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Robert “Bob” Beck served 30+ years in US embassies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Bob is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Since retiring in 2020, Bob has taught, written about, and spoken on foreign policy across the scenic Monadnock region of southwestern New Hampshire.
American Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: Setting the Stage
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…
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Robert “Bob” Beck served 30+ years in US embassies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Bob is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Since retiring in 2020, Bob has taught, written about, and spoken on foreign policy across the scenic Monadnock region of southwestern New Hampshire.
Emerging Trends in Trump 2.0
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…
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Robert “Bob” Beck served 30+ years in US embassies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Bob is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Since retiring in 2020, Bob has taught, written about, and spoken on foreign policy across the scenic Monadnock region of southwestern New Hampshire.
Autocrats Abound
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…
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Robert “Bob” Beck served 30+ years in US embassies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Bob is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Since retiring in 2020, Bob has taught, written about, and spoken on foreign policy across the scenic Monadnock region of southwestern New Hampshire.
Slovak Political Drama -Analysis
For those interested in Central European political drama, I am including a link to a long article of mine that was published earlier today by the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), a Philadelphia-based think tank for which I’ve contributed analytic pieces for the past two years. In recognition of my work on Central Europe, FPRI…
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Robert “Bob” Beck served 30+ years in US embassies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Bob is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Since retiring in 2020, Bob has taught, written about, and spoken on foreign policy across the scenic Monadnock region of southwestern New Hampshire.
Key Drivers of Foreign Policy
The late February dustup in the oval office between team Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky was certainly entertaining political drama. Strip away the vituperative rancor, however, and the exchange also offered a fascinating exhibition of some of the key elements that influence a nation’s ability to successfully operate in the international arena. Let’s start with…
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Robert “Bob” Beck served 30+ years in US embassies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Bob is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Since retiring in 2020, Bob has taught, written about, and spoken on foreign policy across the scenic Monadnock region of southwestern New Hampshire.
WWE comes to the Oval Office
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…
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Robert “Bob” Beck served 30+ years in US embassies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Bob is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Since retiring in 2020, Bob has taught, written about, and spoken on foreign policy across the scenic Monadnock region of southwestern New Hampshire.
Who Needs One Hundred Days
An incoming U.S. presidential administration is traditionally afforded one hundred days to plot the trajectory of its policies. With Trump 2.0, that conventional timeline has been shattered. In his first three weeks in office, the new president has careened from crisis to crisis like an energy drink-addled adolescent in a turbo-charged bumper car, stopping only…
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Robert “Bob” Beck served 30+ years in US embassies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Bob is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Since retiring in 2020, Bob has taught, written about, and spoken on foreign policy across the scenic Monadnock region of southwestern New Hampshire.
Ukraine: Difficult Negotiations Ahead
While much of President Trump’s attention since his return to power has been focused on perceived threats in this hemisphere, the Russia/Ukraine war grinds on in a bloody dance of incremental yet inexorable Russian advances in the east and persistent drone and missile attacks by both sides. Many believe that the combatant countries may be…
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Robert “Bob” Beck served 30+ years in US embassies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Bob is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Since retiring in 2020, Bob has taught, written about, and spoken on foreign policy across the scenic Monadnock region of southwestern New Hampshire.
The World Trump Inherits
Listening to the recent comments of Donald Trump, one could assume that America’s most pressing foreign policy challenges reside in our geographic neighborhood. Canada as our 51st state, the “Gulf of America”, taking over Greenland, and China’s designs on the Panama Canal have been repeatedly highlighted by the incoming commander in chief. While the president-elect…
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Bob Beck's Foreign Policy Blog 