The Missing Peace in Africa’s Great Lakes Region
The Great Lakes region that encompasses Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is among Africa’s most beautiful regions. Cloud-covered volcanos, terraced fields, lush jungles, and lakes dot the landscape. It is also among the most violent. The June 2025 peace agreement signed at the White House between two of the region’s countries (Rwanda […]
Hamas at a Crossroads
Today’s Hamas is a very different organization from the one we knew from its formal establishment in December 1987 through its surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Yet many politicians, members of the intelligence community and media commentators still insist on viewing the Palestinian “Islamic Resistance Movement” [the translation of the Arabic acronym […]
Australia’s Not So Quiet Crisis
Australia, for decades a global example of peaceful multicultural coexistence, now finds itself confronting a deeply uncomfortable truth. Beneath the sun-soaked optimism of our cities lies a rising tide of tension and disharmony, triggered not by homegrown animosity, but by foreign agendas exploiting the freedoms of a Western liberal democracy. At the center of this […]
A Regime Collapse Strategy for Iran
The 12-Day War and President Trump’s conclusion of it did little to resolve a range of non-nuclear Iranian threats. These include drones (which attack American allies from Kyiv to Tel Aviv), terrorist proxies, and assassination plots inside America. If past is prologue, then Tehran will again seek to bloody America wherever and however it can, […]
How a Bad Deal in the Indian Ocean Undermines the West
On May 22, the UK government of Labour’s Keir Starmer signed a treaty with the island nation of Mauritius, a former British colony in the Indian Ocean, to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, a seven-atoll archipelago that includes the Diego Garcia military base. Though the deal contains protections for this base, it also raises […]
In Israel, A Public Diplomacy Pivot
Israel has begun a little-noticed foreign policy transformation. Against the backdrop of its ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem has launched a new initiative in strategic communications. The shift was borne of necessity. Historically, Israel’s international outreach has been based on the concept of hasbara [means “explanation”] – if the country were […]
A Netanyahu Visit Like No Other
On July 7, Prime Minister Netanyahu will have his third Oval Office meeting with President Trump in six months. But this will be a visit unlike any before it. Netanyahu arrives in Washington as the man who won the Twelve Day War with Iran. He will also be there as President Trump’s (occasionally difficult) wartime […]
Lessons of the Middle East War
All wars teach lessons. The war that began with the murderous assault on southern Israel by the governing organization of Gaza, Hamas, on October 7, 2023, and ended – at least for now — on June 22, 2025 with the American bombing of three major parts of the Iranian nuclear weapons program, demonstrates the importance […]
Why President Trump Should Place Central Asia on His Agenda
For three decades Central Asia has remained largely peripheral to Washington’s strategic horizon. Yet Kazakhstan now supplies more than forty percent of the world’s mined uranium, while Turkmenistan controls one of the planet’s largest natural-gas deposits. No sitting US president has visited one of the region’s five countries – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. […]
Trump and the Latin American Right: Ideology and Interest
Three leading right-wing politicians in Latin America, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Argentine President Javier Milei, and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, have made much of their relationships with President Trump. Bukele’s Prisons at Trump’s Disposal Of the three, Bukele has established the closest rapport with Trump, a major shift from the suspicion with which he […]
Thoughts from the Safe Room on the New Map of the Middle East
Every modern apartment in Israel comes with a safe room hardened to survive a missile or rocket hit. In 2022 I moved to Jerusalem, bought an apartment, and placed my library in the safe room. Thus, I had plenty of resources to consult in the safe room during the recent Iranian missile attacks. Here are […]
The Woes of Argentina’s Peronist Icon, Former President Cristina Kirchner
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was the charismatic leader of Argentina’s populist left for decades, elected twice as president, serving from 2007-2015, and again as vice president from 2019-2023. A fierce critic of Argentina’s current libertarian president Javier Milei, she was planning a comeback. Her plan to run for a seat in the legislature would have […]
