In The News

New Statesman: No Serious Strategy for Syria

John Bew April 23, 2018
After seven years of civil war, Syria is in peril. UN peace efforts have flailed, and leaders of Iran, Turkey and Russia have met just before a chemical attack on Ghouta. The three countries do not agree on a role for Syria’s leader Bashar al-Assad, but are “are increasingly alienated from the West, have a substantive military presence on the ground within Syria, want to keep the Saudis and...

AFP: Chemical Inspectors Enter Syria’s Douma

April 17, 2018
A team of investigators with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons landed in Syria to examine the reported April 7 gas attack near Damascus, but delays block them from entering the neighborhood. The United States, France and Britain had already launched missile strikes on military sites. French President Emmanuel Macron admitted that missile strikes will do little in protecting...

New York Times: Attack in Syria, a World of Potential Risks

Ben Hubbard April 14, 2018
The United States, France and British launched airstrikes outside Damascus with the goal of reducing the Syria’s chemical weapons capacity. The strikes pose a “risk of drawing the United States even more deeply into a conflict in which Russia and Iran… have more invested than ever in keeping President Bashar al-Assad in power.” Russia called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting. Syria...

Times of India: Can Trump Charm Kim?

Nayan Chanda April 13, 2018
US President Donald Trump relies on global crises and foreign policy disruptions to distract from an ongoing investigation into Russian meddling with the 2016 US presidential election: tariff threats, US troop withdrawal from Syria and missile threats, dispatch of US troops to the Mexican border and notably a snap decision to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. “All of these moves threaten to...

Reuters: US to Take Another Look at TPP

April 13, 2018
One of President Donald Trump’s early acts in office was to withdraw the United States from Trans Pacific Partnership – a trade pact for Pacific Rim nations. The other 11 nations, led by Japan, concluded the negotiation without the United States and with some US-supported terms on investment and intellectual property. “Republican senators met with Trump on Thursday and he told them that he has...

Stratfor: Security Implications of Brexit

Julian Lindley-French April 11, 2018
Much of the concern and discussions on Brexit centers around politics and trade, but security is another priority, maintains Julian Lindley-French. European security depends on close cooperation, especially on intelligence-gathering. “Britain's security, and by extension that of Europe, will be profoundly weakened if the former is not also fully plugged into the latter,” Lindley-French...

Spiegel: EU Mulls Funding Cuts for Eastern Europe

Markus Becker, Peter Müller, Christoph Schult and Jan Puhl April 10, 2018
Europe’s largest and most powerful economies maintain that values embracing human rights and the rule of law have enhanced European prosperity. So it’s understandable that the Germany, France and others do not want to subsidize Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and other states that skirt the rule of law, refuse to support refugees and engage in corruption enriching a few individuals in power rather than...