Harlan Ullman

For whatever his strengths and weaknesses, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth may not be able to change the name of the Department of Defense to a more suitable anti-DEI title such as the Department of When Did We Win the Last War or the Department of Still Trying. But he may be more successful in […]

Thus, on Friday, Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will hold an Alaskan summit over Ukraine. The last US summit held in Anchorage, Alaska, was between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in March 2021. It turned into a public spectacle with both sides firing off angry charges and […]

Eighty years ago today, the first of two atomic bombs was used in anger. Hiroshima and then Nagasaki were vaporised. The Japanese could understand how a thousand-plane B-29 raids could kill one hundred thousand Japanese living in Tokyo or Nagoya in a single night. But it took a second B-29 and a second bomb to […]

The sordid saga of the long dead and convicted predator Jeffrey Epstein not only poses a threat to Donald Trump’s presidency. It also conceivably threatens the credibility of the US political system. Yet an even more sinister and potentially dangerous threat lurks for the United States and its friends The two threats are linked, ironically, […]

If Iran refuses to accept the existence of Israel with some form of recognition, and declines to abandon its nuclear weapons aspirations, either condition could prove to be a deal-breaker. In political terms, President Donald Trump could declare last week as the equivalent of a World Series-winning grand slam or a last-second touchdown to clinch […]

Unlike its Lebanon intervention in 1982 and the current conflict in Gaza, the principal wars Israel fought were very short and one sided: 1956; 1967; and 1973. How long the current battle with Iran lasts and how it ends are unlikely to be decided after a few days of fighting and aerial combat. But among […]

Odessa: Spending four days here has been remarkable for many reasons. The primary purpose was to attend the Black Sea Forum in Odessa, which was largely sponsored by the successful English businessman and philanthropist Lord Michael Ashcroft. This is one of the few, if any, Black Sea conferences actually held on the Black Sea. The […]

The “Russians are coming” is no longer the title of a humorous Cold War movie. A damaged Soviet submarine has to be put into a small New England seaport for repairs. The animosity and fear of the residents end in friendship and gratitude as one of the Soviet sailors rescues a small child. The rest […]

Last week in London, I had the chance to listen to four members of the House of Representatives “For Country” caucus. The caucus is made up of men and women who have served in uniform. The aim is to encourage political bipartisanship that could bring Republicans and Democrats together. The panel was quite impressive if […]

Having spent nearly a week here speaking to the usual and unusual suspects, some very high up the political and national security and defense ladder, there is unanimity, to repeat unanimity, on the dire consequences the Trump presidency poses for Britain and much of the world in just 100 days. The gloom, matched by sadness […]