Section: Foreign Policy (USA)
FP’s Situation Report: Iran nuke deal isn’t as simple as signatures; Putin reappears; Kerry encourages talks with Syria’s Assad; and much more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat Finalizing an Iran nuclear deal will take more than signatures. Talks over the deal resumed Sunday with reports that both sides are close to an accord. But putting an agreement into action isn’t as simple as signing papers, and that puts the agreement at risk. FP’s Colum Lynch and Jamila Trindle: “A...
There’s No Such Thing as Peacetime
Most of us view perpetual war as deeply inimical to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. We’re not wrong: Since the 9/11 attacks, two successive U.S. presidential administrations have embraced indefinite detention, massive secret surveillance programs, covert cross-border targeted killings, and a host of other troubling practices....
CIA Director Paints a Gloomy Picture of the World, But a Rosy One of His Spy Agency
Torturing prisoners. Misleading Congress. Spying on close allies. Failing to predict Vladimir Putin’s shadow invasion of Ukraine. The CIA’s reputation at home and abroad has suffered enormous blows over the last several years, but on Friday its director, John Brennan, tried to put a positive spin on where the agency is today. Brennan...
FP’s Situation Report: Christians under siege in Iraq; Nigeria calls in outside help to fight Boko Haram; Germany: no weapons for Ukraine; and much more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat Congress sits by as Christians are besieged by the Islamic State. Last August, President Barack Obama signed a bill creating a special envoy charged with helping Iraq’s Christian communities and other minority religious groups targeted by the Islamic State. Seven months later, the post is still vacant,...
Cranks, Trolls, and Useful Idiots
Following the Feb. 27 murder of liberal Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, a number of Central European websites were quick to provide an explanation. “Whoever gains control of the Russian opposition will be on the receiving end of all the finances and subsidies given to the Russian opposition by the West,” wrote an anonymous author on...
Ukraine’s Rotten Front
Ukrainian leaders, it has been said, never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Though it’s still unclear whether the new government can break this pattern, the opportunity before it now is nothing less than to undo the system of institutionalized corruption that has held Ukraine down since independence, and made it vulnerable to...
Boris Nemtsov and the Convenient Chechen Connection
MOSCOW — A little more than a week after opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down in central Moscow just feet away from the Kremlin, Russian state investigators claim to have found the culprit, and it’s not who anyone expected: lone-wolf Islamist radicals. Nemtsov’s acquaintances, independent experts, and even one of...
Germany Calls Ukraine Conflict a Threat to Europe, but Says No U.S. Weapons Needed
There’s little doubt that the months-long war in eastern Ukraine is taking its toll on the rest of Europe — and in particular, Germany. But if the West is serious about ending the fighting, said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, it cannot send more arms to the front — as Washington is weighing. “It might only take days to...
Why the 2016 Campaigners’ Cliff’s Notes Should Include ISIS, Ukraine, and the Middle East
If we were to consider — even some 20 months out — how important foreign policy will be in the 2016 U.S. elections, a smart take from inside the Beltway might sound something like this: Sure, foreign policy is important, but most of the time just not to most Americans who vote. Americans continue to be singularly uninterested in matters beyond...
Why the 2016 Campaigner’s Cliff’s Notes Should Include ISIS, Ukraine, and the Middle East
If we were to consider — even some 20 months out — how important foreign policy will be in the 2016 U.S. elections, a smart take from inside the Beltway might sound something like this: Sure, foreign policy is important, but most of the time just not to most Americans who vote. Americans continue to be singularly uninterested in matters beyond...
