In most of the European Union, when the authorities hold a plebiscite and don’t get the result they want, they hold another, and another, until the voters see it their way. The English tradition holds democracy in greater esteem than that. Or at least it used to, before the Brexit mess.
High-tech dominance won’t be solved with tariffs.
The caravan is overwhelmingly made up of young men looking for work—not women and children.
The outgoing U.N. ambassador will stay in New York and says she wants to be a "voice" on foreign policy.
I used to write a fair amount about West Germany and report on the federal elections. Like most American journalists, historians, political analysts, and politicians—and most Germans, for that matter—I could not imagine the collapse of the Soviet empire and the unification of the two Germanies.
On November 25, Russian military forces opened fire on three Ukrainian ships off the coast of Crimea, rammed one of them, and seized all three. The ships were manned by 23 crew members. Ukrainian authorities say between three and six were injured.
It's amazing what you learn about yourself when you start publishing about Turkey's links to terrorist groups.
Negotiating with terrorists won’t bring peace to Afghanistan.
Vladimir Putin’s deliberate provocation is important. What’s more important is the U.S. response.
He that hath knowledge spareth his words,” says the biblical proverb. All of us can profit from these words, but perhaps Donald Trump needs to hear them more than most. His helter-skelter, self-exculpatory statement on his administration’s relationship with Saudi Arabia was Trump at his logorrheic…
Intelligence community has high confidence that Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for the killing.
A hudna is not a resolution.
The Obama administration’s decision in 2014 to trade five imprisoned Taliban fighters for Bowe Bergdahl, the deserter captured by Afghan insurgents, continues to spawn ill consequences.
The Obama Doctrine is over—at least in Latin America.
The possibility that the country of five million could be a peace broker.
Russia has been in violation of the Cold War-era treaty for at least four years.
Bellingcat’s amateurs excel at the intelligence game.
There are opportunities in both Syria and Iraq.
Draft legislation from Ted Cruz would require the administration to penalize a key financial cooperative if it doesn’t cut off Iranian banks.
No state that actively supports terrorism and foreign insurgencies ought to have access to the global financial system.
Italy’s coalition government came to power in May partly by winning an economic argument: The tight-budget “austerity” policies promoted by the European Union in the wake of the financial crises that began a decade ago were a sucker’s game, at least for slow-moving economies like Italy’s. Now the…
I was awakened out of my reverie the other morning by a shocking news flash: Nikki Haley was resigning from her post as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations! According to initial reports, the envoy’s announcement was “sudden” and “unexpected” and “caught Washington”—certainly caught me—“off guard.”
How to punish Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
It’s not because Beijing disappeared Meng Hongwei.
The imprisoned human rights lawyer embodies a fight shared by many.
Graham adds that Saudi leader has "got to go."
Similar measures worked in 2012.
Left unchecked, document says, the Islamic Republic will use whatever means it can to continue terror financing.
John McCain loved vulnerable democracies. Will anyone else?
But where’s the crime?
Pompeo says Iran has been using the ICJ for ‘propaganda purposes.’
Eastern Mediterranean gas creates new allies—and deepens old enmities
On September 20, 2001, speaking to a joint session of Congress, President George W. Bush famously articulated the key component of what would later be called the Bush Doctrine: “From this day forward,” the president said, “any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by…
Jalaluddin Haqqani is dead. The terror network he created lives on.
They are many and varied.
The return of the Bush Doctrine?
We haven’t “wiped out” ISIS. Or Al Qaeda. Not even close.
The anti-immigration nationalists come up short.
The vultures are circling in Syria.
To no one’s surprise, Russia is the main suspect in the mysterious attacks on U.S. diplomatic personnel in Cuba. Since 2016, 26 people at our embassy in Havana have experienced sudden and severe cognitive difficulties, and intelligence officials believe it’s due to attacks engineered by agents of…
The Trump administration is often accused of swinging wildly—and sometimes with reason. But the speech delivered by national security adviser John Bolton on September 10 was very well aimed. It was a sustained warning to the officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC), delivered at…
Exaggerating the threat from Moscow.
Beijing’s nefarious activities in the United States are very worrying.
Tehran’s growing influence in Iraq is no accident, newly declassified interrogation transcripts show
Entrepreneurs are leveraging technology, including smartphone apps, to accomplish what bureaucracies are incapable of achieving alone.
The Turkish president's thuggish autocracy and reflexive anti-Americanism make him very popular in his country.
A year after President Trump announced his Afghan policy, the Taliban are closer to victory than we are.
Kofi Annan, 1938-2018.
Almost two years ago, the American Presbyterian minister Andrew Brunson was taken hostage by the Turkish government. The charges against him—“political or military espionage” and “support for a terrorist group”—are absurd. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants the Islamic cleric Fethullah…
The country appears headed for another nightmare. What’s the U.S. role?
There are steep costs to the Trump administration's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans, Haitians, and Hondurans—and better ways to address the White House's concerns.
Drones are an evolving security threat, from intel gathering to targeting individuals. Is the U.S. prepared?
Twenty years ago today al Qaeda bombed two U.S. embassies and killed 224 people. Iran helped them do it.
“What’s happening today is part of a coordinated campaign of pressuring Tehran.”
Few American liberals strike the same balance.
For President Trump and his foreign policy team, cracking the Islamic Republic is job one.
“Good for the country, good for them, good for us.”
“We want to do something that changes behavior,” says Majority whip John Cornyn.
Mere days ago he condemned Hassan Rouhani’s ‘demented words of violence & death' in a tweet.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Trump's anger about the Mueller investigation will make any meeting counterproductive.
It’s been a rough few weeks for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A bedrock of the liberal international order, NATO has over the years faced challenges and crises from both within and without. But until recently, few would have envisioned NATO becoming a punching bag for the president of the…
Looks like trade wars are not that good or easy to win.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
The unhappy track record of happy talk.
Legislation names Hezbollah, Hamas, the Islamic State, and Boko Haram as examples.
The president’s blustery tweet was part of a defensible policy on Iran.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Marco Rubio warns that the United States is not ready for the havoc that impersonation technology can wreak.
A muted reaction to Helsinki from the GOP Congress.
Politics is rarely edifying, much less elegant. And the mayhem over President Trump’s comments after meeting with Vladimir Putin and the response of his adversaries is an example of just how bad politics can get.
Is there anything with a shorter shelf life than the official talking points of the Trump White House? For Donald Trump, it’s the script to go off script, and any statement he makes today will be altered, contradicted, or undone tomorrow.
Donald Trump has long been loath to concede that operatives of the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election, feeling as he does that the media like to talk about it mainly to suggest that he only defeated Hillary Clinton thanks to the aid of foreign troublemakers. It’s…
Schumer-led effort calls on Trump to refuse Putin's request to interview Americans.
The New York Times recently ran an article, "How Much Will the Trade War Cost a Typical American Family? Around $60 (So Far)", that shows how broad is the misunderstanding of President Trump’s tariffs. Roughly speaking the article added up the cost assuming everybody keeps buying from China. But…
The Senate majority leader did not mention the president by name, and in response to a question later said, “I'm not here to critique anyone else. I'm here to speak for myself.”
The Arizona senator leads a chorus of GOP condemnations of the president’s press conference with Vladimir Putin.
The Donald Trump presidency somehow reaches a new low.
Much to lose, little to gain.
In wake of a new indictment against Russian agents, Dan Coats warns that Moscow’s 'actions are persistent, they’re pervasive, and they’re meant to undermine America’s democracy.'
One of China’s bravest departs again to the darkness.
Whether the end of (Theresa) May comes in July or September, Jacob Rees-Mogg will be Tory executioner and Tory kingmaker.
President Donald Trump visited Brussels on July 10 as part of his three-nation European trip. There he offended our NATO allies and outraged both the American and European news media by excoriating the many alliance members who spend below the 2 percent of GDP they agreed to spend on defense in…
He’s right—or at least not wrong.
For much of the post-World War II era, the United States believed it required a military capable of fighting and winning two major conflicts at once. In no small measure this was a legacy of the war just fought, with major action in the Pacific against Imperial Japan and in Europe against Nazi…
What we've got here is a failure to communicate.
Creeping totalitarianism.
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, Chris Deaton and Ethan Epstein join host Charlie Sykes to discuss what's next for the Democratic party now that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may represent its future, as well as President Trump's relationship with three very different men: Kim Jong un, Vladimir…
To judge from Western newspapers, the elections on June 24 in Turkey brought a crisis for democracy. The “crisis” is that Turks will continue to be governed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the perennially popular Islamist former mayor of Istanbul, for whom they voted overwhelmingly, and not by Muharrem…
A new round of demonstrations against the regime launched over the weekend.
State Department official warns that countries that refuse risk sanctions.
Like hundreds of other media outlets, Vox.com sent reporters to cover President Donald Trump’s summit with North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un in Singapore. On June 13, Vox’s foreign editor Yochi Dreazen wrote a piece headlined, “The big winner of the Trump-Kim summit? China.” Dreazen’s analysis was…
Lindsey Graham, team player.
In a potential Trump-Putin meeting, senators would want the president to talk about Syria, Ukraine, and election meddling.
After the "successful" Singapore summit, China appears to be relieving pressure on Kim Jong-un.
There seems to be some confusion about the president’s foreign policy, so here is a guide that might prove useful. By the policy-maker in chief, himself, as told to this writer during a nightmare.
The Human Rights Council was a hangout for anti-Semitic cranks.
Nikki Haley cites the inclusion of countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, and China on the council.
A volcanic island in South Korea has become a hotbed of the migration crisis.
The tech titan uses faulty reasoning to end a Pentagon relationship.
The big takeaways from the joint Trump-Kim communique.
It is disconcerting to watch the president’s eagerness to serve as a character witness to Kim Jong-un.
Mike Pence and John Bolton are on the bench.
The arrest of 10 women’s rights advocates is as disturbing as it is mysterious.
The deadly police tactics, insulting oratory, anti-Americanism, and overwhelming popularity of Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte.
Pompeo is right: You can’t separate a rogue regime from its roguery.
It wasn’t a real election. But for the Chavistas, there was definitely a point.
Is Donald Trump a masterful negotiator or an unqualified bumbler? The truth likely lies somewhere in between, but we want to avoid closed-mindedness here and accept the possibility that a mercurial president can secure a beneficial agreement by means of wrong-footing the other side’s negotiators.…
A debased national movement at 70.
Ehud Barak was Israel’s 10th prime minister. Before and after that, he was Israel’s minister of defense. He also served as minister of foreign affairs, and chief of the General Staff of Israel’s defense forces. Today Barak and I had a wide-ranging conversation in which we spoke about Iran, Lebanon…
Far be it from me to say whether Donald Trump’s diplomacy on the Korean peninsula entitles him to join Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama among our recent Nobel Peace Prize laureates. But Condoleezza Rice is surely correct to suggest that the Trump administration—including ex-secretary of…
So much of any week’s White House news falls under the category of palace intrigue that it’s easy to overlook the crucial revelations. This week’s report by NBC News that White House chief of staff John Kelly regularly calls Donald Trump an “idiot” and has cast himself as the country’s “savior”…
Whatever he may say, Kim Jong-un wants the Americans gone.
“We suffered with Obamacare,” Trump said. “Make no mistake. This is a repeal and replace of Obamacare. Make no mistake about it,” he declared before pausing for a personal boast. “I predicted it a long time ago. I said it’s failing and now it’s obvious that it’s failing. It’s dead—it’s essentially…
It’s springtime for Pat Buchanan.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes
In foreign affairs, there’s a lot to be said for unpredictability. Puzzlement can induce one’s enemies to hold back or make stupid decisions. Henry Kissinger famously portrayed Nixon as acting “somewhat crazy” to keep the Soviets guessing—even to the point of dramatically elevating the readiness…
Horrific images from the aftermath of a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria are once again circulating online. The scene of this gassing is the eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus. Both the location and the timing of this apparent war crime are symbolically important. And while the immediate…
Russia, Iran, and North Korea all play a role in the Syrian regime's chemical attacks on its own people.
There were many decades when the visit of a crown prince of Saudi Arabia to the United States didn't cause much stir in world affairs. But these are different days for the Middle East and for the globe. The three-week visit of Mohammed bin Salman, in which he met with the president and an array of…
The White House declared on April 4 that the "military mission to eradicate ISIS in Syria is coming to a rapid end, with ISIS being almost completely destroyed." While the United States is "committed to eliminating the small ISIS presence in Syria that our forces have not already eradicated," the…
The White House said in a statement Wednesday that the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria is approaching completion, but did not indicate any change for the time being in troop levels, despite suggestions to that effect from the president in recent days.
The upcoming parliamentary election in Hungary appears only marginally more exciting than the recent Russian presidential election. Although the number of undecided voters is substantial, it would require a minor miracle for the ruling Fidesz Party to be voted out of power this Sunday.
On Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid a surprise visit to Beijing. It was his first time out of his country since well before he became Dear Respected Leader in 2011. Kim arrived in an armored train, met with Chinese president Xi Jinping, and the two appeared in a series of photo-ops…
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, editor at large Bill Kristol discusses why he's a little nervous about John Bolton as National Security Advisor, what the next two months will mean for U.S. foreign policy with a new secretary of state and NSA, and his most recent column on why he is still a…
The poisoning of Russian defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with one of the deadly Novichok series of nerve agents has plunged relations between Britain and Russia to their lowest level since Soviet times, sparking tit-for-tat diplomatic moves and a war of words. The crisis has raised…
Correction, 3/20/18: The piece originally stated that at the end of the Six-Day War in 1967, "Israel took over the Palestinian territories." During the Six-Day War, the territories in question belonged to Jordan, not "Palestine." The piece has been updated accordingly.
The conventional wisdom on the firing of Rex Tillerson congealed quickly: He was an ineffective secretary of state who played a crucial role in constraining the president’s reckless foreign policy instincts.
On March 13, President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson—via Twitter—and replaced him with the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo. The choice of Pompeo to lead the State Department is an excellent one. At Langley, he earned the respect of a bureaucracy deeply…
Who poisoned Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia?
Republican lawmakers greeted with cautious openness the announcement that President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will meet, reminding the president of years of failed talks with Pyongyang and urging him not to ease economic pressure just yet.
The 6-year-old child who cried in front of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become a global sensation. Erdogan spotted the weeping girl wearing a military uniform during an address at his party’s congress last week, brought her onto the stage, and told her that if she died as a martyr,…
“Pyongyang is a crucial node in the international network of proliferation that already includes China and Russia as primary providers, Pakistan and North Korea as active disseminators, and Iran and perhaps Saudi Arabia among the final consumers. No less unsettling is the prospect that North Korea…
Foz do Iguaçu and Ciudad del Este,Tri-Border Area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay
In December 2015, newly elected Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari declared that the terrorist group Boko Haram had been “technically defeated” after intensive military efforts. The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a consortium of military units from Benin, Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and…
It is a conceit of the Trump administration that its foreign policy is entirely different from that of Barack Obama. Even in an otherwise conciliatory State of the Union address, Trump strove to set himself apart from Obama, touting his own policy of “maximum pressure” on North Korea as an example…
Santiago, Chile
In the wake of the U.S. military’s crushing defeat of ISIS in the heart of the Middle East, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson laid out the Trump administration’s pathway forward in Syria in prepared remarks he delivered at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute. He included a vision of America’s…
What the president doesn’t understand about Haiti.
The first year of the Trump presidency was like the election that preceded it: unpredictable, norm-shattering, and disorienting. From the “American carnage” in his inaugural address to the kerfuffle over whether he referred to countries in Africa as “s—holes” or “s—houses,” Washington and the…
On New Year’s Day, Donald Trump fulminated on Twitter that the United States had “foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt…
'My neighbors probably think I’m nuts,” says Cory Gardner. The fresh-faced senator is from tiny Yuma in northeastern Colorado, a 3,500-person town with “horrible cell service” to the point where he doesn’t get reception inside his house. So when the secretary of state calls, Gardner does what the…
The American left has always been more comfortable with domestic policy than foreign. Progressives are happy to talk about injustice at home. But what about injustice abroad? Are there circumstances in which the United States can use its power and influence to advance justice or to check repression…
As we prepare for 2018—which absolutely, positively, has to be better than 2017—we’ve followed the example of the great Chris Wallace and asked the TWS staff for predictions for next year along four vectors: politics, sports, entertainment, and foreign policy.
For those willing to take it seriously, the question of Trump-ian national security and foreign policy has always been the extent to which the disruptive if not incendiary rhetoric of Donald Trump, the man, would be matched by a Trump administration effort to remake U.S. policy in accordance with…
The Obama administration will be remembered for a number of disgraces in foreign affairs, prominent among them its terrible deal with Iran and its dithering over the war in Syria. Deserving of a place on that list is America’s acquiescence in Russia’s attack on Ukraine, to which the Trump…
Surprise! North Korea has rejected Rex Tillerson’s request for unconditional talks with the United States.
In France, all right-thinking people know instinctively what the pensée unique is—the socially acceptable view on any subject that ensures a Parisian won’t get axed from the better dinner parties and weekends in Normandy. The Democratic party, which remains a more coherent concatenation than the…
As the Trump administration seeks to prevent North Korea from becoming a nuclear power, it will probably want to close the barn door as well, now that the horse has gotten out.
Donald Trump is confident he can get a comprehensive agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. As one diplomat in Washington recently put it, the president is more optimistic than anyone else for peace in the Middle East. Trump told Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority,…
This week on the Kristol Clear podcast, editor at large Bill Kristol talks with host Eric Felten about the role U.S. power can play in promoting peace, and the gratitude we share at our good fortune to be with family and friends for Thanksgiving.
The Islamic State's smattering of remaining strongholds in Iraq and Syria are under siege. At the height of the self-declared caliphate’s power in mid-2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s men controlled large swaths of both countries. Today, the jihadists hold only a few towns straddling the Iraqi-Syrian…
President Donald Trump on Wednesday gave a speech that was long on self-congratulation, but thin on concrete diplomatic victories from his 12-day Asia trip—and silent on everyone’s most pressing question, whether Trump still supports Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, senior writer Michael Warren talks with host Eric Felten about the president's speech detailing his trip to Asia.
Donald Trump’s feud with North Korea’s “Little Rocket Man” notwithstanding, the most likely major war on the horizon is one between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia that, thanks to years of experience and an increasingly lethal arsenal, has become part of the vanguard in Iran’s…
Henry Kissinger aptly characterized two centuries of Russian foreign policy in his 2001 book Does America Need a Foreign Policy? “Throughout its history, with all its ups and downs,” he wrote, “Russia has conducted a persistent, patient, and skillful diplomacy: with Prussia and Austria against the…
In mid-October, President Trump was due to make a certification to Congress on four conditions about its nuclear deal. He has repeatedly said this deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), gave the Iranians too much for too little. On October 13, he surprised no one by…
By his own admission, former White House strategist Steve Bannon doesn’t know much about foreign policy. But he knows one thing for sure: Every foreign headache for President Donald Trump’s administration is somebody else’s fault.
In mid-October, President Trump was due to make a certification to Congress on four conditions about its nuclear deal. He has repeatedly said this deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), gave the Iranians too much for too little. On October 13, he surprised no one by…
Kurds in northern Iraq control their own land, maintain their own military, and share a common culture and language. They also have an overwhelming desire to separate from Iraq and become an independent state. But can a de facto nation become a real country if it isn’t recognized by the diplomatic…
The people of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq voted today in a referendum on independence from Baghdad. It could take a few days to tally the votes, but there can be little doubt about the result. The Kurds have struggled for self-determination for a century. In January 2005, the non-governmental…
Today on the Daily Standard podcast, deputy managing editor Kelly Jane Torrance talks with host Eric Felten about the President's speech before the U.N. general assembly.
President Trump gave his first address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, addressing the problematic states of Iran and North Korea, the conflict in Venezuela, and making a pitch for the sovereignty of nation-states.
When he won election, Donald Trump—along with his national security adviser Michael Flynn, his all-purpose counselor Stephen Bannon, and, perhaps, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner—was fond of the idea that Russia and Iran, comrades-in-arms in Syria, weren’t natural partners. Flynn was particularly…
A key Senate panel showed its disdain for the Trump administration’s proposed steep cuts to the foreign aid budget—first by agreeing to spend more than what the president had asked for and then by issuing a report condemning the president’s “"apparent doctrine of retreat"
Seven months after taking office, President Donald Trump finally announced how his administration plans to fight the longest-running war in American history. “My original instinct was to pull out—and, historically, I like following my instincts,” Trump told the nation in a prime-time address…
Seven months after taking office, President Donald Trump finally announced how his administration plans to fight the longest-running war in American history. “My original instinct was to pull out—and, historically, I like following my instincts,” Trump told the nation in a prime-time address…
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Tuesday that President Trump has indicated to him that the administration is prepared to strike North Korea to prevent an attack against the U.S.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump was shown a disturbing video of Syrian rebels beheading a child near the city of Aleppo. It had caused a minor stir in the press as the fighters belonged to the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, a group that had been supported by the CIA as part of its rebel…
During a week in which all signs point to Republicans enshrining President Obama's top domestic achievement into law, it's now looking like Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has tricked President Trump into keeping the main pillar of Obama's foreign policy legacy in place indefinitely: the…
In April 2012, a Philippine surveillance vessel interdicted eight Chinese fishing ships sailing toward Scarborough Reef, an outcropping in the South China Sea claimed by both China and the Philippines (as well as Taiwan). Incensed, China dispatched its own surveillance vessels to block the…
The president-elect’s narrow victory at the end of a volatile campaign quickly led to efforts at planning a meeting of the American and Russian leaders. Relations between the two countries had deteriorated badly, not to say spectacularly, in the last year of the previous administration, amidst…
The president-elect’s narrow victory at the end of a volatile campaign quickly led to efforts at planning a meeting of the American and Russian leaders. Relations between the two countries had deteriorated badly, not to say spectacularly, in the last year of the previous administration, amidst…
New South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s June 29-30 White House summit will likely ease the discomfort felt by many in his home country over alleged “Korea passing” by the Trump administration. Korea passing included a combination of factors: a prolonged impeachment process in Seoul, followed by a…
Havana
Havana
The intra-Arab rift that has set Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt against Qatar is now in its second week. A feud that seemed to begin as a principled stand against Doha's support for terrorism—one flash point was Qatar's recent payment of nearly $1 billion to Iran and to…
As the 2016 presidential campaign neared its final throes, the journalist Salena Zito offered an elegant explanation of the chasm between the political-media class, which beheld Donald Trump as an unelectable clown, and those Americans propelling him toward victory. "[T]he press takes him…
Campaigning in a Munich beer tent on May 28, German chancellor Angela Merkel reflected upon Donald Trump's blitz through Europe at the tail end of his first trip outside the United States. "The times when we could fully rely on others are kind of over," she said. "We Europeans really need to take…
As the 2016 presidential campaign neared its final throes, the journalist Salena Zito offered an elegant explanation of the chasm between the political-media class, which beheld Donald Trump as an unelectable clown, and those Americans propelling him toward victory. "[T]he press takes him…
At his first on-camera briefing of the press since President Trump returned to Washington, Sean Spicer spent a good 10 minutes Tuesday recapping the highlights of an "incredible, historic trip" to the Middle East and Europe. "We've never seen before at this point in a presidency such sweeping…
On this week's episode of Kristol Clear, editor at large William Kristol discusses the politics of Trump from the mountains of Montana to the sands of Saudi Arabia, all in one week.
On April 30, 2012, Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser made a bold prediction: It was possible to envision a world in which al Qaeda's central leadership would "no longer [be] relevant" to the United States and the organization itself would be eliminated. "If the decade before 9/11 was the…
Today on the Daily Standard podcast, editor-in-chief Stephen F. Hayes weighs in on Trump's Middle East tour and the clarity of his message on terrorism.
Can President Trump broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians? That's the "ultimate deal" that will be on the president's mind as he travels Monday to Israel. Here's more from the New York Times:
What's the holdup? Deputy national security advisor K.T. McFarland is waiting to leave the White House to prepare for her new assignment as the U.S. ambassador to Singapore. An administration official confirmed back on April 9 that McFarland, a veteran of the Reagan administration who was a Fox…
Today in the Daily Standard podcast, editor-at-large Bill Kristol says Berkeley's free-speech failures are giving liberalism a bad name, while Donald Trump's foreign policy is putting many traditional Republicans in a good mood. Kristol also recounts his Coulter-esque experience of getting "pied"…
As we approach the 100-day mark of the Donald Trump presidency, it is instructive to recall the almost 100 months during which Barack Obama discharged the responsibilities of that high office. While there are reasons to be concerned about President Trump (and reasons to be encouraged, such as the…
In two weeks Donald Trump will serve his one-hundredth day as President of the United States of America. He approaches that milestone with an approval rating of 40 percent, the lowest of any modern-day president at this stage of his tenure. The man who made his reputation, and part of any fortune…
Today on the Daily Standard podcast, former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams says the future of Syria likely involves "zones of influence," a soft partition of Syria with a weak central government. He also says that one of those zones may be an Alawite zone with "significant Russian…
The House of Representatives will vote Thursday on the American Health Care Act, a bill President Donald Trump has enthusiastically endorsed and what the administration considers its best and perhaps only chance to repeal and replace Obamacare. It's the first and possibly biggest test so far of…
Foreign policy, Walter Lippmann wrote, entails "bringing into balance, with a comfortable surplus of power in reserve, the nation's commitments and the nation's power." If a statesman fails to balance ends and means, he added, "he will follow a course that leads to disaster."
President Donald Trump touched on some encouraging foreign policy points in his joint address to Congress Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers told THE WEEKLY STANDARD. But the speech's optimistic tone was soured by preexisting concerns about Trump's ties to Russia and the administration's potential…
One hundred years ago, a crisis in Mexican-American relations changed the course of history. Front pages blared the news that would precipitate U.S. entry into World War I: the publication of the legendary Zimmermann Telegram. The American people—up to then decidedly isolationist—read the shocking…
Foreign policy, Walter Lippmann wrote, entails “bringing into balance, with a comfortable surplus of power in reserve, the nation's commitments and the nation's power." If a statesman fails to balance ends and means, he added, "he will follow a course that leads to disaster."
Donald Trump has promised a foreign policy of muscular retrenchment, in which a better-resourced U.S. military intimidates our enemies without serving as a global cop. More than any president since Richard Nixon, our new commander in chief sees virtue in brutal authoritarians, especially if they…
Since President Trump's election, American allies and other foreign policy observers have been curious to know how the new White House intends to resolve an apparent contradiction. How is it possible that Trump seems keen to make some sort of deal with Vladimir Putin while expressing belligerent…
Since President Trump’s election, American allies and other foreign policy observers have been curious to know how the new White House intends to resolve an apparent contradiction. How is it possible that Trump seems keen to make some sort of deal with Vladimir Putin while expressing belligerent…
During a White House briefing Wednesday afternoon, spokesman Sean Spicer brought National Security Adviser Mike Flynn to the podium to deliver a prepared statement offering more detail on Iran's recent "destabilizing behavior" in the region.
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