By Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University (The Conversation) – Saudi Arabia is 2,000 miles from Ukraine and even more politically distant, so at first glance it might seem like it has nothing to do with the ongoing war there. But the Gulf state has emerged as a key intermediary in the most serious ceasefire negotiations […]
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US Foreign Policy
Back to the Bad old Days of Empire and Self-Destructive Tariffs: Trump as McKinley Redux
Orono, Maine (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Among tariffs, territorial ambitions and other threats to America’s well-being by Pres. Trump, one of the more severethreats may be his willful ignorance concerning the severity of climate change. Michael Mann, one of America’s most highly regarded climatologists, noted that the Trump Administration has given polluters and fossil fuel promoters, “the keys to the fossil fuel car […]
Egypt on edge: finding a delicate balance between Gaza and Trump
By May Darwich, University of Birmingham (The Conversation) – US president Donald Trump famously called Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi his “favourite dictator” in 2019, but their relationship has been complex. Trump’s return to the White House for a second term has sent ripples of concern through Cairo. In January 2025, Trump proposed a resolution […]
The End of the American Century, courtesy Donald J. Trump
( Tomdispatch.com ) – In the weeks leading up to the recent presidential inauguration in Washington, this country and an anxious world expected many different things from what might be called, to borrow the title of a famed William Butler Yeats’s poem, “The Second Coming” of Donald J. Trump. But nobody expected this. Nobody at […]
The Trump Administration Said These Aid Programs Saved Lives. It Canceled Them Anyway
by Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy ( ProPublica ) – After the Trump administration moved to freeze nearly $60 billion in foreign aid in January, officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeatedly assured Americans that lifesaving operations would continue. “We don’t want to see anybody die,” he told reporters in early February. Aid […]
Should Biden, Blinken, Austin and Trump be tried at the Hague for Gaza Genocide?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The civil society human rights NGO DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now) has submitted a detailed filing to the International Criminal Court in the Hague urging that Joe Biden, Tony Blinken and Lloyd Austin be indicted for war crimes for their deep involvement in prosecuting the genocide in Gaza. […]
Why Is Saudi Arabia Seeking To Mediate A Deal Between U.S. And Iran?
By By Kian Sharifi ( RFE/RL ) – After facilitating the first high-level talks between U.S. and Russian officials since the Ukraine war began, Saudi Arabia is now reportedly positioning itself as a mediator in another high-stakes negotiation — this time between the United States and Iran. CNN, which first broke the story, reports that […]
It is Time to Junk the “Munich” Analogy
Tiffin, Ohio (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – No sooner had the announcement about a new policy for Ukraine from the Trump administration been made than the cries of “appeasement! Munich! Hitler! Neville Chamberlain” began to ring out from almost all corners of the mediaverse. The lessons to be learned from the events in Munich […]
The New Ugly American: Manifest Destiny Gets a Reboot Under President Donald Trump
( Tomdispatch.com ) – A few years ago, I came across an old book at an estate sale. Its title caught my eye: “Our New Possessions.” Its cover featured the Statue of Liberty against stylized stars and stripes. What were those “new possessions”? The cover made it quite clear: Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines, and Puerto […]