Con Coughlin, The National
While Mr Trump's confrontational, and at times petulant, approach made him a divisive figure, causing as much friction with allies as it did Washington's adversaries, he has nevertheless succeeded in forging a legacy that his successor, the newly inaugurated President Joe Biden, will find it extremely difficult to reverse.
Sana Hashmi, Taipei Times
If social media interaction is any yardstick, India remained one of the top countries for Taiwan last year. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has on several occasions expressed enthusiasm to strengthen cooperation with India, one of the 18 target nations in her administration's New Southbound Policy.
Daniel Larison, The American Conservative
One of the early priorities of the new Biden administration has to be rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and they can expect to encounter stiff resistance from the Iran hawks that have been working overtime to destroy the agreement for the last five and a half years. Hard-liners have already fired off two salvos with an article in The Atlantic and an
Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy
The Biden administration plans a quick reform of American diplomacy—but fixing the rot requires going much bigger.
Bradley Bowman, FDD
The Department of Defense announced Friday that it has moved Israel from the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) area of responsibility (AOR) to that of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which includes the Middle East. This reassignment reflects recent breakthroughs in Arab-Israeli relations and provides opportunities to strengthen military cooperation to address the greatest threat to regional security:...
Trita Parsi, Quincy
• Abandon dominance. For many of the United States' security partners, even a dysfunctional Pax Americana is preferable to the compromises that a security architecture would inevitably entail. The preconditions for creating a successful security architecture can emerge only if the United States begins a military withdrawal from the Persian Gulf and credibly signals it no longer seeks to sustain hegemony.
David Patrikarakos, Spectator
Robert Kaplan's new book, The Good American, takes as its epigraph V.S. Naipaul's observation that ‘Pessimism… can drive men on to do wonders.' It's tempting to remark that this dry aphorism is as true about Kaplan's life and work as it is of his subject, the humanitarian Robert Gersony. But in both cases this would be, if not exactly wrong, then incomplete.
Robert Zaretsky, Foreign Affairs
Vaccine Logistics Get the Better of Macron
Krastev & Leonard, ECFR
In the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003, European countries were divided on whether to align with George Bush's America over values (in Robert Kagan's famous formulation, Americans were from Mars, Europeans from Venus) but few doubted his power to shape the world. The opposite is true with Biden. Many Europeans believe in his promise to re-engage internationally but - after witnessing America's response to covid-19 and domestic polarisation - most doubt Washington's capacity to shape the world. Читать дальше...
Alexandra Bell, Russia Matters
Editors' note: With a change of guard in the White House, the new U.S. administration has a chance to commission a review of U.S. domestic and foreign policies. This primer is the fourth in a series designed to facilitate such a review by detailing the impact Russia does or can have on each of five
Philip Stephens, FT
To counter Beijing's strategy of divide and rule, the US and its allies need consistent policies.
Michael Oren & Yossi Klein Halevi, The Atlantic
