‘Mr Swagger’ on Day 30 of the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump
by Rashmee
Posted on October 24, 2019
Mike Pompeo is still at the US State Department and is still His Master’s Voice. Just about. That’s despite his growing role in the Ukraine controversy and the sense that he serves Donald Trump as enabler and lackey rather than as a foreign policy professional. Why should we expect it to be any different? Mr Pompeo … Continue reading “‘Mr Swagger’ on Day 30 of the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump”
Read MoreA post-American world order? Why this time really is different
by Rashmee
Posted on April 17, 2019
Daniel Drener, international politics professor at the Fletcher Scholl, has been unsparing in his view of what will happen with US foreign policy in the future. Professor Drezner wrote a piece in Foreign Affairs headlined “This time is different”. The sub-head was: “Why US Foreign Policy Will Never Recover”. Click here to read the whole … Continue reading “A post-American world order? Why this time really is different”
Read MoreNikki Haley is gone. Long live the Trump doctrine
by Rashmee
Posted on October 14, 2018 / The Arab Weekly
What does it matter that Nikki Haley stays or leaves her job as US ambassador to the United Nations? So long as Donald Trump is president, American foreign policy consists solely of what he thinks. Period. With or without Haley at the United Nations, the Trump administration would have done the following: pulled out of … Continue reading “Nikki Haley is gone. Long live the Trump doctrine”
Read MoreTerror blowback from Middle East wars continues
by Rashmee
Posted on June 4, 2017 / The Arab Weekly
Is there a link between a country’s foreign policy and the terrorist threat it faces? The United States hardly ever asks itself that searching question, probably for fear of the answers. The issue does come up in Britain occasionally before it is speedily fumigated from the national consciousness. This time though, the fateful connection between … Continue reading “Terror blowback from Middle East wars continues”
Read MoreIf you’re Donald Trump, a missile attack on Syria is a good deal
by Rashmee
Posted on April 8, 2017
Donald Trump has said before (and God knows I believe him on this point) that he doesn’t “like [Bashar al-]Assad at all. But Assad is killing ISIS.” And now, in the 11th week of his presidency, Mr Trump launched 59 cruise missiles at an airbase near Homs, effectively destroying some of Mr Assad’s key assets. … Continue reading “If you’re Donald Trump, a missile attack on Syria is a good deal”
Read MoreThe most hopeful truth ever: ‘We don’t live in a perfect world but in a perfectible one’
by Rashmee
Posted on December 14, 2016
Finally, something to which we all can cling. All the liberals weeping into their muesli. Happy Trump-supporters and Brexiteers angry at the caterwauling. The ranks of gaunt non-partisan people everywhere, bewildered and upset by the tide of active resentment sweeping social media, social discourse, family meals over Thanksgiving and soon, Christmas Day too. Here’s a … Continue reading “The most hopeful truth ever: ‘We don’t live in a perfect world but in a perfectible one’”
Read MoreJoseph Nye is right, less American ‘exemptionalism’ not more interventionism
by Rashmee
Posted on October 26, 2015
Joseph Nye has been warning against US “exceptionalism” turning into “exemptionalism,” which is to say few attempts by the US Congress to allow for meaningful and speedy international cooperation. He’s absolutely right. Rather than interventionism, America needs an anti-exemptionalism movement. What does exemptionalism do? Not a lot, says Professor Nye, and there lies the problem. … Continue reading “Joseph Nye is right, less American ‘exemptionalism’ not more interventionism”
Read MoreIran deal: Now two rival petro-states run by mirror-image theocracies?
by Rashmee
Posted on April 4, 2015
What does the deal with Iran really mean? Over at Quartz, Bobby Ghosh says “the world can now look forward to two petro-states run by religious extremists with international ambitions for their sectarian agendas—and unlimited resources with which to pursue them.” For, Iran can now seek parity with Saudi Arabia. He goes a bit further and argues “that Iran … Continue reading “Iran deal: Now two rival petro-states run by mirror-image theocracies?”
Read MoreIs this the year North Korea’s Kim Jong Un finally meets another leader?
by Rashmee
Posted on January 19, 2015
“Is this the year that Kim Jong Un finally meets another leader?” asks The Washington Post. He’s not left North Korea in the three years since he’s been the ‘Great Successor’. Unlike his late father and grandfather, Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, the 30-something Kim has not even visited China and Russia. But … Continue reading “Is this the year North Korea’s Kim Jong Un finally meets another leader?”
Read MoreAmerican lameducks and koala bears: How will this keep the little uns safe?
by Rashmee
Posted on November 19, 2014
You have to wonder at the so-called “koala diplomacy” ostentatiously staged by Australia at the weekend’s G20 summit. The world’s media fell over itself to find new ways to describe the, in my view, rather tasteless event, at which top politicians cuddled the shy marsupials, whose numbers have dropped from10 million in the late 1700s … Continue reading “American lameducks and koala bears: How will this keep the little uns safe?”
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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