A collection of 218 posts
During my three-decade career as a diplomat and international-development manager, I saw the sector become more wasteful, frivolous, and ideologically self-serving.
The strategic case for Syria–Israel normalisation.
Reflections on a morning that changed the world as we knew it.
The Trump administration does not know how to use American power to expand American influence, and its officials do not care to learn.
The Chinese Communist Party cannot and will not accept that its time in the sun has passed. But the public knows.
The jokes we told in a Venezuelan prison.
Amid a regional scramble to shape the “day after,” Jordan appears to be the only country without a plan of its own.
Beijing just launched a nuclear-capable missile into the South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone and called it routine. It was not.
Reconsidering Israel’s wars in 1956, 1982, and 2026.
Trump ignored Clausewitz, and disaster ensued.
China’s ghost cities are like a mocking glimpse of the Chinese century we were told to expect, and for which we are still waiting.
In his panic-stricken effort to disentangle America from the Middle Eastern mess, Trump now appears to be falling into line with Tehran’s wishes.
Western political will and good intentions are no match for a complex reality rife with conflicting interests and ideologies.
Iran is not Saudi Arabia’s biggest problem.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s unprecedented tenure as Israeli prime minister may be about to end.