For Trump, Regime Change Begins at Home

Posted by on Sep 29, 2019 in Articles, Featured, US Domestic Policy, US Foreign Policy | 0 comments A month after he won the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump gave a speech in North Carolina where he declared that “we will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with.” It’s still commonplace for foreign policy analysts of the left, right, and center to distinguish Trump from his predecessors by pointing out that he...
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Threat of Bolton Has Receded But Not Threat of War

Posted by on Sep 26, 2019 in Articles, Featured, US Foreign Policy | 0 comments John Bolton tried his best. The national security adviser entered the Trump administration as a predictable warmonger with an unslakable thirst for power. He streamlined the national security apparatus to maximize his access to the president. At least at first, he played the role of loyal adjutant to Trump. As in his days as an arms control official in the George W. Bush administration, Bolton...
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Slowbalization: Boon or Bane?

Posted by on Sep 2, 2019 in Articles, Featured, US Foreign Policy | 0 comments A group of Italians started the Slow Food movement back in the 1980s. Stay away from fast-food restaurants, they urged: eat local, focus on traditional recipes, relax, and enjoy your meal. The Slow Food movement began as a protest against McDonald’s, which opened a new franchise near the Spanish Steps in Rome. But it grew into much more than that. Slow Food was a finger in the eye of...
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Afghanistan: Out of the Graveyard and into the Pyre?

Posted by on Sep 1, 2019 in Articles, Featured, US Foreign Policy | 0 comments Afghanistan has long been touted as the “graveyard of empires.” The British and the Soviets certainly discovered that lesson to their great regret. Perhaps future historians will judge the failure of the United States to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan over a two-decade period as a critical factor in the loss of American hegemony as well. If so, these historians will no doubt chuckle at the...
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Trump’s Send-Them-Back Doctrine

Posted by on Aug 30, 2019 in Articles, Featured, US Foreign Policy | 0 comments During the height of Stalin’s purges, the great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich kept a packed suitcase near the door of his apartment. The Black Marias, the vehicle of choice for the secret police, would traditionally arrive in the middle of the night to ferry “undesirables” to interrogation cells. Shostakovich wanted to be ready at any moment for possible exile to Siberia. He was a...
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Trump’s Bluster Diplomacy

Posted by on Aug 29, 2019 in Articles, Featured, US Foreign Policy | 0 comments It was not very long ago that Donald Trump was calling North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “Little Rocket Man” and threatening to rain “fire and fury” down on North Korea. In response, Kim called Trump a “dotard” and promised an equally fiery attack on the United States. But now, two summits, the exchange of friendly letters, and a dramatic handshake at the DMZ have nearly erased what had...
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