How will Joe Biden deal with the foreign policy ‘hinge’?
by Rashmee
Posted on December 3, 2020
Henry Kissinger called America’s indecision between its values and its interests the “hinge”. Rightly so. Opinion has swung this way and that. America’s foreign policy “hinge” has always been a testy issue and four years of Donald Trump haven’t settled the matter. Not with Mr Trump’s America Firstism rejected in last month’s election. Joe Biden … Continue reading “How will Joe Biden deal with the foreign policy ‘hinge’?”
Read MoreGumbo diplomacy vs Swagger
by Rashmee
Posted on December 1, 2020
In May 2018, US diplomacy was supposed to be all about “swagger”. That was the boast of Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump’s new secretary of state. (Click here, here, here and here for previous blogs about how that “swagger” went.) Thirty months later, one of America’s most seasoned diplomats, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for UN envoy, … Continue reading “Gumbo diplomacy vs Swagger”
Read MoreThe ‘e’ word in Biden’s cabinet isn’t elite so much as experienced
by Rashmee
Posted on November 30, 2020
Someone recently wrote about how “elite” has become an insult when applied to politics. It’s true. Populist nationalists have magicked the term “political elite” into a hideously entitled bunch of very well-networked people with old school ties or at least tiaras from the same sort of high school prom. Or something equivalent to that in … Continue reading “The ‘e’ word in Biden’s cabinet isn’t elite so much as experienced”
Read MoreThe silence was blissful…until Trump spoke on Thanksgiving
by Rashmee
Posted on November 27, 2020
The weekend of the November 3 US election brought the world a new and pleasurable experience, despite the pandemic: the sound of silence from the Trump White House. Donald Trump, decisively defeated by Joe Biden (who swung Georgia and reclaimed the mid-West and Pennsylvania), was out of sight – of the nation and the world. … Continue reading “The silence was blissful…until Trump spoke on Thanksgiving”
Read More10 reasons to feel grateful this Thanksgiving
by Rashmee
Posted on November 25, 2020 / The National
Despite these testing times, American Thanksgiving (November 26) may be a useful moment to take stock. What should we, as a planet, give thanks for in a year that threw up the depressing new word “doomscrolling”? It is true that 2020 has felt like a particularly bad year. It was roiled by two spreading crises, … Continue reading “10 reasons to feel grateful this Thanksgiving”
Read MoreWill there be a great American transition?
by Rashmee
Posted on November 24, 2020
On Monday night, 20 days after US election day, Donald Trump finally acknowledged the limits of sloganeering. He finally admitted that inconvenient facts can’t be wished away as so much “fake news”. He tweeted that he was okay with the General Services Administration beginning its grudging move towards the presidential transition to Joe Biden. For, … Continue reading “Will there be a great American transition?”
Read MoreBolsonaro sheds crocodile tears for Trump. Don’t cry for him, Brazil
by Rashmee
Posted on November 23, 2020
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s public truculence about dealing with a new US president who is not Donald Trump raises a pertinent question: What did Mr Trump ever do for Brazil? Peter Hakim has an excellent blog on US-Brazil relations, which underlines the showy nature of the relationship between Mr Trump and Mr Bolsonaro and the … Continue reading “Bolsonaro sheds crocodile tears for Trump. Don’t cry for him, Brazil”
Read MoreCan the WTO hit the reset button on global trade?
by Rashmee
Posted on November 18, 2020 / The National
While the world’s eyes were fixed on the US presidential election, another consequential, if less thrilling contest was happening elsewhere, with significant ramifications for global trade. The World Trade Organisation is trying to appoint its new head, a decision that was supposed to be wrapped up in low-key style in the week of the American … Continue reading “Can the WTO hit the reset button on global trade?”
Read MoreGeorgia on our collective, climate-conscious mind
by Rashmee
Posted on November 16, 2020
President Joe Biden will be in office, come one-minute past noon on January 20. The US will, that very day, rejoin the Paris climate pact. Good. But what happens next? How does the US, the second biggest carbon emitter in the world, become consistently climate conscious, by federal order, no matter who’s in the White … Continue reading “Georgia on our collective, climate-conscious mind”
Read MoreWhat would you say if you saw this US president’s behaviour in another country?
by Rashmee
Posted on November 14, 2020
The New York Times’s David Leonhardt put it most succinctly of all. Quoting political scientist Brendan Nyhan, he laid out the best way to consider events underway in the United States: what would you say if you saw it in another country? Okay, so let’s have a go at that, today, one week after Pennsylvania … Continue reading “What would you say if you saw this US president’s behaviour in another country?”
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Rashmee has lived and worked in several countries in the past decade, including Afghanistan, India, Haiti, Tunisia, the UAE, US and UK