Middle East
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Now that the dust has settled from the general elections with the Glover Cleveland-like return of former President Trump to the White House, we can step back and ponder what this dramatic shift in America’s leadership means for our place in the world. While much will be written in the coming two months about border…
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This is the sixth, and penultimate, in a series of articles on key foreign policy challenges for the next U.S. president. The articles will continue between now and the general election on 5 November 2024. The focus of this series of articles has been on specific foreign policy challenges – China, Russia, the Middle East,…
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One year ago on 7 October 2023 Hamas, the militant terrorist group/governing authority of the Gaza strip, launched a lightning assault on Jewish communities across the border in Israel. The bloodletting resulted in nearly 1200 dead on the Israeli side with another 252 hostages seized in the strike and brought back to Gaza. The ramifications…
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This is the fourth in a series of articles on key foreign policy challenges for the next U.S. president. The articles will continue between now and the general election on 5 November 2024. In a 2023 essay in the journal Foreign Affairs, Jake Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Advisor, described America’s current relationship with China…
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Fifty years ago this month Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace as President of the United States, before likely being impeached in the wake of the Watergate scandal. The corruption at the highest level of the American government contributed to a nascent loss of trust by a significant portion of the populace in their elected leaders,…
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This is the first in a series of Viewpoint articles focused on key foreign policy challenges for the next U.S. President. The articles will run between now and the general election on 5 November. Over the past half century, the best intentions of U.S. foreign policy have invariably foundered on the rocks of the Middle…
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It is a truism in the international affairs community that all major foreign policy actions create unintended consequences. One need look no further than the current tensions in the Red Sea to see the wisdom of that axiom. With the launch of its retaliatory war against Hamas, Israel certainly did not intend to negatively affect…
Bob Beck's Foreign Policy Blog 