Esper hits a nerve by clinging to old security priorities in unprecedented times
Now is probably not the best time for the Defense Secretary to be tweeting about how nuclear weapons development is the Trump administration’s top priority.
Now is probably not the best time for the Defense Secretary to be tweeting about how nuclear weapons development is the Trump administration’s top priority.
If the coronavirus pandemic leads to partial deglobalization and delinkage, the U.S. could, if it chose, resist the urge to attempt managing stability in far flung places.
From the perspective of public discourse in the U.S., our globe-spanning, resource-draining military and security apparatus exists in an entirely parallel universe to the one most Americans experience on a daily level.
Throughout the coronavirus crisis, Trump has gone from praising China one minute, to attacking China the next. That back and forth happens to mirror the views of some of his wealthiest supporters.
A bipartisan group of two dozen national security leaders urges the U.S. government to ease humanitarian trade with Iran in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We were raised to believe in American exceptionalism. But why are we on track to have the worst coronavirus pandemic outbreak of any country on Earth?
The United States and China have a golden opportunity to bridge their divide and fight a common enemy, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trade has plummeted, Chinese goods are disappearing from markets, and exports of China’s favorite Central Asian commodity – natural gas – have nosedived.
As coronavirus continues spreading around the world, it is terrifying to consider what this pandemic could do to Libya and, given its porous borders, many nearby countries as well.
China has internal debates about strategy and policy, and U.S. officials must recognize this in order to enable more moderate perspectives.
Under international law, a foreign military occupying another territory is responsible for meeting the population’s humanitarian needs.
International cooperation needs to take priority right now, and countries must stop their wars against one another and against their own populations.
Applying the war metaphor to counterterrorism got us a war in Iraq. Applying it to the fight against COVID-19 can have similar disastrous consequences.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an opening for diplomacy in the U.S.-Iran relationship, but leaders in both Tehran and Washington are missing the chance.
The U.S. sanctions that are contributing to the misery and death of Iranians are meant to save them … or something.
Sudan’s response to the coronavirus has been one bright spot in this ongoing pandemic. But it’s not out of the woods yet, and some say U.S. sanctions are preventing it from winning the fight.
A series of critical blunders over the last few decades have exposed many of the U.S.’s weaknesses.
Restarting diplomacy with North Korea not only reduces the threat of war, but it can also help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
China has been directing aid to Middle Eastern governments to combat COVID-19, but China’s murky past in relations with the Arab World doesn’t mean its image will improve.
Throughout the history of the occupation, Israel has initiated most of the legal and physical barriers that keep Palestinians out of so-called Israeli areas as “temporary” measures, often during emergencies, but never removed them.
‘Man stands face to face with the irrational. …The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.’ Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1957)