In The News

The Spectator: Theresa May Fights a War on Two Fronts - Any Mistakes Could Be Fatal

James Forsyth March 16, 2017
British voters approved leaving the European Union, by a margin of 52 to 48 percent. More than 55 percent of voters in Northern Ireland and 62 percent in Scotland voted to remain. British Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger Article 50 and the two-year process for EU exit soon. Actual costs and institutions to handle trade, travel, immigration and regulatory details are yet unknown. May must...

Chatham House: China and the WTO

Wim Muller March 10, 2017
By joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China agreed to dispute settlement processes and compulsory adjudication. “While in other areas, most notoriously the law of the sea, China has been reluctant to accept the decision-making power of international courts and tribunals, its WTO practice has shown that China can accept the jurisdiction of an international judicial body, accept its...

Japan Times: North Korea Training to Strike US Bases in Japan?

Jesse Johnson March 7, 2017
After firing a series of missiles into the Sea of Japan, North Korea claimed to be training for a strike on US military bases in Japan. Japan would be vulnerable to saturation attacks. “Pyongyang demonstrated its growing military capabilities with the apparent simultaneous launch of four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, three of which fell inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone,” reports...

Bloomberg: Trump's Obama-Wiretap Claim

Ben Brody, Jennifer Jacobs, and Justin Sink March 7, 2017
The essence of good surveillance requires those under observation not realizing an operation is underway. US President Donald Trump released social-media messages maintaining, without offering evidence, that he had just learned former President Barack Obama had ordered surveillance of Trump Tower in New York City. The messages force the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other security officials...

Financial Times: Trump Shifts Stance on Two-State Solution to Israel-Palestine Conflict

John Reed February 17, 2017
In a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump supported “really a great peace deal” and was noncommittal about the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. “The two-state solution, under which a Palestinian state would be formed alongside Israel in the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, has been a touchstone of US policy in the region...

Independent: Investors With $2.8 Trillion in Assets Unite Against Climate Change Denial

Ben Chapman February 16, 2017
Taking steps to end reliance on fossil fuels and curb climate change is on the agenda at the meeting of foreign ministers of the world’s 20 largest economies in Bonn, Germany. “But as G20 foreign ministers meet on Thursday to prepare for a climate change summit in Hamburg in July, managers of funds with assets totalling more than $2.8 trillion - more than the entire annual GDP of the UK - called...

Associated Press: UN Security Council Condemns North Korea's Missile Test

Edith M. Lederer and Eric Talmadge February 15, 2017
North Korea launched yet another missile into the Sea of Japan, demonstrating new strides in range and capability with solid fuel. The US ambassador to the United Nations issued a statement calling the launches “unacceptable” and that the time had come to hold North Korea and “its enablers” accountable. The Kim regime in North Korea could not survive without fuel, food and other basic goods from...