by Andrew Johnstone
It’s the economy, stupid. So goes the conventional wisdom about Presidential elections anyway. The theory is that domestic politics – and the economy in particular – trumps everything else, including matters of foreign relations. Are you better off than you were four years ago? If not, little else matters. It was most notably the case [...]
Posted in Afghanistan, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Bill Clinton administartion: 1993-2001, Domestic politics, George W. Bush administration: 2001-2008 | No Comments »
by James Siekmeier
A generation ago, Israeli and Egyptian leadership worked to lesson tensions in the volatile Middle East. Israel’s PM Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat back in the 1970s realized that “jaw-jaw” was better than “war-war” in Churchill’s words. Since then (with the exception of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993) there has been a dearth [...]
Posted in Gerald Ford administration: 1974-1977, Israel, Jimmy Carter administration: 1977-1981, Middle East, Richard Nixon administration: 1969-1974 | No Comments »
by Andrew Johnstone
As we all know there are lies, damn lies and statistics. Nevertheless, for historians interested in public opinion, this week’s Pew Global Attitudes Survey on international views of the United States makes for interesting – if not necessarily surprising – reading. [1]
On the positive side, in twelve of the twenty countries polled, a plurality had [...]
Posted in Afghanistan, Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Japan, Public Opinion | No Comments »
by Susan Brewer
More people have been asking that question lately. For years Americans have been told that despite setbacks we are making progress there. Making progress toward what, people wonder. What is the mission of the United States in Afghanistan? After more than a decade since the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom, it is worth revisiting what [...]
Posted in Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Biographies / Memoirs / Diaries, Central Asia, George W. Bush administration: 2001-2008, United States | No Comments »
by James Siekmeier
I received an email from a former colleague and friend of mine recently who concluded that Lula’s (Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva) two terms in office as President of Brazil (2003-2010) represented a missed opportunity for the United States–and United States-Latin American relations in general. Here was a center-left leader, in one of the world’s [...]
Posted in Americas, Brazil, South America, Uncategorized | No Comments »
by Andrew Johnstone
An essential rule for politicians: always make sure the microphone is off. On March 26 at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, Barack Obama was overheard discussing missile defence with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. With an open mic, Obama told Medvedev “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”[1] Russia currently [...]
Posted in Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Domestic politics, Mitt Romney, Post-9/11: 2001-present, Ronald Reagan administration: 1981-1989, Russia | No Comments »
by James Siekmeier
More than 20 years have passed since the last full-fledged U.S. military intervention in Latin America (Panama, 1989, in case your memories are hazy). Starting in the 1980s, democratization flowered in the region for numerous reasons—but mostly internal reasons based in Latin American history and society. Starting in the 1990s, with the end of the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
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