China
-
It was a decidedly down year for democracy across the globe. From the battlefields of eastern Ukraine to the smouldering conflicts in south and southeast Asia to the coup-infected states of sub-Saharan Africa to America’s gunboat diplomacy in the Caribbean, the putative gold standard of representative government took a beating over the past twelve months.
-
The world is brimming with crises. Leaders across the globe are burning the midnight oil, trying to find acceptable solutions to seemingly intractable strategic dilemmas, from the ongoing bloodshed in the historic lands of Kievan Rus to the unsettled prospects for a lasting peace in the Middle East to the dangerous sabre-rattling between Tokyo and
-
This is the final article in a four-part series on U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century, the focus of which is to explain how America went from being the self-proclaimed “indispensable” leader of the free world in the 1990s to today’s more conflicted and introspective great power. Nine years ago, when Donald Trump was
-
This is the third in a four-part series on U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century, the focus of which will be to explain how America went from being the self-proclaimed “indispensable” leader of the free world in the 1990s to today’s more conflicted, hesitant, and introspective great power. “I’ve come here to Cairo to
-
“”We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.” So proclaimed Donald Trump during his inaugural address, a mere five months ago, portraying himself as a noble combination of strongman and peacemaker. The administration’s
-
This is the first of a four-part series on U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century, the focus of which will be to explain how America went from being the self-proclaimed “indispensable” leader of the free world in the 1990s to today’s more conflicted, hesitant, and introspective great power. America entered 2025 somewhat bruised
-
One hundred days is traditionally viewed as an appropriate timeline in the United States for an initial analysis of the relative successes and failures of an incipient presidential administration. Given that April 30th represents the end of the embryonic stage of Trump 2.0, an evaluation of the primary foci of the president’s foreign policy is
-
Poor man wanna be rich Rich man wanna be King And a King ain’t satisfied ‘till he rules everything. While these lyrics from Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 hit Badlands were not penned as an overt political statement, they resonate loudly today with the growing number of entrenched autocrats across the globe. From the shores of the
-
Praise in public, criticize in private has been a core precept of good management practices for years. Based on the scene in the White House Oval Office on 28 February, it is clear that neither President Trump nor Vice President Vance subscribe to that theory. Instead, they metaphorically body slammed — a la World Wrestling
Bob Beck's Foreign Policy Blog 