Juan Cole

On being a Russia expert by virtue of contiguity: “We have trade missions back and forth,” Palin told Couric. “We, we do, it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where, where do they go? […]

Pakistani troops fired on US military helicopters on Thursday. Pakistani officials insisted that the helicopters, which were not hit, had strayed into Pakistani territory. The Pentagon denied this charge. President Asaf Ali Zardari, meeting with US Secretary of State Condi Rice, attempted to paper over the incident, asseting that the Pakistani troops had only been […]

Mao Zedong announced the adage by which John McCain is clearly living now: “The enemy advances, we retreat. / The enemy camps, we harass. / The enemy tires, we attack.” Mao was describing not a conventional but a guerrilla war, and McCain is now unexpectedly playing the Filipino insurgents of 1899 to Obama’s America. Guerrilla […]

My column is out at Salon.com: “Obama goes over the top in bashing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:” Once again, U.S. politicians, including both Sarah Palin and Barack Obama, pile on the Iranian president. Why does Larry King (!) sound like the adult in the room? excerpt: ‘As for the imposition of economic sanctions on Iran, it might […]

McCain says he will suspend his political campaign on Thursday morning and is calling for a cancellation of the debate. Joe Barton (R-Texas) just came on CNN and said there are not 50 votes in the House for the Paulson plan. In otherwords,the financial markets are flying on one engine for a while, with no […]

You know those ballyhooed meetings of Sarah Palin with world leaders? What if they weren’t even talking about foreign policy? Since the press was kept out, how would we know? But the press did get one glimpse: ‘The first meeting was with Afghan President Hamed Karzai, and the content was hardly diplomatic dynamite. According to […]

Michael Tomasky writes: ‘The lobbying firm of Rick Davis, the manager, was being paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac until last month. That fact is a direct contradiction of words McCain had spoken Sunday night. At that time, responding to a Times story being prepared for Monday’s paper revealing that Davis had been the […]

Riz Khan on US-Iranian relations, interviewing Gary Sick. Veteran diplomat Edward P. Djerejian also weighs in on US-Iranian relations: ‘You negotiate peace with your adversaries and enemies, not with your friends. That is what diplomacy is all about. With current sanctions and talks under the aegis of the United Nations making little progress in impeding […]