In 2017, the National Security Strategy identified China as a strategic rival to the United States, explaining that China challenges “American power, influence, and interests.” This view replaced a longstanding consensus that diplomatic and economic engagement would convert China into a “responsible stakeholder” of the international order, even into a democracy. Those who view China...
Ongoing Russian aggression towards Ukraine underscores the importance of solidarity in the transatlantic relationship. The last decade, however, has exposed fissures between the United States and its European partners, as well as uncertainty over Washington’s long-term commitment to Europe. Disagreements last year over the Anglo-American sale of submarines to Australia, German support for a Russian-financed...
The Olympic Games are often an outlet for political tension, and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing are no exception. The United States, along with its allies like the United Kingdom and Australia, are participating in a diplomatic boycott of the games in protest of China’s human rights violations in Hong Kong, the Xinjiang Uyghur...
In January, Julianne Smith became U.S. ambassador to NATO. She represents one of 30 allied nations, compared to the original 12 that signed the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949. Whether NATO enlargement was successful in its aim of consolidating peace and democracy after the Cold War, or a “policy error of historic proportions” as George Kennan...
Richard Nephew, U.S. deputy special envoy for Iran, left the administration this weekend as negotiations between the United States and Iran reach a critical point. Nephew’s departure suggests trouble for the Biden team’s effort to restore a nuclear agreement with Iran. Doing so is a pillar of President Biden’s foreign policy, reversing his predecessor’s decision...
After three failed efforts last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov tomorrow in perhaps a final attempt to peaceably resolve a military standoff between Russia and Ukraine. The alternatives hazard violence and political upheaval on a scale unseen since the Cold War. In 2014, Ukrainian president and Russian...
This past week, amidst an ongoing humanitarian crisis on the Belarus-Poland border, Russia began massing troops opposite war-torn eastern Ukraine. Over a hundred thousand Russian soldiers have now been deployed to the Ukrainian frontier. Capturing Western anxiety over Russia’s seemingly belligerent intentions, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has cautioned treaty members that they should “prepare...
Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’s autocratic leader, is causing a humanitarian crisis on the Belarus-Poland border that appears to be retaliation for sanctions imposed by the European Union on his country this spring. Lukashenko’s regime faced international backlash for forcefully suppressing demonstrations following disputed elections last year. After months of deliberation, the EU imposed sanctions on the...
Fiji, Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda seldom take the limelight in international politics. Yet, facing potential catastrophe, these island states were center stage at the COP26 summit, imploring the world’s wealthiest nations to address the perils of climate change. With scientific consensus projecting a worldwide increase in heatwaves, water shortages, crop failure, and flooding if...
In a break from tradition, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) denied Myanmar’s military junta representation at its annual summit later this month. ASEAN appears to be pressuring Myanmar’s regime, led by General Min Aung Hlaing, to cooperate with neighbors in resolving its almost year-long political crisis. Hlaing’s came to power via military coup...
