Holding the Front Line Against Terrorism: NATO’s Essential Role in Iraq
NATO Mission Iraq trains and advises Iraqi armed forces and government security agencies on a wide array of tasks against a number of terrorist threats. The evolution of NATO’s training mission in Iraq underlines its continuing need; NATO should consider exporting this model to other fragile states like Syria and Lebanon Throughout the period from […]
Closer US – Hungary Military Cooperation is Good for Both Countries
Hungary and the United States have been allies since Hungary joined NATO in 1999. President Donald Trump’s reelection augurs well for closer ties on defense policy. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Trump during the election campaign and called him “the man who can save the Western world.” Trump, in return, has said “there’s nobody that’s […]
Europe Faces a Threat Bigger Than Russia: Its Own Balkanization
Bridge construction in the Western Balkans may be a microcosm of Europe’s fragmented, post-American future. During the Kosovo War of 1998-1999, the main bridge over the river Ibar in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica was an important focal point. “On one side, sitting in chairs outside the Dolce Vita bar and listening to Italian music, are […]
Zohran Mamdani and the American Tradition of Reinvention
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was a hero of the American Revolutionary War. He arrived at Valley Forge in the bleak second winter of the war and trained the ragtag American regiments into a disciplined, coordinated force. He is quite possibly the most celebrated German American in history. Italian Americans have Columbus Day, but German Americans […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Punitive Expedition Against the Houthis
In 55 BCE, Julius Caesar decided (according to his Commentaries) to “cross the Rhine since he saw the Germans were so easily urged to go into Gaul, he desired they should have fears for their own territories when they discovered that the army of the Roman people both could and dared pass the Rhine.” This […]
Options for Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization
Once again a Trump administration is debating whether or not to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. The last time around, during Trump’s first term, the effort petered out amidst disagreements among Trump’s then principals. This time around, the stars may be better aligned. However, the inevitable controversy surrounding such a move must […]
