UK along with the rise of Marine Le Pen in France and the election of far right politicians in Poland and Hungary as a bellwether for political change in Western democracies. It was a reactionary movement against immigration, secularism, and globalism and Bannon re

During the Trump years, America's standing in the world was reduced to what it could obtain through raw power and intimidation. That might have been enough for Great Britain in the 19th Century, but in the age of nuclear weapons, cyberwarfare, terrorism, and a globalized economy it's not enough to achieve the nation's international goals. You also need what IR expert Joseph Nye called "soft power." US President Joe Biden understands that you need both to reach your global obj

To most Middle-East foreign policy experts, the current fighting between Israel and Palestinians is a predictable consequence of not addressing the two underlying impediments to peace. They haven't changed much in 30 or more years. 1. Hamas [The Islamic Resistance Movement] continues to offer the Palestinians in Gaza, and, to a lesser extent, the West Bank, a vision of "victory" that has absolutely no relationship to reality. They will not "liberate" Palestine from Israeli "o

There appears to be no end to the horrors that China will perpetuate against its Muslim minority in Xinjiang. The Chinese government’s oppression of the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang now represents a "crime against humanity" under international law. Human Rights Watch has been documenting the atrocities. Human Rights Watch: "As many as a million people have been arbitrarily detained in 300 to 400 facilities,[3] which include “political education” camps, pretria

As we and most Middle East experts warned from the outset, former President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] was a monumentally bad idea. The plan was to withdraw, impose punishing sanctions on Tehran, and then hope that the Iranian government would be forced to accept revised terms more palatable to the US and Israel that addressed their missile program and support for groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon. Some conservatives

Brazil's President, chief climate change sceptic, and Covid-denier, Jair Bolsonaro is asking for $1 Billion annually, in return for which Brazil would reduce Amazon forest clearance by between 30% and 40%. He believes developed nations like the United States should support efforts to maintain the Amazon to battle climate change and protect biodiversity. Developing nations, with few resources to address environmental issues, have often asked for and received assistance from t