Arash Azizi, Newlines
A leaked gossipy interview with Iran's outgoing foreign minister confirms that the Revolutionary Guards' domination is much more advanced than previously imagined
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera
The Biden administration cannot afford to continue doing foreign policy without a clear direction.
Lenny Ben-David, Jerusalem Post
Nuclear alarm bells should have sounded after the New York Times's editorial board published on April 23 its paean to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ("Why the Past Haunts Talks with Iran").
Jonathan Schanzer, Commentary
The Biden administration says it intends to engage less in the Middle East. Several senior officials and surrogates repeated this point during the new presidency's first 100 days. Yet the administration went out of its way in its first few weeks to make three consequential moves in the Middle East that may backfire on America for years to come.
Armin Rosen, Tablet
When the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft launched in 2019, its founders chose a name that would connect the group to a primordial era of U.S. foreign policy. Although John Quincy Adams was hardly an isolationist—he pursued territorial expansion and argued for America's direct interests in Latin America as secretary of state and later as president—his 1821 formulation that the United States "goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy" has become a catchphrase... Читать дальше...
Hal Brands, Japan Times
Should the U.S. put the fate of dissidents at the core of its Russia policy? The question has become unavoidable. Russian President Vladimir Putin's government seems set on killing, slowly or quickly, jailed regime critic Alexei Navalny.
Sana Hashmi, Taipei Times
India's top think tank the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) just concluded India's flagship foreign policy dialogue — the 2021 Raisina Dialogue. Over the past six years, the Raisina Dialogue, funded by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, has attracted several heads of states, ministers, policymakers and top academics from around the world.
Terry Glavin, Nat'l Post
Do not split.
Out of the disunity and fractious tensions that followed the failure of the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests, that was the one slogan that kept Hongkongers united in a multi-faceted agitation for democratic reform that brought millions of people into the streets of the former British colony, starting two summers ago.
Daniel Dombey, FT
Émigrés watch as Spanish politicians invoke failures of regime in Caracas.
Laura Rozen, Diplomatic
Progress is apparently slow to date at the third round of international talks on a possible US and Iranian return to full compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which got underway in Vienna on Tuesday.
Trita Parsi, Foreign Policy
Secret meetings have been going on at least since January, catalyzed by the specter of U.S. withdrawal from the region.
Con Coughlin, The National
With Britain tackling the coronavirus pandemic and lingering issues relating to Brexit still causing concern, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson certainly has no shortage of issues that require his attention.
Erica Marat, PONARS
(PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo) In the past decade, Chinese universities have been inviting mid- and senior-level military officers from Central Asia and other countries in Eurasia. Chinese military education programs are especially attractive to officers from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, which have limited access to Russian military training. For now, Russian military education still dominates in Central Asia, but in the long term, Chinese options are likely to become more attractive. Читать дальше...
Ahmed Gomaa, Al Monitor
Ethiopia has called for a meeting of the African Union in a bid to break the stalemate in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam with Cairo and Khartoum, something that is viewed by Cairo as a maneuver by Addis Ababa to play for time until the completion of the second filling stage of the dam.
Daniel DePetris, RealClearWorld
As one might expect, North Korea was a top agenda item during U.S. President Joe Biden's recent meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. In Suga's own words, the two leaders reiterated their joint commitment to the elimination of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction, including ballistic missiles of all ranges.
Leonid Ragozin, Al Jazeera
The imprisoned opposition leader is still capable of bringing tens of thousands onto the streets, but a major anti-Putin uprising remains unlikely.
Читать дальше...
John McLaughlin, Ozy
President's Joe Biden's decision to bring all U.S. troops home from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 has provoked enormous controversy across the political spectrum. Opinion divides between those outraged by what they see as a potentially disastrous "cut and run" decision and those who insist that keeping troops there would just prolong an unwinnable war that has already consumed 20 years and many lives. Critics and supporters are about equally divided, and each side can make a good case... Читать дальше...
Kjetil Tronvoll, Foreign Policy
Abiy Ahmed depends on the support of ethnic Amhara leaders and militias whose goal is to reconquer what they consider lost territories—from Tigray to Sudan.
Jared Cohen & Richard Fontaine, Foreign Affairs
With U.S. Support, Small States Can Ably Lead Global Efforts.
Charles Glaser, FA
On China, U.S. policymakers have reached a near consensus: the country is a greater threat than it seemed a decade ago, and so it must now be met with increasingly competitive policies. What little debate does exist focuses on questions about how to enhance U.S. credibility, what role U.S. allies should play in balancing against China, and whether it is possible to blunt Beijing's economic coercion. But the most consequential question has been largely overlooked: Should... Читать дальше...
Shashi Tharoor, Project Syndicate
The number of infections in India surpassed 17 million in recent days, and the official death toll now exceeds 190,000. How did everything go so wrong so soon after India recovered from the first wave of the pandemic last year, resumed normal life and economic activity, and started exporting vaccines?
Robert Kaplan, Foreign Policy
The clearest perspective on Egypt's current military ruler is offered by a dissident who has seen previous ones rise—and fall.
M. Youngman & C. Moore, RM
In both Syria and the North Caucasus, Russia claims success in fighting insurgency and terrorism, offering itself as a model of best practice. Closer examination, however, shows that this "success" carries major caveats and is more illusory than it first appears. This article considers the link between Russian-speaking foreign fighters in Syria and domestic jihadism, the lessons of Russia's counterinsurgency approach and the potential for further conflict in the North Caucasus. Читать дальше...
James Creighton, National Interest
Leaving Afghanistan this September will compromise the gains achieved to date and render useless the sacrifices of thousands of soldiers, international aid workers, civilians, and young Afghanis striving to rebuild their country.
