Is the Long War Finally Ending

Posted by on May 12, 2021 in Articles, Featured, US Foreign Policy | 0 comments In October 1944, with the end of World War II in sight, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin passed a note back and forth to each other at a conference in Moscow. On the piece of paper, Churchill had assigned percentages to several Eastern European countries. Stalin amended the numbers, and Churchill agreed. The deal remained secret for nearly a decade. The percentages on the piece of paper...
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How Biden Looks at the World

Posted by on May 12, 2021 in Articles, Featured, US Domestic Policy | 0 comments In his first foreign policy speech as president, delivered at the State Department on February 4, 2021, Joe Biden laid out his vision of America’s engagement with the world. In its conventional combination of the stick of military power and the carrot of diplomacy, Biden’s address heralded a return to the foreign policy status quo of the “a la carte multilateralism” that has...
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China and the Perils of Bipartisanship

Posted by on May 12, 2021 in Articles, China, Featured | 0 comments Not a single congressional Republican voted for the recent $1.9 trillion stimulus package. Not even the so-called moderate Republicans, the handful that backed the second impeachment of Donald Trump, deigned to support an economic package that helps Americans hardest hit by the pandemic. The entire Republican caucus didn’t just snub the Democrats. They ignored the Republican mayors, as well as...
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Painting the World Green

Posted by on May 12, 2021 in Articles, Featured, US Foreign Policy | 0 comments Once upon a time, a rich hypochondriac was complaining about pains in his head and stomach. He consulted a wise man who pointed out that the root of the problem lay somewhere else: in the man’s eyes. To resolve the persistent headache and stomachache, the sage suggested focusing on just one color in the surrounding environment – green – and ignoring all others. The rich man promptly hired...
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The Talented Mr. Bin Laden

Posted by on May 2, 2021 in Articles, Featured, Human Rights | 0 comments Mohammed bin Salman is a charming fellow. The tall, dark, and handsome Saudi prince known as MbS has seduced world leaders and eager pundits left and right. To his supporters, MbS became first in line to the Saudi throne by championing reform in a deeply conservative Gulf kingdom, taking on corruption, confronting religious extremists, and promising to modernize the economy. “Someone had to do...
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One in a Billion

Posted by on May 1, 2021 in Articles, Book Reviews, China, Featured | 0 comments The story of An Wei overlaps almost perfectly with the story of Communist China. Born in a small village some distance from the northwestern city of Xian, An Wei was seven years old when Mao took control of the country in 1949. As the son of peasants, he was part of the first generation of schoolchildren to get a Communist education. He participated in the new communes of the Great Leap Forward,...
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