That’s the argument being made by an anonymous writer of an advocacy piece just published (read it here) by the Atlantic Council, a private think tank that promotes U.S.-European alliances (read about it here). Rather than try to describe the paper, and the real-world background behind it, I&#[...]
Archive for the ‘Foreign Affairs’ Category
January 29th, 2021 - 11:39 pm § in China, Foreign Affairs
Fight or flight?
From BBC (story and video here): “Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters with British national overseas (BNO) passports now face a stark choice. Do they take the opportunity, now open to them, to flee to the United Kingdom and start a new life? Or do they stay and continue to try to fight for gr[...]
January 29th, 2021 - 9:51 pm § in Biden, Business, China, Donald Trump, Economics, Environment, Foreign Affairs
What China’s Xi told Davos attendees
Whenever Xi Jinping speaks, the world listens, and on January 25, 2021, China’s leader spent 25 minutes seeking to exert white-glove persuasion on virtual attendees of this year’s Davos World Economic Forum. Davos is an invitation-only confab of political and business VIPs at a fancy Swi[...]
What will Biden’s China policy look like?
Tougher, like Trump’s, but different in key ways. Almost certainly, China’s growing aggressiveness is the most difficult foreign policy challenge that President Biden will have to contend with. Under Trump, the U.S. adopted a tougher stance toward China, but clumsily; this likely will co[...]
Will Trump start a war with Iran?
Two days ago, on December 29, B-52s flew to the Middle East for the third time since Trump lost the election. Such missions aren’t routine, but occur from time to time — as “a traditional American method of demonstrating resolve,” Tom Nichols, a defense specialist who teaches[...]
Bet Trump wishes he could do this
“Hong Kong (CNN) — An independent Chinese journalist who reported from Wuhan at the height of the initial coronavirus outbreak has been jailed for four years …. “Zhang Zhan, 37, was found guilty of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ ….”[...]
December 20th, 2020 - 1:41 am § in Foreign Affairs, Health
Fast-spreading new Covid strain forces U.K. into lockdown
A new Covid-19 strain that “could be up to 70% more transmissible” is raging through S.E. England, forcing that part of the country into lockdown, where reported cases have soared 40% in the last week. “This is early data, and it’s subject to review, but it’s the best that we have[...]
Cartoon of the Day
Now, we don’t know whether this is how the “massive Russian hack” (here) happened. It just seems quite plausible, that’s all. But I’ve heard (here) he owes $900 million, not $400 million. Anyway, if you could use a good laugh right now at the expense of a very corrupt p[...]
December 12th, 2020 - 3:35 am § in America, Donald Trump, Economics, Environment, Foreign Affairs, Health, Law and Courts, Politics
By the numbers: Quantifying Trump’s presidency
From Atlantic magazine (read original article here): More than a quarter of a million Americans have died from COVID-19 so far; 2.3 million Americans lost their health insurance before the pandemic, and millions more during the pandemic. Trump pulled the U.S. out of 13 international organizations, a[...]
Biden defends his SecDef pick
President-elect Biden has come under fire from his own party for choosing retired 4-star general Lloyd Austin as his secretary of defense (but Colin Powell calls him a “superb choice;” read about that here). So Biden has decided to explain the decision. First, and true to Biden form, he [...]