| | | | Trump Looks Like a Second Term President: Goldberg | | President Trump is already trying something presidents usually resort to in their second term: looking for foreign policy wins, writes Jonah Goldberg in National Review.
"Reagan concentrated on dealing with the Soviets. Bill Clinton focused on peace negotiations in Northern Ireland and the Middle East and his air war in the former Yugoslavia. George W. Bush launched the surge in Iraq, gave a shot at Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and ramped up a massive humanitarian effort to fight AIDS in Africa. Obama's second term was dominated by his obsession with getting a nuclear deal with Iran. And now President Trump, early in his first term, is trying the same trick.
"The question is, what happens when the list of easy [wins] runs out? There's little evidence that Trump is operating with a coherent strategic vision, which means that he won't have thought-out criteria for knowing when to say no to the generals he clearly admires."
| | Why U.S. Must Tread Cautiously with Iran | | The Trump administration has assumed a more confrontational stance with Iran, but the reality is that Washington's options are limited if it wants to avoid outright conflict, suggests Ellie Geranmayeh in Foreign Affairs.
"Iran's regional position is stronger today than it was during the tenure of either [President Bush or President Obama] thanks in part to the ouster of Saddam Hussein, an Iranian enemy, in Iraq and to the boost Iran has received in Syria from Russia's intervention in that country's civil war. As a result, Iran is better positioned to jeopardize U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen."
- Fareed on Trump administration's call for multi-agency review of deal: "Remember, the rest of the world has dropped sanctions on Iran. Chinese companies are doing business with Iran, as are Russian companies, European companies. If the United States were to conclude that it wants to re-impose sanctions, then we would be out there alone. Iran would be trading with the rest of the world, while those who would be disadvantaged would be American companies.
"Ultimately, there is no evidence that Iran isn't complying with the deal – the State Department has said it is, and the International Atomic Energy Agency said it is. Now, Iran does other things that the United States doesn't like, and the U.S. is right to point those things out. But they are not related to the nuclear deal."
| | The "Startling" Reality of Le Pen's Foreign Policy | | Don't be fooled by the reassuringly familiar themes Marine Le Pen emphasizes when discussing foreign policy, suggest Manuel Lafont Rapnouil and Jeremy Shapiro in Foreign Policy. "[T]he reality of her positions, when laid out clearly, is startling."
"The use of the traditional French narratives of independence, identity, and order are meant, in part, to counter the National Front's long-standing credibility problem," they write. But "a President Le Pen would seek to disengage France from most of its international commitments. Beyond NATO's integrated command and the EU, other international regimes such as the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Criminal Court would probably be added to the list."
"…Le Pen's foreign policy ideas resonate with at least part of the electorate because they rest securely on France's national myths: the idea that France's place in the world stems from its proud history, the notion that France can make its way in the world alone, and the idea that France sits at the top table and participates in shaping the international order."
| | Pakistan's Nuclear Security Should Worry You: Nabil | | Pakistani officials might insist in public that their nuclear assets are safe from terrorist hands. The truth, though, is more troubling, writes Rahmatullah Nabil, former head of Afghanistan's national directorate of security, in the New York Times.
"On December 16, 2014, the Taliban launched a deadly attack on an army-run school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. Afterward, Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission sent an urgent letter to the director general of the Strategic Plans Division, which is responsible for securing Pakistan's nuclear assets, expressing concern," Nabil writes. "The Atomic Energy Commission requested that the military devote more resources to ensuring that the personnel with knowledge of the nuclear program are monitored. This letter, which has been kept secret until now, reveals just how concerned some Pakistani officials are -- and how worried the rest of the world should be."
| | Gates: Why Foreign Aid is Good Economics for America | | Foreign aid isn't just the right thing for the United States to do -- it also a long-term economic investment in Americans themselves, Melinda Gates argues.
"Eleven of the top 15 purchasers of U.S. goods are former aid recipients, as are 43 of the top 50 consumer nations of American agricultural products," Gates writes for CNN Opinion. "Far from locking countries in cycles of dependency, smart aid investments actually help countries unlock virtuous cycles of growth."
| | Why Poor Venezuelans Aren't Taking to the Streets | | Despite widespread discontent among Venezuela's poor with President Nicolás Maduro, they have so far generally showed little interest in mass anti-government demonstrations, report the Wall Street Journal's Anatoly Kurmanaev and Kejal Vyas. Partly, many are focused on surviving – "more than four in five Venezuelans say they don't earn enough to meet basic needs."
But the "government's tight control over mainstream media means many poorer Venezuelans without smartphones or internet access say they have no idea when and where the protests even take place. The state's vast propaganda apparatus offers few details of unrest and portrays the mostly peaceful protesters as Molotov-cocktail-throwing 'terrorists,' scaring off many in the slums from joining them."
| | Australia: Let's Talk About Values | | Do you approve of forced marriages? Is it acceptable to strike a spouse at home? These are some of the "Australian values" questions would-be citizens could be expected to answer under proposed changes to the country's immigration system, James Massola writes for the Sydney Morning Herald. The proposal still requires approval from both houses of Parliament.
If passed, "applicants will also have to demonstrate they have attempted to integrate into Australian society, providing evidence of a job, the enrollment of their children in school, and even membership of community organizations." | | | | | | |
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