Zosia Wanat, Politico EU
A couple of dozen people trapped at the Polish-Belarusian border have set off a political crisis in Poland that could play in favor of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, Chatham House
Victorious on the battlefield, the Taliban now confronts the hard challenge of governing - and not the shadow governance it has effectively practiced for years but the real difficulty of running the country. Nowhere will this challenge be bigger than in managing the Afghan economy.
Jim Geraghty, Nat'l Review
On the menu today: The situation in Afghanistan is so catastrophic, with so many dire and far-reaching ramifications — humanitarian ramifications, geopolitical ramifications, national-security ramifications — that it will take this entire newsletter to lay it all out.
B. Haddad & D. Marusic, FP
The European Union's next candidates for accession have realized the process is leading nowhere—and are acting accordingly.
Daniel Byman, Foreign Affairs
In the 20 years since the 9/11 attack, U.S. counterterrorism policy has achieved some striking successes and suffered some horrific failures. On the positive side, jihadi organizations such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) are now shadows of their former selves, and the United States has avoided another catastrophic, 9/11-scale attack. The worst fears, or even the more modest ones, of U.S. counterterrorism officials have not been realized. Читать дальше...
K. Thaler & R. Berg, LAT
Nicaragua's presidential election scheduled for November was always unlikely to be free and fair, and a crackdown since June has confirmed that. But the opposition and the international community must continue to fight the ruling regime on two fronts.
Steve Stampley, Dispatch
And the threat to America if we forget that American strength is a force for good in the world.
Patricio Navia, AQ
From Chile to Colombia, voters are looking for change - regardless of what it will bring.
Lynne O'Donnell, Foreign Policy
Early indications suggest Afghanistan will be led by a 12-man council of criminals, terrorists, and the more pliant members of the former government.
Fred Kagan, The Hill
The Biden administration's rhetoric and approach to the crisis in Afghanistan betrays two fundamental problems: gradualism, and an attempt to "define down" the problem. A crisis of this magnitude demands immediate mobilization of all resources that might be required rather than the piecemeal mobilization and deployment as the situation evolves. And it also requires remaining fixed on the original task and requirements, rather than allowing the objectives to slip to those... Читать дальше...
Kit MacLellan, CapX
The last few weeks have brought to light many unfortunate realities, one of which is the over-reliance of Nato on the US and their decision makers. Through its complete inability to act without the support of Uncle Sam, the alliance has rendered itself complicit in the failings in Afghanistan.
Micha'el Tanchum, Middle East Institute
One of the most consequential changes in the Middle East's geopolitical map is happening at the water's edge. Along the entire eastern rim of the Mediterranean basin, global and regional actors are engaging in a spate of port capacity expansions, new private port construction, and the sell-off of major state-owned ports that will determine who sits atop the region's global trade flows for decades to come. The international competition to rebuild Beirut's... Читать дальше...
C. Raja Mohan, IE
C Raja Mohan writes: Strategic patience coupled with political empathy for Afghan people, and an active engagement will continue to keep Delhi relevant in Kabul's internal and external evolution.
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Morgan Lorraine Viña, RealClearWorld
In Hans Christian Anderson's children's classic The Emperor's New Clothes, the unfortunate emperor parades around the streets in his birthday suit, confident that his fine garments are seen by everyone except him. Tragically, the emperor's pride begets, ahem, the naked truth: He is indeed au naturel for the entire kingdom to see.
Michael Klare, TomDispatch
In recent months, Washington has had a lot to say about China's ever-expanding air, naval, and missile power. But when Pentagon officials address the topic, they generally speak less about that country's current capabilities, which remain vastly inferior to those of the U.S., than the world they foresee in the 2030s and 2040s, when Beijing is expected to have acquired far more sophisticated weaponry.
Lee Smith, Tablet
The deal that the American elite chose to make with China has a precedent in the history of Athens and Sparta
Sergey Radchenko, WOTR
Fifty years after Henry Kissinger's game-changing secret visit to China — which led to the Sino-American rapprochement and became a key turning point of the Cold War — there is no shortage of new would-be Kissingers. Important voices have called for a readjustment of America's confrontational approach to Russia in a bid to play Moscow as a card against Beijing.
Karen Greenberg, TomDispatch
It ended in chaos and disaster. Kabul has fallen and Joe Biden is being blamed (by congressional Republicans in particular) for America's now almost-20-year disaster in Afghanistan. But is the war on terror itself over? Apparently not.
