All signs show that both the South China Sea dispute and the steel oversupply issue will be realities beyond 2016. As far as the actual forum itself is concerned, the possibility of a 9th round of S&ED — an Obama administration initiative — is unclear, especially with lacking tangible results. Read Here – Global Risk […]
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said his country is in a new Cold War with the U.S. and its allies, underscoring the tenuous level of trust that’s putting a day-old plan for a truce in Syria at risk. Read Here – Bloomberg Medvedev’s Speech in Munich
There is recognition, not only inside Saudi Arabia but also in the countries surrounding it, that while the Gulf states’ responses to recent geopolitical events have been slow, change in how these countries conduct their foreign policy is under way. Read Here – The National
Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to bar Muslims from traveling to the U.S. makes it harder to carry out effective diplomacy, Secretary of State John Kerry said, adding his voice to a chorus of figures in both major parties who’ve condemned the idea. Read Here – Bloomberg
The first visit to Washington by Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud as the Saudi monarch comes as the kingdom faces multiple difficult challenges. The Sept. 4 summit will do little to address Saudi Arabia’s deep problems, because they are impervious to an American solution. Read Here – Al Monitor
Colombo’s interactions with the great powers should provide lessons for Washington on a re-emerging paradigm in world politics, one that it should note in its approach to the Middle East. A reprioritization of certain drivers of foreign policy is needed in order to successfully compete with China in the future multipolar world order. Read Here […]
When Hassan Rouhani was elected Iran’s president in June 2013 on a campaign platform of engaging with the West to reach a nuclear deal and improve Iran’s economy, he apparently didn’t know that Iran and the United States had already opened a secret diplomatic channel and held bilateral talks in Oman on the nuclear issue […]
Defenders of Barack Obama’s Iran deal ask a seemingly practical question of its critics: What would you do instead? But that question is only seemingly practical, not actually practical. The deal won’t go into effect only if two-thirds of both houses of Congress vote to override a presidential veto of a joint resolution of disapproval. Ten […]
There is much to be said for what is commonly called a “zero-based review”—a fresh look at a problem or project unencumbered by existing assumptions and practices. Just about any organization or mission could benefit periodically from such an assessment, to make possible the removal of accumulated historical impedimenta. This is true of U.S. foreign […]
That President Hassan Rouhani has staked his political fortunes on the nuclear talks is well-known in Iran. His optimism for a nuclear deal with the six world powers and the subsequent removal of international sanctions and end to Iran’s isolation is so high that he has even, somewhat controversially, linked the nuclear deal to solving Iran’s water crisis. […]
looking beyond borders 