Wars in Syria and Iraq how will they end? on June 28, 2017The United States and its allies are engaged and at war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan as well as against the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups. The biggest and unknowable question is how might these wars end particularly in Syria and Iraq. And the answers are not reassuring. Syria is the most complex, […]
Dealing with China and Russia on June 21, 2017June 22nd marks the seventy-sixth anniversary of Hitler’s ill-fated invasion of the Soviet Union that ultimately would help cause the end of Nazi Germany. Operation Barbarossa was meant to be a lightning quick march to Moscow much as Hitler’s Blitzkrieg had overrun western Europe the year before. Obviously it was not. Hitler vastly understated what […]
Political crises in US and UK on June 14, 2017 Make no mistake: Two explosive charges were set off in Washington and Great Britain last week that have created the beginnings of what could become political avalanches or tsunamis of potentially gargantuan proportion. The riveting testimony of former FBI Director James Comey before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was an accelerant to the […]
Brzezinski a strategic thinker and doer on June 7, 2017Just two weeks ago, Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser and one of the most brilliant strategic thinkers and practitioners of his time, died at age 89. The distinction between strategic “thinker” and “practitioner” is important. In blunt terms, this difference is expressed in a pointed phrase: “those who can do—those who […]
Make America, America again on May 31, 2017While visiting this fabulous town of Newport, Rhode Island with the oldest Synagogue in America, arguably the first golf course; the Tennis Hall of Fame; the Naval War College; and venerable Bellevue Avenue lined with marvelously grand palatial estates charmingly referred to as ‘cottages’, an epiphany struck home. Donald Trump wants to make ‘America Great […]
Are Trumps days numbered? on May 24, 2017Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the US Constitution reads: “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, or title, of any kind whatever, from any King, […]
There is no new Cuban missile crisis on April 25, 2017 A recent New York Times headline reads “new Cuban missile crisis on the Korean peninsula.” This is nonsense. There may be a crisis. It may be nuclear. But it is as far removed from the (in) famous “thirteen days in October” as Earth is from Pluto. Clearly, Kim Jung Un’s attempts to miniaturise a […]
Trumping defence into oblivion top this! on March 29, 2017 President Donald Trump appears to have forgotten all about his robust plans to ‘rebuild’ America’s defences. Or at least that is the impression that Senator John McCain gave at a Brussels conference recently when he dropped the following bombshell: the apprentice-president had had not requested a single meeting with him to discuss plans to […]
Donald Trumps double hat trick on March 22, 2017Brussels, Belgium: “Beware the Ides of March.” So Julius Caesar was cautioned. Caesar ignored the warning and was assassinated. Over this past Ides of March, President Donald Trump performed a double “hat trick.” The phrase was invented in 1858 at an English cricket match. The bowler, H.H. Stevenson, took three wickets with three successive bowls. […]
How clever is Vladimir Putin? on March 15, 2017What might be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next steps towards Europe, the West, and the United States for advancing Russian interests globally? Obviously, the policies of the Trump administration are, at best, unclear if not contradictory. Putin needs to understand who in the White House and administration is key in making policy. An iron law […]