Recent Posts

UAE Recognition of Israel Dents Emirati Religious Soft Power

The United Arab Emirates’ bold recognition of Israel, earning it valuable brownie points in the West, has come at a cost: a blow to its efforts to earn religious soft power in the Muslim world.

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'Transforming' the U.S. – Into What?

Local businesses have been moving out. Greg Goodman, co-president of Portland’s Downtown Development Group recently wrote in a letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler and the city council that the number of businesses moving out of the city “is like nothing I have seen in 42 years of doing business in …

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Why the Pandemic Has Revived Hard-Nosed Realism

When al-Qaida targeted the centers of American financial and military power on 9/11, it believed that most of the world would welcome seeing the United States knocked down from its perch of power. Whether by accident or by design, Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida’s leader and founder, had formulated his strategy …

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