Austin Bodetti, Yale Global
The US and a coalition of international partners launched war in Afghanistan in 2001 with fierce intensity soon after the 9/11 attacks on New York City and Washington, DC. The war on terror was combined with a war on drugs as Afghanistan is responsible for producing about 90 percent of the world's supply of opium. But US interest in Afghanistan has waned under President Donald Trump, who campaigned on ending the war. The US ended $100 million in aid and suspended another... Читать дальше...
Carnegie Europe
The EU needs to decide whether democracy support is core to how it defines its geostrategic interests. This will determine whether its new democracy strategy can reverse the union's creeping democratic passivity.
AmInt
Azerbaijanthe oil-rich dynasty that borders Iran and Russia, abuses human rights, and peddles influence throughout the Westhas shifted from being an essential U.S. energy partner to a competitor. The former U.S. ambassador speaks out on the energy diplomacy he witnessedand why we need a new approach to Baku today.
Nick Childs, IISS
The new Type-31 frigate could help the Royal Navy rebuild its warship numbers, but it will still be a difficult balancing act between capability and cost, writes Nick Childs. Can the design meet its other goal of finding an export market?On 12 September, the United Kingdom government confirmed that it had selected the Babcock-led consortium with its Arrowhead 140 design as the preferred bidder to build the Royal Navy's new Type-31 general-purpose frigate. But, in some ways, the story really starts now... Читать дальше...
Deutsche Welle
Officials confirmed that the 32-year-old suspected hijacker had been detained. According to news agency dpa, he arrived in Germany from his native Syria in 2015 and lived in the Offenbach area near Frankfurt. He was granted subsidiary protection the following year a status given to those who do not qualify as refugees but are in danger if they return to their country of origin.
Shaun Riordan, The Corner
We do not usually think of Frances dapper, sophisticated young president, the last hope of European liberal elites, pursuing the same objectives as Americas ageing and overweight bully, the sworn enemy of liberal internationalism. But both Macron and Trump agree on the need to end the conflict in Ukraine and re-integrate Russia into the international community.
Phillip Orchard, Geopolitical Futures
On Oct. 1, 2019, exactly 70 years since Mao Zedong stood in triumph at the gates of the Forbidden City and declared the creation of the People's Republic of China, Chinese President Xi Jinping was doing his best imitation of the great helmsman. Dressed in a black tunic identical to the one worn by Mao in his famous portrait at Tiananmen Gate, Xi echoed Mao's boasts that only the Communist Party of China is capable of protecting China from foreign exploitation. Читать дальше...
The Interpreter
It is breathtaking just how quickly Donald Trump's recklessness has eroded the U.S. position in the world.
A. Narloch, SWJ
BackgroundIn 2004, King Abdullah of Jordan first warned that a "Shia crescent" stretching from Damascus to Tehran, threatened Middle Eastern stability via a Persian sponsored sectarian power play.[i] His words would hold true as the Iranian influence over Shia militants has projected Tehran's power will well beyond its borders. The expansive nature of this greater-Iranian strategy has culminated in a political completion of the land bridge from Tehran to Beirut. In 2016, Saudi... Читать дальше...
Financial Times
The US has blocked a group of Chinese technology companies from buying US-made goods on the grounds of alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, escalating tensions in the US-China trade war just three days before the next round of talks.
Binoy Kampmark, International Policy Digest
When the compromised speak of judgment, the voice of credibility vanishes. In its place, a certain niggling sense of hypocrisy and weakness prevails. Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell is one of those of those compromised voices. He presided over a redundant State Department before the pressures of the Pentagon and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, keen to initiate an invasion of Iraq. He oversaw the bankruptcy of the Republican ideal before... Читать дальше...
Raffaello Pantucci, RUSI
A growing Western habit of linking China and Russia as joint adversaries in various contexts is missing the actual strengths of the relationship, and their varied interests in third locations.Geopolitics have returned with a vengeance. Public discourse is increasingly conducted in adversarial terms, with our side' versus their side' dominating the strategic narrative. And while the enemy of the day' from a UK perspective is Iran, there is a growing discussion about China... Читать дальше...
Haaretz
Spain's Josep Borrell says that he would not sabotage EU-Israel trade agreements to promote this solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Shane Szarkowski, Diplomatic Courier
Afghanistan held its elections on September 28. Although we won't know results for weeks, a relatively low turnout underscores the shortcomings of the U.S.' approach to peacebuilding and security in the troubled state. Voter concern about Taliban attacks and electoral fraud led many to stay at home. It's not controversial to assert that security and institutional trust are essential in bringing stability to a fragile democracy, but for both the Afghan government and the U.S.... Читать дальше...
DGAP
Thanks to economic growth, Poland's ruling PiS party has introduced social programs that have further bolstered its popularity. Unlike in recent European elections, the opposition is not running as a unified bloc in parliamentary elections on October 13, 2019. If PiS again wins a majority, it will take steps to cement its system of illiberal democracy. As long as he maintains good relations with Donald Trump, PiS's leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski does not seem wary of reactions from Brussels and Berlin.
Saeid Jafari, Al-Monitor
It could be a long while before Tehran and Washington cross paths again at least in positive terms.Despite efforts by several world leaders to get the presidents of Iran and the United States together on the sidelines of the recent UN General Assembly session in New York, no such meeting took place and no improvements were made in the tense situation between Tehran and Washington.
Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg
After centuries as the dividing line between Europe and Asia, Russia has found its natural place among the oil dictatorships.Much has been made of Russia's pivot to China as a danger to the U.S.-led world order, and the Kremlin has done its best to play up these fears in an effort to keep Russia punching above its weight. In reality, though, Russia has pivoted more successfully toward the Middle East, where President Vladimir Putin feels at home among a particular cohort of authoritarian rulers.
NatRev
With the news that President Trump completely blindsided the Pentagon (according to Fox News) by suddenly deciding to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria and giving Turkey a green light to move across the border and attack our previous ally the Kurds, it seems like a good time to review one of the closing passages of Call Sign Chaos, the autobiography of James Mattis, our previous Secretary of Defense.
Helen Regan, CNN
Hong Kong (CNN) - The Chinese military garrison in Hong Kong offered a rare public reaction in the face of taunts from protesters Sunday, as violence escalated across the city over the weekend.Video from Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK shows a yellow flag raised from atop a People's Liberation Army (PLA) building in Kowloon Tong, in north Kowloon, warning protesters they could be prosecuted if they continued to approach the barracks. The flag appears to be similar to those used by police during protests.
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
The Kurds helped to defeat ISIS. Trump leaves them to Erdogan.
Stephen Blank, Eurasia Daily Monitor
Moscow's vaunted pivot to the East did not begin when Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency in 2012. Instead, it dates back to late 2006, when he ordered the development of the Russian Far East and Siberia. Others may prefer to believe it began with then-president Dmitry Medvedev's inaugural tour to Kazakhstan and China in 2008. Regardless, this ostensible shift has since become a cornerstone of Russian policy; and the Eastern Economic Forum, which takes place annually in Vladivostok... Читать дальше...
James Stavridis, Bloomberg
Don't let the Trump-Zelenskiy scandal undermine Western support for a needy nation on Russia's borders.
