Section: Foreign Policy (USA)
Defense Nominee Will Have an Easy Path to a Difficult Job
Ashton Carter, the White House’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, only left the five-sided building a little over a year ago, but his nomination hearing Wednesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee highlighted just how much the world has changed in the meantime — and just how difficult his new job will be as a result. When Carter...
Crowdfunding the War in Ukraine — From Manhattan
At French Roast, a bistro on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Ivan Rodichenko remembers when a machine gun took his comrade’s head clean off — and what happened next. “The Russians took his cellphone out of his pocket and rifled through his contacts. They found the numbers for his parents and his girlfriend and called them to say Oleh was...
Inside the Obama Administration’s About-Face On Arming Ukraine
Since last year’s start of the crisis in Ukraine, the White House repeatedly has turned down requests from Kiev for weapons. Over the last four days, American policy has shifted so dramatically that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said late Tuesday he is certain guns are coming. Part of the reason for the turnabout is the deteriorating...
US Leans on Europe For Stronger Smackdown Against Russia
With Russia accused of escalating aggressions in Ukraine, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is pushing Europe anew to step up its own response. European officials are set to meet next week on whether to extend and broaden economic sanctions to punish Moscow for its military meddling in eastern Ukraine and goading separatists there into violence....
FP’s Situation Report: Islamic State brutally murders Jordanian hostage; Jordan responds with executions; Oil fails the Islamic State; U.S. eases foreign surveillance; and much more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat The Islamic State sets a new standard for savagery. Jordan’s government had been negotiating in good faith to secure pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh’s release. But according to Jordanian television, the terror organization was playing a sick game: The hostage was burned alive a month ago and his brutal death...
Ukraine Fights Second Enemy: Corruption
While Ukrainian troops are fighting off a renewed offensive by separatists in the east, Kiev is launching a new battle against corruption in the ranks of its own bureaucracy. Cracking down on tax fraud is one of the first priorities. On Monday, Feb. 2, Ukraine started a new electronic system for corporate tax filing to try to eliminate about $1...
Don’t Look Now, but Oil Prices Are Rising
Crude oil prices, which have rattled petrostates by plunging 60 percent from their summer 2014 highs, are suddenly leaping back up. Prices for benchmark crudes have jumped about 15 percent in the last week, and they continued to do so early Tuesday, Feb. 3, with Brent crude futures closing in on $58 a barrel in London. It appears that oil prices...
The Long, Strange Trip of China’s First Aircraft Carrier
It’s an epic saga made for Hollywood: the long, strange odyssey of China’s highest-profile weapons acquisition in decades — the aircraft carrier Liaoning, née Varyag — from unfinished Soviet navy hulk purchased in 1998 to operational warship plying the Asian seas. Named after a Chinese province, China’s only aircraft carrier...
FP’s Situation Report: Obama sticks to the Asia pivot; Ukraine rebels prepare for all-out war; Carter would consider troops in Afghanistan; and much more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat Obama’s $4 trillion budget sticks to the Asia-Pacific pivot. Crises in Ukraine and the Middle East are hot right now. But President Barack Obama’s 2016 spending plan shows that the White House doesn’t believe these problems are lasting. The long-term challenges are in Asia, FP’s Gopal...
Obama’s National Security Budget Keeps Focus on Asia-Pacific
President Barack Obama’s 2016 budget for national security is a reflection of the administration’s desire to hold fast to its Asia-Pacific pivot strategy even as newer threats like the rise of the Islamic State and Russia’s aggression in Europe impose new spending demands on various U.S. agencies. The Obama...
