In The News

BBC News: Is the US Facing a Constitutional Crisis?

February 8, 2017
After a US judge has blocked a US executive order banning travelers from seven predominately Muslim countries as well as all refugees, President Donald Trump criticized the judge for putting the naton in “peril” and questioned his authority. “The separation of powers is crucial to understanding how the US is governed,” explains BBC News. “The country's constitution established its treasured...

Confusion of the Trump Travel Ban: CNN

Evan Perez, Pamela Brown and Kevin Liptak January 30, 2017
The Trump administration, eager to demonstrate he will follow through on his most extreme campaign promises, issued an executive order abruptly banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries and also blocking admission of refugees. Authorities in the seven countries and US agencies were caught off guard, with the order released before processes were put in place. “The result was widespread...

The Economic Peril of Aggrieved Nationalism

Martin Wolf January 25, 2017
Humanity is tribal, notes Martin Wolf for the Financial Times, and communities form around shared cultural or national values during difficult times. “Today, as in the past, leaders foment aggrieved nationalism to justify despotism and even war,” Wolf writes. “For much of human history, war was seen as the natural relationship between societies. Victory brought plunder, power and prestige, at...

Argentina Omits Falkland Islands from Map; Online Uproar Swiftly Follows

Federico Rivas Molina January 11, 2017
Many Argentines were outraged when the Social Development Ministry of Argentina posted a New Year’s greeting on Twitter, and a map of the country failed to include Antarctica and the Falkland Islands, or Islas Malvinas, in Spanish. Veterans of the 1982 Falklands War, in which Argentina unsuccessfully attempted to claim sovereignty over the islands, were particularly upset. The incident coincides...

Don’t Bet on Enduring Republican Reset With Russia

Daniel Twining January 10, 2017
Donald Trump blasted critics who reject his plans to improve US ties with Russia on Twitter: “Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools, would think that it is bad!” But Congress may not go along, including Republicans who worry about aggression in Georgia, Ukraine and Syria and criticized President Barack Obama for going too easy on...

Obama: Reaching Out to Adversaries, Alienating Allies

Uri Friedman January 5, 2017
Following the US abstention from a UN Security Council vote on Israeli settlements and Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech lambasting the policy, President Barack Obama’s foreign policy toward allies has been called into question. Uri Friedman writes in The Atlantic that Obama ran on a platform of embracing US allies as well as extending an open hand to adversarial nations such as Cuba and...

The US: A Country That Can Be Ignored

Leonid Bershidsky December 27, 2016
When the United States or other powers withdraw from world affairs, other nations hurry to fill voids and build influence. “President Vladimir Putin's Russia has been at the forefront of the effort,” explains Leonid Bershidsky. “In the latest development, on Tuesday, the foreign and defense ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Moscow to discuss a plan for Syria.” Russia and the United...