Section: The Atlantic (USA)
A Pugnacious Obama Takes on (Most of) the World
President Obama, speaking before the United Nations General Assembly, just delivered a speech that reminded me of Hillary Clinton at her most pugnacious, and of John McCain at his most tranquil. He reminded me of the second-term George W. Bush as well. Obama labeled ISIS “evil” (remember the trouble Bush created for himself when he...
Israel’s Man at the United Nations
When foreign dignitaries arrive in New York City for the annual gathering of the UN General Assembly, it’s often difficult to determine which world leaders are rolling past in which dark limousines. But one country’s representatives typically stand out. It’s the country whose embassy and consulate on Second Avenue are enclosed...
Russia and the West: Looking Back in Anger, and Forward With Dread
MOSCOW—The standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine is a relatively recent development, but it is sickeningly familiar to anyone who grew up in the Cold War decades. It is, most of all, uniquely ominous: When nuclear-armed America and Russia quarrel, peace and life as we know it are threatened the world over. The risks of errors,...
The Scattering of Ukraine’s Jews
Aleksandr Zadov recalls the last time war forced him out of his home in Donetsk. The year was 1941, and Nazi troops were occupying the eastern Ukrainian city. He and his parents escaped under the cover of darkness to Kazakhstan. “We lived in savage, barbaric conditions. But we survived and came back,” the 77-year-old says. He reaches out to hold...
How to Defeat ISIS, According to Ted Cruz
The Republican Party is divided on foreign policy. There are “interventionists” like John McCain and Lindsey Graham who want America to more aggressively wage war—either directly or via proxies—in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and beyond. And there are “isolationists” like Rand Paul who worry that if America tries to fix the...
Scotland: A Referendum on Inequality
Queen Elizabeth II may be considered the world’s largest landowner—but close to home, in Scotland, her 60,000 acres of rolling hillside don’t amount to much. Her Majesty—who reportedly ranks 17thth among Scotland’s private landowners—has got nothing on the Duke of Buccleuch, who holds the top spot with 240,000 acres across...
Beyond ISIS and Ukraine: What Else Happened This Summer
Syria, Ukraine, Gaza, Iraq, ISIS, Ebola—the list of this past summer’s disasters is long. But buried among the tragic headlines and breaking news are other events that attracted less attention but could be just as consequential for global affairs. Here are five to watch. 1) The fall of oil prices. Over the summer oil prices dropped to the...
America’s Stake in the Scottish Referendum
The imminent referendum on Scottish independence has received surprisingly little attention in the United States. Americans have an excuse: Until recently, the British political elite paid nearly equally little attention to the possible break-up of their country. Then, at the end of August, just weeks before the September 18 vote, polls detected...
Scotland’s Democratic Revolution
These are grim times for liberal democracy. Ukrainians ousted their pro-Russian president after months of demonstrations in February, only to see their country dismembered by Moscow’s first major military intervention in Eastern Europe since the Prague Spring in 1968. In July, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, emulating Russia’s...
Can Foreign Policy Help Republicans Take the Senate?
Foreign policy and the Middle East as a major issue in the midterms? A few months ago, it would have been almost laughable—but with overseas news dominating the headlines and on voters’ minds, Republicans see the issue as the final piece in the puzzle for using fears about President Obama’s tenure against Democratic candidates in key...
