| | | | Fareed: America Is Stumbling Into a Decade of War | | From Afghanistan to Somalia, the Trump administration has been ramping up military operations. But it isn't clear what, exactly, the underlying strategy is, Fareed writes in his latest Washington Post column.
"While we have been focused on the results of special elections, the ups and downs of the Russia investigation and President Trump's latest tweets, under the radar, a broad and consequential shift in U.S. foreign policy appears to be underway," Fareed says. "Put simply, the United States is stumbling into another decade of war in the greater Middle East. And this next decade of conflict might prove to be even more destabilizing than the last one.
"After 16 years of continuous warfare, hundreds of thousands dead, trillions of dollars spent and greater regional instability, somebody in Washington needs to ask -- before the next bombing or deployment: What is going on?"
| | France's Lesson for America | | The rapid ascent of French President Emmanuel Macron's La R̩publique en Marche party Рwhich didn't even exist 15 months ago Рoffers a lesson for the United States, writes John Avlon in the Daily Beast. Americans want a party that represents the center, so maybe it's time for centrist senators and governors to break away and create something new.
"We live in a time of massive disruption born of new technology. Partisan politics is the last place people are still expected to be satisfied with a choice between Brand A and Brand B," Avlon writes.
"In the long run, the conditions might be right for the creation of a new centrist coalition that can restore our faith in representative government. They can claim a direct connection to our founding fathers' distrust of extremism and belief in moderation as a source of political strength. This vision draws on some forgotten wisdom -- that the real political divisions aren't between left and right but between radicals, reactionaries and reformers."
| | Don't Expect a Quick End to Qatar Crisis | | The breadth of demands handed to Qatar by Saudi Arabia and other Arab states to resolve the current diplomatic crisis – including shuttering Al Jazeera and severing ties with groups including the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah – could suggest the stage is being set for a protracted battle of wills, report Nicolas Parasie and Summer Said for the Wall Street Journal.
"The government of Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani has 10 days to accept the demands, which include paying reparations and providing information on all opposition groups it has supported, the document says, without specifying how the Saudi-led group will penalize Qatar if it fails to comply," they write.
"But the conditions set forth by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain represent a radical overhaul of the longtime pillars of Qatari policy and include stipulations that Doha has already said are non-starters.
"By also insisting that Turkey close its Qatari military base, Riyadh and its partners also appear to be signaling that they won't allow their sway in their own backyard to be compromised, despite the crucial bases that Ankara and Doha provide for the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State."
| | What Modi Should Tell Trump | | Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi might be tempted to take a modest, transactional approach to his meeting with President Trump on Monday. But he must not lose sight of the big picture – and the danger posed to India of a less stable world, argues Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express.
"While it is important to stress bilateral issues, the fact of the matter is that India will not be served well if the world generally becomes a more precarious place. Modi has unprecedented popular legitimacy and prides himself on his candor. It would be a shame if he did not at least communicate, without being confrontational, what should be India's grave concerns about the emerging world order." - 5 things for Modi to raise. Michael Kugelman writes for Bloomberg that Modi should have five things on the agenda when he meets Trump: The fight against Islamist terrorism, a rising China, safety concerns among Indian-Americans, the situation in Afghanistan and fleshing out the idea of a U.S.-India strategic partnership.
| | Why Trump's Cuba Policy Hurts America: Leogrande | | President Trump's announcement that he will be "canceling the last administration's completely one-sided deal with Cuba" is a blow to the prospects of reform on the island – and to U.S. interests, writes William Leogrande in Foreign Policy.
"Faced with a renewed threat from Washington, Havana will do what it did in the 1960s -- seek international partners as a counterweight. In recent years, Russia and China have both sought to enhance their influence in Cuba by providing economic assistance. Moscow has gone further, building a "strategic partnership" with Havana involving closer military ties and diplomatic coordination," Leogrande writes.
"Latin America was unanimous in its support for Obama's policy of engagement. By reversing it, Trump has surrendered U.S. leadership in the Western Hemisphere and has put at risk Latin American cooperation on issues vital to the United States like migration, narcotics trafficking, and transnational crime."
| | A Few Words of Advice for Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince | | Saudi Arabia may have avoided much of the turmoil that has swept up some of its Arab neighbors. But its stability is by no means guaranteed. That's a good reason for newly appointed crown prince Mohammad bin Salman to focus on domestic reforms rather than foreign adventures, The Economist suggests.
"MBS should share some power with modernizing princes, while checking the excesses of religious reactionaries and the sprawling royal family. He should relax strict social controls, particularly on women, and encourage more debate and dissent. He should halt the pointless row with Qatar, and seek a political deal to end the war in Yemen," The Economist editorializes.
"That way he can focus on his biggest task: turning his country's rentier economy into something more dynamic. Having created a huge job for himself, MBS will be judged on whether he creates lots of jobs for young Saudis."
| | China's Cashless Ambitions? | | China is taking early, tentative, steps toward introducing a digital currency, "exploring the technical, logistical, and economic challenges" through mock transactions between the central bank and some commercial banks, writes Will Knight for MIT Technology Review.
"A digital fiat currency -- one backed by the central bank and with the same legal status as a banknote -- would lower the cost of financial transactions, thereby helping to make financial services more widely available. This could be especially significant in China, where millions of people still lack access to conventional banks," Knight says.
"Even more significantly, a digital currency would give the Chinese government greater oversight of digital transactions, which are already booming. And by making transactions more traceable, this could also help reduce corruption, which is a key government priority." | | | | | | |
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