Signs are mounting that in Tehran, which faces rising pressures at home and abroad, the country’s powerful hardline conservatives are circling the wagons, raising the odds of still more Iranian global provocations. The question is whether Washington — which continues to tighten the economic screws on Tehran — is ready for what might come next. …
Continue reading “Washington needs to anticipate Iran’s next provocation”
More than half a century ago, President John F. Kennedy re-wrote U.S. policy for the developing world with one goal in mind: to put America on the side of revolutionary forces that were seeking progressive change. His predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower, had subjected U.S. policy in the developing world to the wishes of America’s European allies …
With Pyongyang demanding that Washington reverse its policy toward North Korea before any resumption of nuclear talks, President Donald Trump needs to maintain a hardline U.S. posture toward the North’s growing nuclear weapons program and resist temptations to offer more unilateral concessions. Kim Jong Un’s disparaging response of recent days to Trump’s call for a …
President Donald Trump’s controversial interactions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky must not distract attention from the important question of U.S. policy toward Russia in connection with its war in Ukraine — especially as Zelensky and key European leaders send disturbing signals that they want to appease Russia’s Vladimir Putin in hopes of ending the war. …
Continue reading “US should support, but also prod, Ukraine”
In the escalating, multi-dimensional conflict between Washington and Tehran, the growing risk of armed conflict centers around the same danger that plagues international relations in general: miscalculation. President Donald Trump may believe that in sanctioning Iran’s central bank and sending more U.S. troops to the region in response to the recent suspected Iranian attack on …
Continue reading “Will US, Iranian miscalculation bring war?”
This week’s revelations that the International Atomic Energy Agency found traces of uranium at an undeclared nuclear site in Iran’s Tehran Province — revelations which the regime has refused to explain — shows that the Iranian nuclear issue is far more complicated than U.S. and Iranian jockeying of recent days suggests. The issue is not …
Continue reading “Future Iran nuclear deal needs stronger verification”
Moscow detains nearly 1,400 protesters after a bloody crackdown and returns its most prominent opposition figure to jail after what he suspects was a state-ordered poisoning that put him in the hospital. Beijing hints that it will send its army to quell protests against Hong Kong’s China-backed government. For all their outward self-confidence, the governments …
Continue reading “With autocrats on defensive, US has opportunity”