Josef Joffe, RealClearWorld
"Goodness had nothing to do with it," Mae West retorts in Night After Night when a hat-check girl gushes: "Goodness, what a beautiful diamond!" The Biden team should hire someone like her as a consultant as it labors to undo what former President Donald Trump has wrought.
Thomas Friedman, NY Times
Israel and the U.S. are trying to define anew what it means to be a pluralistic democracy.
Nahal Toosi, Politico
It's the ultimate prize in diplomacy, and almost every modern president has sought it despite the long, treacherous odds: a resolution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
Shawn Donnan et al, Bloomberg
Strivers face a far more uncertain future than in years past. China, which by Pew's definition is home to one-third of the world's middle class, appears to be recovering quickly, but many other developing countries face diminished...
Erielle Davidson & Ari Cicurel, National Interest
China and Iran recently announced a twenty-five-year "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership," which seeks to increase military, defense, and security cooperation between Iran and China, to the consternation of both countries' adversaries.
Daniel Davis, 1945
In recent years there has been an increase in the saber-rattling from Beijing regarding their willingness to use force to reunify Taiwan with the mainland. There has been a concurrent rise in the willingness - and in some cases eagerness - of various advocates in Washington to extend security guarantees to Taipei to thwart Chinese ambitions.
T. Mutch, Newlines
Having survived the Syrian civil war, two ethnic Armenians resettled in Yerevan, only to be jolted by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Michael Young, The National
Lebanon may see a government in the near future, after a delay of eight months. Yet waiting on the political cartel in power to take decisions that are beneficial for the country is rarely advisable. That is why foreign countries that want to avoid a complete collapse of Lebanon should look at ways of reinforcing the Lebanese armed forces and integrating them into their efforts.
Ted Galen Carpenter, TNI
It is a bad idea for Washington to give its partners the impression that they have a blank to go to war and expect American forces to come to the rescue if the fighting goes poorly.
Economist
David Gardner, Financial Times
Arrest of officials with foreign ties suggests ‘plot' against king goes beyond former crown prince.
Evija Djatkovica, FPRI
Thirty years ago, the collapse of the Soviet Union opened the door for three Baltic states to step on the pathway to independence, democracy and prosperity. But the door did not open by itself. Restoration of independence was achieved, first, with the help of popular uprisings and, second, with the support of the West, including Western readiness to challenge the geopolitical interests of the emerging Russian Federation and accept Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia into the embrace of the European Union and NATO. Читать дальше...
Roger Boyes, Times of London
The chancellor came to power promising to modernise Germany but leaves behind a slow-moving, inefficient state
Luke Nicastro, The American Conservative
During World War II, future Prime Minister Harold Macmillan provided one of the more enduring characterizations of the Anglo-American relationship. "We are Greeks," he opined to a colleague, "in this American empire. You will find...
Arif Rafiq, Foreign Policy
The country says it wants to pivot from hard power to economic power, but its economy begs to differ.
James Goldgeier, Foreign Affairs
Even Good Diplomacy Can't Smooth a Clash of Interests
George Friedman, Geopolitical Futures
There is much discussion about the surging Chinese economy and the expanding international influence of China. There is no question that China's economy has consistently expanded in the last 40 years, since the death of Mao Zedong. But Mao had created an extraordinarily poor China, based on ideology and the desire to eliminate the power of the old economic elite that was concentrated along the coast. Mao feared them as a threat to the revolution. In fact... Читать дальше...
