In The News

The Economist: America’s Neglect and Confusion Aggravate Problems in the Arab World

December 13, 2017
In his brief tenure as US President, Donald Trump’s foreign policy with regard to the Middle East has been muddled at best and disastrous at worst. The current administration’s support for Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and his son Crown Prince Mohammad has White House advisors like Jared Kushner anticipating that liberalized economic, social and religious reforms are emerging in the Gulf state and...

The Guardian: Trump Pulls US Out of UN Global Compact on Migration

Patrick Wintour December 8, 2017
Citing its commitment to US political sovereignty and strict immigration policies, the Trump administration has pulled the country of the United Nations’ global compact on migration. The announcement came within hours of the opening of a UN global conference on migration in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. According to Patrick Wintour of the Guardian, “The UN had always insisted that the compact was...

CNN: Brexit Breakthrough in Brussels

James Masters and James Griffiths December 8, 2017
The European Union and the United Kingdom reached agreement on the latter’s exit while maintaining some ties. “Crucially, the two sides reached a deal on the historically sensitive issue of the Irish border, which had threatened to derail the talks as they reached a critical moment earlier this week,” reports CNN. “Discussions can now move on to the potentially tougher issue of a future trading...

The Guardian: Abbas Warns World Leaders Over Trump's Recognition of Jerusalem

Peter Beaumont December 7, 2017
Mere days before Donald Trump announced that the United States intends to recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel, President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas made a last-ditch effort to rally diplomatic support against such recognitionl. “Abbas placed a series of phone calls on Sunday with world leaders both to ‘explain the dangers of any decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem or...

Reuters: Source Claims Deutsche Bank Gets Mueller Subpoena

Arno Schuetze and Nathan Layne December 5, 2017
The US rule of law has a long reach. US federal investigators looking into Russian interference of the 2016 presidential election are reported to have asked Deutsche bank for data on accounts held by associates of Donald Trump and his family. “Germany’s largest bank received a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller several weeks ago to provide information on certain money and credit...

Saudi Arabia Shifts Policy From Risk Averse to Downright Dangerous

Bruce Riedel November 28, 2017
Saudi Arabia as absolute monarchy and the United States as democratic republic are polar opposites in terms of political governance and culture. Yet the two nations have had close ties since 1943 when pragmatic leaders focused on shared security concerns. More than seven decades later, the relationship appears strong though less pragmatic. Each country, with internal divisions and long-term...

Spiegel Online: The End of the End of History

Klaus Brinkbäumer November 27, 2017
Political systems of the West may no longer be perceived as the most effective way to organize human societies, and Francis Fukuyama’s prediction that democracy and Western values would triumph after the fall of communism in 1989 now seems presumptuous: “in the past 11 years, freedom around the world has receded. Of 195 states only 87 are still free, 59 are partially free and 49 are not free at...