While U.S. President Joe Biden seems determined to reduce the U.S. footprint in the Middle East, finally embracing Washington’s long-discussed pivot to Asia, French President Emmanuel Macron is headed in the opposite direction. In recent years, Macron has made repeated trips to Lebanon, Iraq and the Gulf states, and launched …
Read More »Counterterrorism Needs a Course Correction in 2022
As the coronavirus pandemic continued into its second year, its impact on terrorist attacks worldwide was palpable—and positive. In a report on terrorism from July, the United Nations stated that “in non-conflict zones … the threat remains suppressed by limitations on the ability of operatives to travel, meet, fundraise and …
Read More »U.S. Sanctions Might Be Easy, but They’re Not Cheap
As 2021 comes to a close, the international community faces several emerging humanitarian and security catastrophes—even beyond the global pandemic that has gripped the world for two years. Ethiopia is undergoing a complex and multifaceted civil war that has spurred a humanitarian disaster of monumental proportions, with nearly 1 million …
Read More »20 Years Unable to Defeat Taliban Now USA Freezes Afghanistan’s $9B Bank Deposits Causing Starvation
According to an analysis by the United Nations World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization, 8.7 million people are nearing famine — putting Afghanistan on the brink of a mass starvation. And children are among the most vulnerable… the country is facing numerous humanitarian crises, including a critical food …
Read More »The Rising China – A Boon, A ‘Debt Trap’, A ‘Security Threat’?
Recently, I attended a book launch. The book is about China (I am withholding the name of the book). I did not read the book, but like most official book launches, a flyer capturing the core messages of the book was circulated at the Launch event. The core messages of …
Read More »Russia-China Should Stand Firm In Rejecting Western Interference: Putin And Xi Agree
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping agreed in a video call on Wednesday: Russia and China should stand firm in rejecting Western interference and defending each other’s security interests. The two presidents’ conversation, eight days after Putin spoke to U.S. President Joe Biden in a similar format, underscored how U.S.-Europe …
Read More »Robert Reich: You Want To Know The Truth About Inflation? (It’s Not What The Fed Thinks It Is)
The Fed’s policy committee announced it would both end its bond-buying program and likely raise interest rates sooner than had been expected. “Inflation is more persistent and higher, and that the risk of it remaining higher for longer has grown,” Fed chair Jerome Powell explained. Translated: Powell and the Fed …
Read More »Readout of AUKUS Joint Steering Group Meetings
Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America recently held the inaugural meetings of the AUKUS Trilateral Joint Steering Groups, which were established as part of the governance structure of AUKUS in September 2021. The Joint Steering Group for Advanced Capabilities met on December 9 and the Joint …
Read More »Russia Proposals For Security Guarantees Seen As Largely Unacceptable, Analysts Say
Russia has published a wish list of security conditions that it wants to negotiate with the United States and NATO, including an end to the alliance’s eastward expansion and military cooperation with countries such as Ukraine and Georgia, terms that analysts say will be nearly impossible for Washington to accept. …
Read More »Russian Foreign Ministry Lays Out Detailed Proposals for New Russia-US-NATO Security Agreements
The proposal comes amid the virtual collapse of Russia-NATO ties in recent months, and weeks of claims by the US and its European allies that Moscow may be ‘preparing to invade’ Ukraine. Russian officials and the military have dismissed the claims, accusing the West of artificially ratcheting up tensions and …
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