Michael Rubin, 1945
At 3 a.m. on Saturday morning, Turkey announced through its official gazette that it was formally withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty to combat violence against women and outlaw domestic abuse.
Thomas Friedman, NYT
We've stopped following our formula for success.
S. Castelier, Al-Mon.
Gulf Arab states issued record debt last year, in large part after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the coronavirus a pandemic just over a year ago, on March 11, 2020.
Saeed Ghasseminejad, FDD
The Biden administration has put Washington's Arab allies in the Persian Gulf on notice. Since Jan. 20, the White House has made several decisions that have harmed those allies and strengthened Tehran's position in the region. A longer-term beneficiary will be China.
Poppy McPherson, Reuters
For the last seven weeks, Myint Htwe has been moving between secret locations, organizing meetings and planning protests.
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Ted Galen Carpenter, The Am. Cons.
Unscrupulous used car dealers could learn a trick or two from America's foreign policy mandarins when it comes to bait-and-switch tactics. Repeatedly, U.S. officials have invoked a specific justification—frequently an emotionally charged one with wide appeal—to obtain congressional and public support for a military intervention or other questionable policy initiative. When the original justification subsequently proves to be bogus, exaggerated, or no longer applicable... Читать дальше...
Cristina Gallardo & Hans Von Der Burchard, Pol. EU
LONDON — Richard Szostak has been handed a task that some would consider impossible: Breaking the EU-U.K. logjam over its divorce agreement as tempers flare over the pandemic.
Joshua Kurlantzick, World Politics Review
Since seizing power in a coup in early February, Myanmar's military, known as the Tatmadaw, has increasingly cracked down on civil society and the political opposition. In recent weeks, it has shuttered most independent media outlets; arrested many members of the former ruling party, the National League for Democracy, or NLD;
Constanze Stelzenmüller, FT
Berlin's inflexibility risks alienating a US administration that wants to stand up to Russia
Roger Boyes, Times of London
air Bolsonaro, now global Covid denier-in-chief, is in a pickle. Brazil's total death toll from the virus is set to reach 300,000 this week, second only to the United States, and all of the president's breezy indifference to it, his urging of the sick to man up, his contempt for face-masking, is coming back to haunt him.
Mark Landler & Stephen Castle, New York Times
LONDON — In Bristol, an English college town where the pubs are usually packed with students, there were fiery clashes between the police and protesters. In Kassel, a German city known for its ambitious contemporary art festival, the police unleashed pepper spray and water cannons on anti-lockdown marchers.
Jake Morris, CEPA
In 2019, China appeared to be winning the global battle for 5G supremacy, mainly through Huawei which had become the leading supplier of telecommunications equipment to Europe, Africa, and Asia.
George Friedman, Geo. Futures
Any time there is a new U.S. president, major powers set out to test him and lay the groundwork for future bargaining in potential conflicts. Occasionally, the United States opens the bidding. Such was the case when Washington, through its new secretary of state, Antony Blinken, accused Beijing of human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong and of various cybercrimes. Beijing responded by calling Washington an enormous human rights violator, adding that... Читать дальше...
Matthew Continetti, National Review
n March 14, the day that Kevin McCarthy and twelve House Republicans went to Texas to visit the southern border, the El Paso Central Processing Center for migrants reached capacity. The Republicans heard heartbreaking stories of unaccompanied children, some less than six years old, crossing the border while holding hands. Border agents informed the congressmen that fentanyl traffickers are exploiting the surge in illegal immigration. One agent told John Katko... Читать дальше...
Robert Kaplan, National Interest
America must try to move Russia away from China and improve relations while maintaining deterrence.
Jack Herrera, Politico
TIJUANA—Each night as Janiana tries to sleep, she wonders about what's going to happen to her baby grandnephew. The woman, a 26-year-old from Honduras, lives in a tent together with her 20-year-old niece, the baby's mother, in a tent village of hundreds of asylum seekers like them that formed right next to the pedestrian bridge that leads from Mexico into California. They're among the tens of thousands of people crowded in dire conditions across the length of the border who have fled violence... Читать дальше...
Todd Miller, TomDispatch
In late February, I drove to see the Trump wall in Sasabe, Arizona. As soon as I parked, a green-striped Border Patrol vehicle stationed a quarter of a mile away began to creep down the dirt road toward us. Just ahead, a dystopian "No Trespassing" sign was flapping in the wind. It was cold as I stepped out of the car with my five-year-old son, William. The wall ahead of us, 30-feet high with steel bollards, was indeed imposing as it quavered slightly in the wind. Through its bars we could see Mexico... Читать дальше...
Alexander Cooley & Casey Michel, FP
How the United States' legal community became global oligarchs' most useful enablers.
A. Bondaz & B. Tertrais, WPR
In early February, France revealed that one of its nuclear-powered attack submarines had completed a mission in the South China Sea. The rare announcement, two years after the passage of the frigate Vendemiaire through the Taiwan Strait, was a clear signal of a growing French, but also European, interest in the sensitive region.
Richard Haass & Charles Kupchan, Foreign Affairs
The international system is at a historical inflection point. As Asia continues its economic ascent, two centuries of Western domination of the world, first under Pax Britannica and then under Pax Americana, are coming to an end. The West is losing not only its material dominance but also its ideological sway. Around the world, democracies are falling prey to illiberalism and populist dissension while a rising China, assisted by a pugnacious Russia... Читать дальше...
