The Man Ruffling the Kremlin’s Feathers

View this email in your browser Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Jason Miks. August 2, 2017 Donald Trump: George W. Bush 2.0? President Trump's apparent desire to abandon the Iran nuclear deal risks placing his presidency on a trajectory similar to that of a man he has frequently criticized, writes Amir Handjani for Reuters. Scrapping the deal would dramatically increase the likelihood of war – and raise the prospect of Trump's presidency turning into the George W. Bush years redux. "If Iran were to make the same calculation as North Korea – that Washington's goal is not to limit its nuclear program, but rather to exit the nuclear deal as a pretext to regime change – Tehran could view nuclear weapons as a deterrent, much like Pyongyang did a decade ago. This could put the Trump administration in the avoidable position of launching military strikes that might plunge America into another Middle East war," Handjani writes. "Trump has often said that he was against the invasion of Iraq – although some of his pre-election statements suggest otherwise. Nonetheless, he has called that war of choice 'destabilizing to the Middle East,' and said that the U.S. 'should stop racing to topple foreign regimes we know nothing about.' Trump should follow his own advice." Why Tillerson Really Needs a Win The success of a secretary of state usually rests more in their clear authority than their strategic brilliance. That's why Rex Tillerson needs a diplomatic win soon – and Qatar is a good place to start, Dennis Ross writes in the Wall Street Journal. "Effective American intervention now is necessary for several reasons. A wounded ISIS could exploit the current confusion to regain its strength. Iran and its Shiite militias are already positioning themselves to fill any power vacuum in both Iraq and Syria, further destabilizing the region. And, for Mr. Tillerson, his future effectiveness as secretary of state could depend on it," Ross writes. "Mr. Tillerson's reluctance or inability to fill out senior State Department positions and the Trump administration's often contradictory messaging have cast doubt on his ability to speak for the president. This is an untenable position for a secretary of state. Mr. Tillerson needs to demonstrate that he can solve diplomatic problems by exercising leverage and producing results. He needs to put a win on the board, lest America's partners and adversaries begin to question whether it makes sense to work with him." Why Team Trump Looks Like Reservoir Dogs One of the biggest reasons for the Trump administration's inability to get much done? A management style that puts too much stock in encouraging competition among staff, argues Fred Bauer in National Review. That may have worked in the private sector, but in government it has meant "Reservoir Dogs-style showdowns." "For decades, pundits have fetishized the presidency, casting the president as the distillation of America's ambitions and virtues. Much of the presidential propaganda of the Obama years fixated on the president as a cool national persona," Bauer writes. "But in reality, American politics is a team sport, and the executive branch is a team within a team. The parts of an administration must be working together if that administration is to have any hope of working with its constitutional partners in the legislature to enact a domestic agenda." "It seemed when he ran for office that one potential role for Donald Trump would be to act as a catalyst for reform within the Republican party: His raucous ascent was a sign that many of the policy orthodoxies of the GOP could be updated. While a radically fractured administration may in other ways be quite disruptive, these divisions may in fact end up strengthening the hand of policy inertia. An administration that expends all its energies in internal knife-fights might become too exhausted to face the challenges that brought it to office in the first place." The Man Who Is Ruffling the Kremlin's Feathers Russia's top election official has suggested that it is extremely unlikely dissident Alexei Navalny will be allowed on the ballot for the country's presidential election next year, writes Marc Bennetts for Politico EU. But that hasn't stopped his team opening dozens of campaign offices – and ruffling feathers in Moscow.   "It is Navalny's sensational exposés of high-level corruption that have seized the national and international spotlight. But it's [Navalny's Chief of Staff Leonid] Volkov's organizational effort that has given the 41-year-old, Yale-educated lawyer political footholds in regions far from the capital, in towns and cities that will be essential to any attempt to loosen Putin's almost two-decade-long grip on power," Bennetts writes.   "The contrast between the Navalny 2018 election effort and the staid, low-energy campaigns traditionally run by Putin and the handful of Kremlin-approved candidates that have been permitted to stand against him over the years could not be greater. Since coming to power in 2000, Putin has not taken part in an election debate, televised or otherwise, and presidential candidates of all stripes have shown little, if any, appetite for campaigning across the vast Russian landscape.   "The Kremlin hasn't taken kindly to Navalny's violation of its unspoken rules."   Is the Key to Beating Climate Change on Your Plate? The key to Americans taking a big step toward meeting Barack Obama's climate target is theoretically in the kitchen, writes James Hamblin in The Atlantic. That means dropping the beef -- and eating beans instead.   "[E]ven if nothing about our energy infrastructure or transportation system changed -- and even if people kept eating chicken and pork and eggs and cheese -- this one dietary change could achieve somewhere between 46 and 74 percent of the reductions needed to meet the target," Hamblin says, citing a new study.   "A relatively small, single-food substitution could be the most powerful change a person makes in terms of their lifetime environmental impact -- more so than downsizing one's car, or being vigilant about turning off light bulbs, and certainly more than quitting showering."   One More Thing... Thanks for reading all the way to the end of today's Global Briefing! A bonus for doing so: you're among the first to know that on Sunday's show, Fareed will be speaking with former Vice President Al Gore about climate change, the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, America's broken politics, and much more.  Tune in this Sunday at 10 a.m. ET/PT on CNN.   Share Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2017 CNN What did you like about today's Global Briefing? What did we miss? Let us know what you think: GlobalBriefing@cnn.com unsubscribe from this list      update subscription preferences    Sign Up for Fareed's Global Briefing