New jargon and nonsense: “The old liberal international order”
OUR VALUES: Truth Integrity Decency Character Facts Science Law Freedom We read in the press and hear in the media a lot of talk about…
OUR VALUES: Truth Integrity Decency Character Facts Science Law Freedom We read in the press and hear in the media a lot of talk about…
See UN WebTV, “The situation in the Middle East (Syria) – Security Council, 7919th meeting 7 Apr 2017 – 1. Adoption of the agenda 2….
The ghost of Kofi Annan lives on, in the form of the U.N. negotiations under the aegis of Stefan de Mistura and the Security Council’s…
UPDATE–Latest News (August 12, 2015) See Pierre Vaux, “Ukraine’s Cold War Hot as Combat Explodes in the Last 24 Hours,” The Daily Beast, August 12,…
UPDATE II July 12, 2015, 6:00 p.m. EDT) The ghost of Versailles hangs over the Greek debt negotiations in Brussels this evening. In 1919, with…
There is considerable confusion over the legality under international law of taking military action against groups and targets in Syria. This has led some governments…
As Russia, the U.S., the EU and Ukraine meet on April 17 in Geneva, it is useful to consider previous analysis and the latest commentary…
Check back for updates We should not be fooled by the faux outrage of Russia and its calling of an emergency meeting of the U.N….
developing There are troubling signs that Vladimir Putin may order a military intervention in Ukraine. The propaganda from Moscow is so shrill and Putin’s understanding…
Hamid Karzai, the green-caped magician, has for over 12 years successfully entangled the U.S., ISAF countries, and other international actors in a continuing saga of…
(Developing story) Iran is within reach of achieving an expansion of its influence through solidifying an arc of Shia states or Shia-led states reaching from…
(Developing story) Israel has bombed a munitions factory in Sudan, in flagrant violation of international law, and the United States is silent. Article 2 paragraph…
For a long-time student of diplomatic history and international politics, it is painful to watch the amateurism of Barack Obama’s foreign policy and foreign policy team….
Updated September 9, 2012 Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Los Cabos, Baja California,…
G-8 Camp David Final Communique: Statement on Syria 1. We, the Leaders of the Group of Eight, met at Camp David on May 18 and…
President Obama will travel to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador in the next week. Hopeully his trip to Brazil will be better prepared than his…
Once again, on the eve of a major meeting of U.S. and NATO foreign and defense ministers on October 14, the “Magician” in his green…
“The current near-term strategy appears to be to try to kill enough of the Taliban’s leaders to force them to negotiate a settlement on terms acceptable to Hamid Karzai.”
“This war will not be won, or defeat avoided, by fine intellectual distinctions.”
“What Obama needs to do is to take the bull by the horns, and start exploring options for the early departure of Hamid Karzai. This will be a monumentally challenging task. So was D-Day in World War II.”
Iranian Help on Afghanistan? In an interesting column in the Washington Post, David Ignatius reports on the possibilities for engaging with Iran to gain its…
Heartening News, if Not an April Fool’s Joke Jonathan Partow of the Washington Post reports from Kabul that the lower house of Aghanistan’s National Assembly…