In practice, aversion to the use of power undercuts the effectiveness of diplomacy. It has been said that power without diplomacy is blind, but it is equally true that diplomacy not backed by power is impotent.
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Diplomacy’s Aversion to Power: Consequences of Retreat
Posted October 26th, 2016 at 4:03 pm (UTC-5)
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America’s Mr. Diplomacy
Posted September 15th, 2016 at 10:49 am (UTC-5)
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Such criticism is not uncommon among outside experts (and) administration officials who believe that Mr. Kerry too often pursues unwinnable goals and settles for imperfect outcomes. But there has been something honorable, even heroic, about the persistence, hard work and faith in diplomacy that this decorated Vietnam veteran…has brought to his search for peaceful solutions.
A World Awash in Change
Posted July 12th, 2016 at 11:35 am (UTC-5)
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There is a global effort opposed to the longstanding state system for bringing order to the world. [T]here are more refugees today than at any time since the end of World War II. All this is in sharp contrast to the economic and security commons that coalesced as the Cold War came to an end.
What America Keeps Getting Wrong in the Middle East
Posted June 16th, 2016 at 3:01 pm (UTC-5)
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Americans must be led to correct our counterproductive misunderstanding of Islam….The presumptive candidate of one of our two major parties has suggested banning Muslims from entry into the United States….If we do not correct these attitudes, we will continue to pay not just in treasure but in blood. Lots of it.
How America Stopped Thinking Strategically About the Middle East
Posted June 3rd, 2016 at 11:52 am (UTC-5)
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The absolutely simplest strategic objective might run something like this: Protect American interests. By such a standard, the last 15 years of war have been a massive failure. Imposing a new political order at bayonet-point has failed, squandering trillions of dollars and thousands of lives — while spawning even more violent successors to al Qaeda.
Would a Mideast Marshall Plan Work?
Posted April 22nd, 2016 at 12:14 pm (UTC-5)
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“We face, as the Marshall Planners did not in their dealings with Western Europe, the challenge of intervening in countries in which ethnic strife is high, democratic traditions are few, and America’s presence is a source of suspicion…”
Toward a Global Realignment
Posted April 19th, 2016 at 4:38 pm (UTC-5)
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Since the next twenty years may well be the last phase of the more traditional and familiar political alignments…the response needs to be shaped now. During the rest of this century, humanity will also have to be increasingly preoccupied with survival as such on account of a confluence of environmental challenges.
Will Israel Reach Age 100
Posted April 12th, 2016 at 4:18 pm (UTC-5)
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The region in which Israel lives is melting down at a rate no one would have anticipated….if there are any state disappearing acts, these may be on the Arab side….even with all of their problems, the region’s three non-Arab states –Israel, Turkey, and Iran — are probably the most highly functioning polities in the region.
Thanks to No Drama Obama, American Leadership Is Gone
If Dec. 7, 1941, is the day that Franklin D. Roosevelt said “will live in infamy,” then Dec. 20, 2016, has got to be a close second….Turkey, Iran and Russia met in Moscow to settle matters in the Middle East. The United States wasn’t even asked to the meeting.