RealClearWorld Articles

It is time for the US to shift from its long-standing position demanding North Korean denuclearization and embrace diplomacy underpinned by the framework of competitive strategies pioneered by Andrew Marshall, the founder and long-time leader of the Pentagon’s in-house think tank, the Office of Net Assessment. The Korean Peninsula has been riven with tensions since the end of World War II. Recently, North Korea has signaled a departure from its decades-long pursuit of reunification with South Korea. This shift, coupled with Pyongyang’s increasing military...

Star Trek, Star Wars, 2001: Space Odyssey and dozens of other sci-fi stories set in space have delighted us for decades. What’s really happening in space right now, though, should worry us. It is part of the great power competition that is going on across the world. What’s going on up there can no longer be divorced from terrestrial geopolitics, geo-economics and statecraft. So, as the UK Government works on its upcoming strategic defence review, which was launched by Prime Minister Keir Starmer with the aim to make Britain secure at home and...

It’s been nearly three weeks, and the media is still ablaze with politicians and journalists trying to make sense of the Amsterdam pogrom. Many of them are trying to minimize a calculated, violent attack against Israelis and Jews by providing context that, while important, does not absolve the rioters of Jew hatred. Amsterdam's mayor Femkle Halsema recently said that she “regrets” describing the event as a pogrom and expressed concern that the attack was politicized “to discriminate against Moroccan, Muslim residents.” Maybe Halsem’s concern about...

Chinese president Xi Jinping on Thursday celebrated the opening of a new port that his state-owned shipping company Cosco has built in the Peruvian fishing village of Chancay. The opening of the port marks the dawn of a dangerous new era in which China wields its commercial sea power to reshape the international order to Beijing’s design. China now dominates the construction, financing, and operation of the world’s commercial maritime logistics infrastructure network. China’s dominance spans land a sea, including shipbuilding, ship repair, ship-to-shore crane manufacturing...

A Fortuitous Confluence of Events Donald Trump’s foreign policy team is shaping up to be great news for Israel, the West, and the proper definition of America First.  The erosion of American interests under the Biden Administration means that Trump will return to office looking at a world very different from the one he handed over.  Israel is but one of many countries to find itself in a radically changed geopolitical position. On October 7, 2023, Iran chose to heat up its long-simmering cold war with Israel, initially by proxy but eventually directly.  Throughout that...

Having neutralized key leaders of Iran’s proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel appears to be preparing its long-anticipated retaliation against the Islamic Republic itself. Although currently limiting attacks to military assets, many are still demanding that Israel show “restraint,” warning against “escalation” with Iran and its terrorist proxies, who have promised revenge, leaving many worried that Iran will attempt something drastic. Israel, however, appears to be ignoring Western leaders’...

Following retaliatory strikes on Iran, Israel has entered a new phase of escalation, marking a direct confrontation with Teheran.  The intensifying situation not only risks further destabilizing the region, but also forces the U.S. to become increasingly involved—more than it should be.  For instance, in the same month French President Emmanuel Macron called to halt offensive weapons deliveries to Israel, the Biden administration announced the deployment of 100 U.S. troops to operate the THAAD (Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense) system.  While Macron’s...

There is a push in the U.S. Congress to pass S.4741 Western Balkans Democracy Act, authored by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), as part of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. The legislation comes at a critical time for democracy and governance in the Balkans, which, with U.S. support, must improve throughout the region for the countries to finally join the European Union (EU), thereby permanently stabilizing Europe’s Southeastern flank.   Accompanying this Congressional focus on the Western Balkans and the policies enshrined in the Western Balkans...

The cracks and fissures of Central Asia’s 19th-century Great Game power struggles and political instability remain hidden just below the surface of the region’s deserts. Occasionally, there is a small shift, but enough to allow long-forgotten problems to reveal themselves. Late last month, a Great Game-styled clandestine plot with a potentially destabilizing force occurred in Uzbekistan. Gunmen failed in their assassination attempt against a top national figure in Uzbekistan, Komil Allamjonov, a vocal, pro-democracy reformer, advocate for freedom of speech and the...

Last month, Georgia held its parliamentary election. Over 50 percent of eligible voters participated in the electoral process in Georgia, and thousands of members of the Georgian diaspora cast their ballots as well. According to independent exit polls, the opposition movement and political parties that favored closer ties with the European Union had won the election. Many Georgians celebrated, but Georgian Dream, the ruling party in the Georgian parliament, made a different announcement. Instead of conceding the election, the current ruling party in Georgian parliament announced it had won....

“Congratulations President-elect Donald Trump on your historic election,” British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer posted on X at 3:21am ET on Wednesday. The best that can be said about this tepid concession is that Starmer got his concession in before Kamala Harris. Make no mistake. This is not the result Labour wanted. Starmer’s Labour party was heavily invested in a Harris win and did everything it could to bring it about. On July 4, Starmer won a landslide majority in the House of Commons with the lowest share of the popular vote (33.7 percent) for a winning party since...

If Donald Trump wins the election on Tuesday, he will encounter a Europe far different from the one he knew during his first term both in terms of personnel and policy. A second Trump term could very well be a baptism by fire for new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. After a decade of leadership by Jens Stoltenberg, whom some regarded as a Trump whisperer, NATO has turned to a leader known for being a quiet builder of consensus. The G7 has also seen significant turnover. Think back to the infamous photo from the 2018 summit, wherein German Chancellor Angela Merkel is leaning on a table...

Voters across the pond are quickly realizing what a massive mistake they made by electing Sir Keir Starmer’s far-left, Labour government in the United Kingdom. America, you cannot afford to follow suit. It’s only been three months since the left-wing Labour government took over from the corrupted ‘Conservative’ party and already taxes are soaring, crime – especially in major cities – is rampant, and mass migration continues to climb ever upward. The sleaze in the heart of government is part of our daily conversation, and I can’t help but look...

In a major escalation, the United States hit Houthi targets in Yemen this month with B-2 stealth bombers, perhaps the most sophisticated and expensive platform in the U.S. arsenal. The Air Force only has 19 such bombers and hasn’t used them in combat since 2017. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the raid demonstrated Washington’s ability to “take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere.”     It also demonstrated, once again, that the U.S. response to the Houthi threat is far costlier than any...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made global headlines by announcing the expulsion of six Indian diplomats. The drastic measure follows serious allegations of India’s repression of and violence against the Indian-Canadian community and interference in Canada’s democratic processes. The accusations are sensational: “Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities.” Canada’s federal policing agency alleges that agents tied to the Indian government commissioned...

Israel’s war against Hezbollah was as inevitable as it was avoidable. Shaken by an unending war in Afghanistan and its concomitant withdrawal, the failure of which will live in eternal infamy, our political leaders over the last two decades came to favor diplomats promising to de-fund, disarm, and contain terror groups. As the world now witnesses the brutal outcome of these choices, it is clear the only path to decisive victory over terror is force. Consider Lebanon. In terms of undermining terror, our leaders barely tried to do so. The diplomatic tradecraft they relied upon failed so...

On November 1, 1954, Algeria ignited a revolution that became a defining moment in the global fight against colonialism. The revolution, spearheaded by the National Liberation Front (FLN), was not only a struggle for national independence from French colonial rule but also a symbol of defiance and self-determination for oppressed nations around the world. Algeria’s eight-year war for independence, which culminated in 1962, inspired revolutionary movements across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Today, this revolutionary spirit continues to shape Algeria’s role on the global...

Months after Maduro was declared winner of the latest fraudulent Presidential Election in late July – in which the opposition candidates Edmundo González and María Corina Machado were confirmed as the true winners – Brazil, under the leadership of President Lula da Silva, has been attempting to mediate for democratic concessions. Brazil, the biggest country by land mass and population in the region, exercises tremendous influence, and is the largest economic, diplomatic, and military power in Latin America. Through its “neutral approach” to geopolitics,...

Democracy currently hangs in the balance in Georgia. On 26 October, millions of Georgians gathered to vote in the parliamentary elections, and the outcome has come into question. The stakes were high going into this election. Prior to the elections, many Georgians viewed the parliamentary elections as an opportunity for change. The ruling party in the Georgian parliament, Georgian Dream, had a poor favorability rating. Thousands of Georgians also believed that Georgian Dream was out of touch with voters. According to polls conducted independently by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and...