In The News

Massage Parlor Owner and Trump Access: Mother Jones

Daniel Schulman, David Corn and Dan Friedman March 11, 2019
Embarrassing sexual behavior can compromise an individual’s ability to handle classified government information, and foreign intelligence agencies strive to identify individual weaknesses in order to obtain sensitive information or disrupt government operations. Police raided a Florida massage parlor in February after the facility was reported to be providing sexual services with women...

Trump’s Overreach on Trade: Project Syndicate

Daniel Gros March 10, 2019
The US trade strategy may be to isolate China until the nation enforces property rights and allows foreign investment without technology-sharing requirements. In negotiating post-Brexit trade agreements with the United Kingdom or the European Union, the United States expects to prevent trade partners from making deals with non-market economies, specifically China, explains Daniel Gros, writing...

Trade War Backfires: International Business Times

Arthur Villasanta March 7, 2019
As economists had warned, the US trade war is causing pain for both Chinese and US businesses. The US trade deficit hit $621 billion in 2018, the largest level since 2008. The US Department of Commerce reports record US imports of $2.6 trillion in goods for the year. The trade deficit in goods was $891 billion with a surplus of $270 billion for services. “Particularly galling for the Trump...

Japanese Whaling: Asia-Pacific Journal

Fynn Holm March 4, 2019
Japan, in withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission, plans to resume commercial whaling in July within the country’s exclusive economic zone, suggesting the country “remains committed” to managing such resources. Whaling has been part of Japan’s culture for four centuries, and the industry became a target of fierce international criticism since 1990. The country will cease a...

US-NK Summit Fails: Korea Herald

Choi He-suk February 28, 2019
A summit, with the aim of curtailing North Korea’s nuclear-weapons ambitions, ended early with no agreement. The Korea Herald reports that North Korea had offered to denuclearize partially if the United States lifted sanctions, and Donald Trump refused. Other reports suggest North Korean officials do not agree with that description. A draft agreement went unsigned. That draft declared an end to...

Turning to Asia: Al-Ahram

Abdel-Moneim Said February 28, 2019
Populism divides democracies of the West, leading to the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom and election of Donald Trump. Such trends also hamper relations with the Middle East. An example of such difficulties includes a February conference in Warsaw on Iranian aggression and working around US withdrawal from a nuclear agreement with Iran. “Washington’s poor coordination with friends and allies...

Age of Uneasy Peace: Foreign Affairs

Yan Xuetong February 16, 2019
US Vice President Mike Pence’s 2018 speech at the Hudson Institute, stopping short at inaugurating a new Cold War, bluntly enumerated China’s encroachment on US interests. His words illustrated the Trump administration’s perception of the rising power in the East, one determined to replace the United States in the global order. Yan Xuetong writes in Foreign Affairs that China does not seek an...