In The News

Foreign Affairs: Reflexive Hostility to Russia Harms US Interests

Emma Ashford April 25, 2018
Many US leaders automatically adopt a tough stance on Russia to counter the US president’s reticence: “bipartisan enmity toward Russia has pushed even Trump, whose rhetoric on the country often vacillates between open hostility and admiration, to adopt reflexively hawkish policies, from purposeless sanctions to nuclear saber rattling,” notes Emma Ashford for Foreign Affairs. She encourages...

Business Insider: Two Winners Emerge After US Rift Over Russia

Sonam Sheth and Eliza Relman April 19, 2018
With evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, global audiences pay attention to US policies and messages on the subject. The Trump administration had made plans for a new round of sanctions for Russia after a suspected chemical attack in Syria. US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced the sanctions without knowing that Donald Trump had reversed the...

Politico: US Foreign Visas Plunge Under Trump

Nahal Toosi, Ted Hesson and Sarah Frostenson April 16, 2018
The United States is granting visitor visas at a lower rate to applicants from around the world, according to Politico’s analysis of State Department data – a trend suggesting that government officials have adopted President Donald Trump’s hardline attitude toward immigration, legal or otherwise. Due to limited information, the writers could not determine how much of the downward turn is due to...

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...

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...

The Guardian: Demise of the Nation State

Rana Dasgupta April 6, 2018
Nation states are losing influence, contends Rana Dasgupta for the Guardian, and the political systems are obsolete for confronting modern challenges that are either focused and local or global in nature. Systems based on borders struggle to deal with complex companies, technologies, immense wealth and social movements that no longer respect borders. “Exhaustion, hopelessness, the dwindling...

Foreign Affairs: When Trump Meets Kim

Toby Dalton and Ariel Levite April 4, 2018
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un caught the world by surprise after the two agreed to meet in May and explore the possibility of nuclear disarmament. The promise of a peace summit, following a year of strained and at times threatening rhetoric exchanged between the two leaders, revives hope that Kim may be open to de-escalation. Toby Dalton and Ariel Levite recommend...