| | | | Why the "Blob" Can't Stop Trump | | The drumbeat of criticism of President Trump's approach to foreign policy from liberals and "never Trump" conservatives has had little impact on his support. To understand why, America's foreign policy elites should look in the mirror, argues Stephen Walt in Foreign Policy.
"After all, this bipartisan [cast] of national security managers are responsible for open-ended NATO expansion…either conceived, supported, or went along with the invasion of Iraq…bungled assorted interventions in Libya, Yemen, and Syria…and have presided over an ever-expanding and apparently endless 'war on terror,'" Walt says. "The credibility of this elite was further tarnished by the 2008 financial crisis and their failure to recognize that globalization and rising inequality were leaving many people behind and were bound to provoke a powerful backlash."
"The Blob was understandably alarmed by the danger [Donald Trump] posed, but given the track record of the previous 25 years, is it really surprising that few people heeded their warnings, or that Trump thought he could do better?"
| | Trump's Helsinki Flip-Flopping Isn't Just About Europe – Or Russia | | | President Trump's summit performances in Belgium and Helsinki haven't just hurt US interests in Europe, writes Con Coughlin in The National. By constantly shifting positions, he has undercut the chances of securing a deal in the Middle East, too. The ability of the Trump administration "to act as an honest broker on [an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal] and the many other issues that dominate the region must now be open to question in view of the ease with which Mr Trump ditched one American policy—namely overthrowing the Assad regime—in favor of one that was the exact opposite: allowing Mr Al Assad to remain in power," Coughlin writes. "For, if Mr Trump can reverse his position on an issue as important as the future of the Syrian regime, there is nothing to stop him having a sudden change of heart on other major issues, such as the creation of a homeland for the Palestinians." | | | "Making no mention of the values of equality and democracy, Israel has passed into law a highly controversial bill that serves to define the nature of the state of Israel, with critics slamming it as the 'nail in the coffin' of Israeli democracy," CNN reports. The Hindu suggests in an editorial that it could be another nail in the coffin of the peace process, too.
"The emphasis on Jerusalem and the promise to promote settlements pose a direct threat to any peace process with the Palestinians. Jerusalem remains a disputed territory, with Palestinians seeing its eastern part as the capital of their future state," the paper notes.
"Besides, if Israel sees Jewish settlements as a national value and continues to promote them in the Palestinian territories, it cannot command confidence when it says it is still committed to the two-state solution. The law further erodes the credibility of Israel's professed support of an independent Palestinian state." | | Europe's on the Rebound from Trump | | European nations aren't sitting on their hands as President Trump pushes them away. Indeed, they are increasingly finding friends in surprising places, writes Ferdinando Giugliano for Bloomberg.
"[E]ven small steps are meaningful in relations between powers, and this week tells us something important about Europe. For all the differences between the EU and China, Trump's bruising approach will encourage the mending of bridges between adversaries. The friendlier outcome from the EU-China summit shows this," Giugliano writes.
"For Japan and the EU, the motivation is even clearer. They had both negotiated, or were in the process of negotiating, a trade deal with the US under the Obama administration before Trump decided to scupper both deals."
"We're still far from a realignment of the alliances that have dominated the post-World War II era…But the EU is right to spread its risks. As extraordinary as this may sound, Asia looks a safer bet than America at present."
| | Pakistan's Election: Just Not Cricket | | Pakistan holds a general election next week. Former cricket star Imran Khan looks poised to win, but Khan—and the country—may come to regret the bedfellow he appears to have found to help ensure victory, The Economist says.
"Although he and Pakistan's army deny foul play, the match has been rigged. The army is ensuring that the PTI [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] enjoys privileged access to media, endorsements from powerful people and defections from rival parties. Nawaz Sharif, a three-term former prime minister, and his daughter, Maryam, were arrested as they stepped off a plane from London on July 13…More murkily, [other parties' workers] have also suffered assassination attempts and terrorist attacks, among them a suicide-bomb that killed 149 people at a rally for a local party," The Economist says.
"The generals have long pulled the strings of Pakistani politics. But rarely, short of taking power themselves, have they meddled so brazenly. Pakistan's miserable failure to develop a stable democracy compares ever more starkly with the rude progress of its arch-rival, India." | | Slavery, Sadly, Is So 21st Century | | Modern slavery is far worse in developed countries than previously thought, a new report says, with around 403,000 people in the United States alone estimated to be living in modern slavery.
The annual Global Slavery Index, produced by the Walk Free Foundation, classes a range of situations as modern slavery, including those caught in human trafficking, forced labor and the "worst forms of child labor" such as child prostitution and being recruited as child soldiers. It estimates "40.3 million men, women, and children were victims of modern slavery on any given day in 2016," the latest year assessed by the report.
The worst offender based on population size was North Korea—with an estimated 2.6 million living in modern slavery, despite a population of around 25 million—followed by Eritrea and Burundi. | | | | | | |
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