Section: The Atlantic (USA)
A Brief Guide to Rex Tillerson’s Controversial Foreign Ties
When Rex Tillerson goes before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Wednesday for his confirmation hearings to become the next secretary of state, he’ll likely face standard questions a range of international issues including the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Syria, and tensions in the South China Sea. But the committee has...
What CNN’s Report on Trump and Russia Does and Doesn’t Say
Despite all of Donald Trump’s best efforts, the question of whether and why Russia interfered in the presidential election continues to dog him.The latest twist comes from a bombshell report published early Tuesday evening by CNN, with four bylines, including Watergate legend Carl Bernstein. The story is unsettling, because it touches on...
Trump Will Inherit the Biggest NATO Buildup in Europe Since the Cold War
Rumbling off cargo ships in these opening weeks of 2017 are the tanks and trucks of the biggest U.S. and NATO arms buildup on the European continent since the 1980s.The equipment of an American armored brigade—the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the Fourth Infantry Division—is landing in Bremerhaven, Germany, soon to transit by train to its...
The Introverted Politics of the 2017 Golden Globes
Meryl Streep, honored on Sunday with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B. deMille award for lifetime achievement, used her acceptance speech to make an extremely bold claim. “You and all of us in this room really belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now,” Streep told her fellow actors and creators....
Putin and the Populists
Donald Trump is practically alone in mainstream American politics in his consistent praise of Vladimir Putin and insistence that the United States would benefit from warmer relations with Russia. But that inclination to view Putin more as ally than adversary places Trump squarely in line with the racially infused, conservative-populist movements...
The Questions at the Senate Hearing on Russian Hacking
Updated on January 5, 2017 What’s the latest?Senior intelligence officials will testify Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) about foreign cyberthreats to the U.S. Much of the testimony is likely to focus on what role Russia had in the U.S. election.U.S. intelligence officials say Russia hacked the Democratic National...
Does Anyone Know What to Make of Obama’s Sanctions?
What is a bewildered citizen to make of the sanctions that President Obama levied on Russian officials and the Russian government on Thursday? The confusion starts with the news coverage. The Associated Press, for example, blares that “President Barack Obama has slapped harsh sanctions on the Russian intelligence services.” Meanwhile the former...
The Key to Putin’s Cyber Power
Michael McFaul, Barack Obama’s ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, has a blunt assessment of the actions that his former boss took against the Russian government this week. The sanctions on Russian intelligence officers and organizations, along with the expulsion of Russian intelligence officials and closing of Russian compounds in the...
How Trump Made Russia’s Hacking More Effective
“It’s all just an attempt to delegitimize Donald Trump.” That’s the argument you hear from Trump supporters each time new information comes to light about how hard Russian spy services worked to damage Hillary Clinton. You heard it again on Thursday.The Trump supporters are 100 percent right: The information is delegitimizing. The...
The U.S. Retaliation Against Russian Hackers
President Obama announced sanctions Thursday on Russian intelligence officials and organizations he said were involved in efforts to undermine the U.S. elections. In a statement, he said 35 Russian intelligence officials in the U.S. were being expelled and two Russian compounds, one in Maryland and the other in New York, were being closed. The...
