Over the weekend a stunning bit of news came out. Apparently, U.S. intelligence is claiming that there is a specific threat from Iran against the American Ambassador to South Africa, Lana Marks. If true, this could represent a serious risk of escalation between the U.S. and Iran. The risk of a military confrontation, even war, is magnified if Trump believes that it would help his re-election chances. The timing of…
Israel did not sign “peace deals” with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain today. You can’t make peace between countries who have never been at war. And the notion that they are only now establishing a relationship is laughable. Clandestine relationships between Israel and the Gulf states have existed for a long time, in some cases, not even all that clandestine. But while the pomp and circumstance around these agreements…
Whatever becomes of the empty deals Serbia and Kosovo signed with the Trump administration (and they are falling apart quickly), involving Israel was aimed at pleasing Trump’s evangelical Christian base. Israel itself may not even have had a deep involvement with this move, but it still demonstrates something about Israel’s strategy. Some call it Israel’s “outside-in” strategy, the idea being that Israel is reversing long-held ideas about needing to make…
The latest edition of the ReThinking Foreign Policy podcast is out! Listen to it here, and share it with your friends.
Mike Pompeo’s decision to air a remarkably dull speech from Jerusalem to the Republican National Convention stirred great controversy. But that controversy overshadowed what was a dismal failure of a Middle East trip for the Secretary of State. Indeed, it only served to highlight this administration’s inability to capitalize on good fortune, its thorough lack of capacity to lead, and its utter contempt for human rights. Whether in Bahrain, Oman,…
