I reviewed Siegfried Hecker’s Hinge Points for Responsible Statecraft in my new column. The book is Hecker’s account of the development of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and the failures of US policy in preventing North Korea from becoming a nuclear weapons...
Spencer Ackerman identifies the most absurd part of Robert Kagan’s latest essay on rivalry with China: But those are the trees. This line is the forest: "If ever there could be a cure for American political polarization, a conflict with China would be it."...
Even by the standards of past State of the Union addresses, Biden’s speech last night was remarkably light on references to foreign policy. Stephen Wertheim commented on this during the speech:By Biden's own account, the United States today faces a risk of...
The Israeli government launched another attack inside Iran this weekend:A drone attack on an Iranian military facility that resulted in a large explosion in the center of the city of Isfahan on Saturday was the work of the Mossad, Israel’s premier intelligence agency,...
For some reason, The Washington Post lets John Bolton hold forth about China and North Korea:Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing in early February to meet with his new Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang. Bilateral relations between their two countries...
Vladimir Milov insists that sanctions on Russia are “working”:Expecting immediate results is unrealistic and even counterproductive. Given time, sanctions may well deter Russia’s aggressive behavior.Sanctions advocates always point to sanctions’ economic...
James Bosworth looks back at the failed experiment with U.S.-led international backing for Juan Guaidó as “interim” president of Venezuela:Disputed elections are far too common in Latin America, but only rarely has such a divide between the de jure and de facto...
The US and North Korea came dangerously close to war during Trump’s presidency. This is often discounted or forgotten in assessments of Trump’s foreign policy record because the war didn’t happen and Trump then made a big show of meeting with Kim Jong-un, but the...
Judah Grunstein warns against the entrenchment of the hawkish consensus on China:The result is that competition and even potential conflict are now considered the default position for relations with China; those who suggest that cooperation – even on existential...
Eric Edelman and Ray Takeyh want the US to “help” Iranian protesters:They want regime change. The United States should help from afar by increasing sanctions and improving communication among the demonstrators. If most Iranians want to change their political system,...
