In The News

Foreign Policy: Mexico Could Take Left Turn on Foreign Policy

Richard G. Miles June 29, 2018
Mexican voters are expected to elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president on July 1– and “relations with the United States could fall into new depths,” reports Richard Miles for Foreign Policy. By taking the leftist turn, Mexicans may think they are resisting the far-right and anti-immigrant policies of the US president but they could actually be following his lead by embracing populism,...

New York Times: Erdoğan’s Victory in Turkey

Carlotta Gall June 25, 2018
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won reelection in Turkey, convincing a slim majority that a strong centralized government and increased controls contribute to security. Critics express concern about increasing authoritarianism for Turkey. The president will oversee a polarized country with fewer checks on his power and “a pliant Parliament, with his conservative party and its allies having won about 53...

Spiegel: Time for the EU to Isolate Trump?

Roland Nelles June 19, 2018
European leaders wrestle with how to deal with disruptive US policies. The G7 meeting in Canada reflected the divisions and erosion of US disdain for strongmen’s ways. Writing for Spiegel Online, Roland Nelles describes the brutish approach: disdain for agreements made by predecessors, rejection for the rules of international order or rational arguments, fawning over leaders of Russia and North...

Reuters: Why Yemen Is at War

Angus McDowall June 18, 2018
The civil war in Yemen has raged for three years, and the country has struggled with internal divisions since North Yemen and South Yemen united in 1990. Extremists as well as neighboring powers, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, have taken advantage of the divisions. The 2011 Arab Spring protests led to more divisions and the president stepped down. The deputy president took over in 2012,...

Al Jazeera: Jordan Crisis – Gulf States Rush to Step In

Ali Younes June 14, 2018
Large protests have erupted in Jordan as a result of a new income tax law, leading to fears of expanding unrest in the Middle East. King Abdullah II of Saudi Arabia hosted a regional summit on Jordan’s economic crisis and a $700 million budget deficit with the aim of providing financial assistance. The Gulf Cooperation Council seeks to prevent the protests from spreading similar to the Arab...

Foreign Affairs: Historic Breakthrough or Historic Blunder

Daniel R. Russel June 14, 2018
Post-summit consensus is that the US president was naïve, too trusting of a brutal dictator seeking attention for developing nuclear weapons. Trump, who withdrew from a detailed deal with Iran, signed a vague agreement with North Korea extracting a promise “to work toward complete denuclearization” – the terms weaker than what were offered to previous presidents before subsequently being broken....

The Diplomat: Will Trump Cement the China-Russia Alliance?

Dai Weilai June 12, 2018
Trade encourages peaceful and broad-based relationships, and a US trade war targeting China could improve Chinese-Russian relations. The United States has imposed 25 percent tariffs on a variety of Chinese goods, and China has promised retaliation. The United States also challenges China on Taiwan and the South China Sea while imposing economic sanctions on Russia and criticizing its military...