Harlan Ullman

This is a potentially tectonic week for NATO, US relations with Russia and America’s future global leadership role. It began where last week left off. A trade war with China was underway. After sending strongly worded letters to several NATO members for insufficient defence spending, on a campaign swing in the Mid-West, President Donald Trump continued personalizing these attacks by accusing … [Read more...] about What’s next for NATO?

‘Beware the Ides of March,’ was the warning ignored by Julius Caesar in 44 BC. Today, there is no Caesar in America (yet?). But for those who fear Western democracies are in trouble, July will be a jarring reminder of why those fears may be justified. Certainly for the West, the future is at considerable risk of further deterioration in cohesion within the NATO alliance. Britain’s Prime … [Read more...] about A jarring July?

Can the United States (US) be considered a rational state under the Trump presidency? The world must wonder how the leader of the 'free world' favour dictators over democratic allies, and abrogate over seven decades of the international order created by the US itself? His supporters argue that Trump is a disruptive and unconventional Chief Executive who doesn't need much help in governing. He … [Read more...] about With friends like these…

Perhaps from years of real estate dealings, President Donald Trump believes that his ‘art of the deal’ can be applied to foreign policy. Flattery, unfulfillable promises, threats and, as necessary, ultimatums will lead to successful negotiations. Tragically, as other presidents believed that democracy could be applied to Vietnam and more recently, to Afghanistan and Iraq, exporting the Trumpian … [Read more...] about The Trump administration’s dual crises

Atop Wisconsin Avenue in Washington DC, on one of the city’s highest points sits the Russian Federation embassy. Guarded by thick, high, white brick walls and double steel gates at the main entrance, the embassy resembles a fortress. And while this fortress may not be under siege, it certainly has been isolated and rendered off limits by the American government. The new ambassador, Dr Anatoly … [Read more...] about Fort Apache on Wisconsin Avenue

May 8 was ‘Victory in Europe’ or VE Day, marking the surrender of Nazi Germany to Allied Forces in 1945, and the end of World War II in Europe. Ironically, US President Donald Trump’s abrogation and withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, despite opposition from members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and Germany, has given VE a whole … [Read more...] about The new meaning of VE Day

On the evening of September 10, 2001, most Americans slept well. No one thought that the next day would change the fate and future of the United States and much of the world as well.  The destruction of New York City's Twin Trade Towers at the hands of Al-Qaeda prompted the global War on Terror and military interventions into Afghanistan and Iraq that continue nearly seventeen years later. Over … [Read more...] about Semptember 10 in slo’ mo’

The United States has a national security strategy and a national defence strategy. Both were written by professionals. Both are largely viewed as credible. But what is America’s foreign policy? Is it ‘America first’ and what does that mean? Is it a policy of bilateral rather than multilateral diplomacy in which agreements such as the Paris Climate Change Accord and the Trans Pacific … [Read more...] about America needs a foreign policy

A great fear in the West is the decline of liberal democracies paralleled with the rise of authoritarianism and fascism. The causes of this decline are often portrayed as populism stirred by anti-immigrant sentiment and a fear that globalisation will lead to the West’s local populace losing jobs to immigrants. These are in fact — the symptoms — not the causes of this political phenomenon. History … [Read more...] about Why democracy is in decline