Trump-Xi reset could collapse under the weight of its ambition | Responsible Statecraft
The US president wants a 'big deal' after this week's much anticipated meeting, but taking on all the issues at once is doomed to fail| Responsible Statecraft
The US president wants a 'big deal' after this week's much anticipated meeting, but taking on all the issues at once is doomed to fail| Responsible Statecraft
All along we've been told this was about aggressive expansionism and applied a strategy of deterrence. That was wrong.| Responsible Statecraft
The West likes to inflate the cost of Russian weapons as a way to suggest Moscow is in a financial bind and manipulate the narrative of a looming Ukraine victory — while also masking real inefficiencies in the U.S. defense industry. By assuming Russian weapons have input costs similar to U.S. systems or conflating export prices with Russia’s internal costs, Western estimates produce misleading figures. These inflated costs bolster the narrative that the strain on Moscow is tremendous, whi...| Responsible Statecraft
Sen. Rand Paul said on Friday that “all hell could break loose” within Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition if the president involves the U.S. further in Ukraine, and added that his supporters who voted for him after 20 years of regime change wars would "feel abandoned" if he went to war and tried to topple Nicolas Maduro, too. President Trump has been getting criticism from some of his supporters for vowing to release the files of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and then reneging on tha...| Responsible Statecraft
While diplomats labored to produce the Dayton Accords in 1995, then-Secretary of Defense Bill Perry advised, “No agreement is better than a bad agreement.” Given that Washington’s allies in London, Paris, Berlin and Warsaw are opposed to any outcome that might end the war in Ukraine, no agreement may be preferable. But for President Trump, there is no point in equating the illusion of peace in Ukraine with a meaningless ceasefire that settles nothing. Today, Ukraine is mired in corrupti...| Responsible Statecraft
“Did I help fix an election? Yes.” Or so claims foreign lobbyist Robert Stryk in “Devils’ Advocates: The Hidden Story of Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden, and the Washington Insiders on the Payrolls of Corrupt Foreign Interests,” a new book by New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel about the inner workings of American lobbyists working for foreign governments. In Stryk’s telling, he paved the way for the first Trump administration to accept a power sharing agreement for then-DRC Preside...| Responsible Statecraft
Frightening images have emerged from Gaza in the week since a fragile ceasefire took hold between Israel and Hamas. In one widely circulated video, seven blindfolded men kneel in line with militants arrayed behind them. Gunshots ring out in unison, and the row of men collapse in a heap as dozens of spectators look on. The gruesome scenes appear to be part of a Hamas effort to reestablish control over Gaza through a crackdown on gangs and criminal groups that it says have proliferated during t...| Responsible Statecraft
Claims that President Trump bullied President Zelensky and urged him to withdraw from the whole of the Donbas at their latest meeting in Washington will doubtless cause the usual furore in the Western media and commentariat, but they cannot be substantiated and are a distraction from the really important issue concerning U.S. and NATO strategy, which is whether the alliance should continue support to Ukraine at existing levels or seek radically to escalate. Here, President Trump made the righ...| Responsible Statecraft
It wasn’t that long ago that the mysterious attack on the Nord Stream pipelines was a massive outrage across the Western world. With Russia the presumed culprit, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen vowed the “strongest possible response,” while a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared it “a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression towards the EU.” What a difference a few years makes. Not only is Russia no longer a target in t...| Responsible Statecraft
China was recently admitted as an observer to the Andean Community — a political and economic block consisting of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru and one of the Americas’ numerous organizations and forums. Getting increasingly nervous about Chinese influence, U.S. policymakers made a concerted effort to limit the CCP's engagement in the Inter-American Development Bank and some even raised concerns about potential — albeit unconfirmed — ties between China and the recently elected ...| Responsible Statecraft
Angela Merkel, the eternal pragmatist, has chosen her moment. In a recent interview to Hungarian media, the former German chancellor pointed a finger at Baltic and Polish leaders for their alleged role in “undermining” a potential EU-Russia dialogue before the war. Whatever one thinks of her legacy, Merkel has an unmatched sense of political timing. Her statement is not a historical aside; it is the opening salvo in Europe’s looming blame game for the impending defeat in Ukraine. Her co...| Responsible Statecraft
Earlier this week, Donald Trump made the bold claim that he’s responsible for ending eight wars since taking office this past January — in other words, nearly one war each month of his presidency. Among the wars on his list is the decades-long conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, which has mired central Africa since the days of the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s in a quagmire conflict involving over one hundred armed groups. But despite Trump’s claim, the D...| Responsible Statecraft
The outrage by Senators Blackburn, Graham and others connected to the 'Arctic Frost' spy revelations ring a little thin| Responsible Statecraft
Educators, bring the history of slavery to life with Whitney Plantation's free teaching tools in The Whitney Word. Plus, get our playlist! The post The Whitney Word: September 2025 appeared first on Whitney Plantation.| Whitney Plantation
In Alaska he found reality: he is now embracing an agreement without demanding a ceasefire first, which would have never worked anyway.| Responsible Statecraft
There was no ceasefire, but none of the new sanctions Trump threatened, either. Whether this was a 'win' or 'loss' depends on who you ask| Responsible Statecraft
Mixed indicators signal wartime growth has plateaued| Responsible Statecraft
A meeting in Alaska, while putting land concessions on the table, is an essential first step. Here's why.| Responsible Statecraft
FEMA money to be contingent on pledge against any boycotts or divestment of Israeli companies| Responsible Statecraft
There is a difference, and what is going on today will lead us to a much darker place| Responsible Statecraft
As her Free Press is poised to seal a $200 million deal with the mainstream news giant CBS, let us reflect on why| Responsible Statecraft
6 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Visit to Whitney Plantation give you tips on which tour to choose, plus resources on how to learn more about the history of this sacred place.| Whitney Plantation
Hundreds of billions of dollars have gone to aiding Taipei but geography is still the island's best defense| Responsible Statecraft
The former national security adviser was reportedly coordinating with Israel to do it| Responsible Statecraft
After similar outreach to Sunnis, the pontiff's 2021 meeting with Shia's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani transcended boundaries and fostered co-existence| Responsible Statecraft
New leadership brings SDF into central govt, leaving little reason for Washington to keep protecting it| Responsible Statecraft
He's had some dumb ideas too but he's running circles around the left| Responsible Statecraft
He deserves special gratitude from the Ukrainian and European establishments for telling the truth before things go way too far| Responsible Statecraft
Israel seems to forget that Nasrallah was a more effective version of the last Hezbollah leader it assassinated in 1992| Responsible Statecraft
The military is already upgrading warheads capable of fighting a war with both China and Russia simultaneously| Responsible Statecraft
Putin’s aces — non-Western countries unaligned with the US — are also preventing him from upping the ante. Here’s how.| Responsible Statecraft
Defense industry-funded think tanks like the Hudson Institute, apparently.| Responsible Statecraft
Biden's announcement of resumed offensive weapons sales to the Kingdom says it all| Responsible Statecraft
No forward thinking and a defense industry that only thinks of profits, are a bad mix| Responsible Statecraft
Perhaps this is what Israel wants, as Yahya Sinwar is much more hardline and less likely to support a ceasefire deal than his predecessor.| Responsible Statecraft
Washington will give Israel's Netanyahu whatever he wants, whether it's in America's interest or not. Who will say no?| Responsible Statecraft
Instead of deftly dividing our adversaries, we have bumbled our way toward uniting them against us| Responsible Statecraft
