Section: Foreign Policy (USA)
FP’s Situation Report: The Kurds set sight on Mosul; Former DoD brass take aim at Obama on Capitol Hill; Russia has a friend in Greece; and much more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat The Kurds set their sights on Mosul after taking back Kobani. The Islamic State appeared unstoppable when it swept Mosul with ease last June. Now, a senior Iraqi Kurdish official says government forces are readying to oust the extremists. But the Kurds are going to need help. FP’s Elias Groll: “Mosul is...
Political Risk Analysts See Ukraine as a Risky Bet Over the Next 10 Years
Subject to Western sanctions and accused of stirring instability, Russia is, unsurprisingly, a bad bet for global investors. A new analysis out Wednesday concludes that a $100 investment in Russia over 10 years would lose $30 to political turmoil. But Russia’s chief victim in nearly a year of strife, Ukraine, is an even riskier place to...
Lindsey Graham: Wrong on Everything
A week ago Sunday, Lindsey Graham found himself in a familiar place: on NBC’s “Meet The Press” trying to scare the hell out of Americans. Graham, a senator from South Carolina since 2003, is one of the Republican Party’s leading spokespeople on national security and international relations issues. This particular appearance, however,...
Klaatu, Where Are You?
Moscow is ending cooperation with the United States to secure nuclear material in Russia. But what about the aliens? No, not the illegal aliens. The space aliens. You know, extraterrestrials? E.T.? ALF? Bear with me here for minute. We’re Americans. We like to discuss really awkward or heavy topics using science fiction. And nuclear weapons...
Grecian Burn
Greece’s election of a self-proclaimed radical leftist could hand an unexpected win to Russian President Vladimir Putin by exacerbating divisions within Europe over how to respond to Moscow’s latest aggressive moves in Ukraine. European foreign ministers are set to huddle Thursday, Jan. 29, to try to reach consensus on how to dial up...
Top American Diplomat Decries “Lies” of Russian Media
America’s top diplomat in Europe denounced Russian state-media coverage of the Ukraine crisis on Tuesday and belittled the Kremlin’s propaganda efforts in the United States as fallacious and ineffective. “All you have to do is look at RT’s tiny tiny audience in the United States to understand what happens when you broadcast...
Sisyphus Just Needs a Hand
Life in Europe these days often feels like a world in which boulders are slowly rolled up steep hills, only to come crashing back down — no more so than in Greece, where a new leftist government just won elections that European central bankers worry will stall much needed economic reforms. From the United Kingdom to the Ukrainian border, Europe...
The Problem With Big Speeches at High Altitude
George Shultz once facetiously (but correctly) quipped that when you don’t have a policy, the pressure grows to give a speech. Coherent policy or not, words really are important — particularly if you’re the secretary of state in charge of the diplomatic vision that defines the department. Still, the rhetoric needs to be anchored in...
FP’s Situation Report: One U.S. spy convicted as three Russian spies are exposed; War reignites in Ukraine; Washington may go solo in Yemen; Exclusive details on DoD’s 2016 budget request; and more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat One American spy is convicted and three Russian spies are exposed. A federal jury convicted former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling for leaking secrets to New York Times’ reporter James Risen. FP’s Justine Drennan: “The conviction is a major win for the Obama administration, which has cracked down on...
Undercover Banker: Feds Bust Russian Spy Ring in New York
On April 8, 2013, Victor Podobnyy sat down for a conversation with his boss, Igor Sporyshev, in the New York offices of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, the SVR. Podobnyy had recently met a consultant who hoped to strike it rich in Russia’s oil industry, and Podobnyy hoped to pump him for information. “He got hooked on Gazprom,”...
