Foreign policy

China is a massive headache for Europe

Late last week, news broke that three people were being investigated by German prosecutors on suspicion of involvement in Chinese espionage. German diplomatic sources confirmed to CNN that one of those involved is thought to be a former European Union diplomat, who served several of the bloc's institutions over a number of years.

The specter of someone who worked at the heart of the European Union's establishment could be compromised by malign Chinese actors should be a nasty wake-up call for officials in Brussels, who are currently rushing to sign a long-awaited investment agreement with Beijing.

For Europe, China is an attractive economic prospect. Already the EU's second largest external trading partner, it's a massive economy with serious spending power and the potential for lucrative investment returns. The problem is, China's political system makes it a risky place to put money.

Foreign policy

Rand Paul: Soleimani Killing Is 'Death of Diplomacy'

President Donald Trump "got bad advice" to kill Qassem Soleimani, because while it was intended to stop potential attacks on Americans, it now guarantees it and is essentially the "death of diplomacy," according to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

"While Soleimani may have been plotting attacks and probably was, it's now a certainty there will be attacks in revenge for his killing," Paul, a notorious opponent to military action in the Middle East, told CNN's "The Situation Room."

Paul lamented "this has emboldened the hard-liners" in Iran, which now will respond with a strike as opposed to the desired, and U.S.-stated, goal of coming to the negotiation table.

"This is sad," Paul told host Wolf Blitzer. "The death of Soleimani, I think, is the death of diplomacy with Iran. I don't see an off-ramp. I don't see a way out of this."

Paul rejected Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's seeing this as the way to get Iran to come to the negotiation table after a decertification of the Obama-era Iran nuclear agreement and a maximum economic pressure campaign.

"No naive child would believe that," Paul added. "You would have to be brain dead to believe that we tear up the agreement, we put an embargo on you, and we kill your major general, and they're just going to crawl back to the table and say, what do you want, America?

Foreign policy

Putin Can Cautiously Enjoy the Iran Drama From the Audience

There will no doubt be some form of Iranian retaliation, but so long as the conflict does not escalate out of control, while it is hard to know for sure whether Tehran or Washington will ultimately gain the most, Moscow may be quietly satisfied.

While he may or may not be personally angry about the death — although we have no reason to believe there was any personal bond there, even though they met in 2015 — he must be satisfied that this plays to his narrative, that America is essentially an arrogant, imperial power.

Back in 2007, in his (in)famous speech to the Munich Security Conference, he had warned of the dangers of a “unipolar” — in other words, U.S.-dominated — world, in which there was nothing to stop “an almost uncontained hyper use of force – military force — in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts.”

Once again, he can point to US actions as seeming to justify Russia’s current campaign to push back against the world order it represents, and also to explain and excuse away Moscow’s own ventures into the bloody realm of “targeted killings.”

Foreign policy


EU civil war: Furious Brussels vows to crack down on Poland and Hungary as unity crumbles

Brussels sent a firm warming to EU states as it vowed to investigate breaches of EU law in Warsaw and Budapest. Both countries have been engaged in long-running disputes with the EU over disagreements with policies, which has served to drive a wedge between eastern Europe and the rest of the bloc. The Hungarian government had hoped the case against them would be dismissed under the new Commission, but a statement by Věra Jourová, the Commission’s vice president, suggests the matter will be fully investigated.

Ms Jourová, who will attend her first General Affairs Council today in her new role, warned the new Commission “does not mean a new start”.

She told Politico: “The processes initiated by the previous Commission including Article 7 and infringements will continue, and this is what I intend to discuss at today’s debate.

“My message will be clear: The rule of law is our foundation and can never be compromised.”

She added she’d like to hear from both Warsaw and Budapest as “some recent news we received [is] quite concerning — so I expect to hear how the governments intend to implement the rulings of the European Court of Justice or, in case of the Polish government, the ruling of their Supreme Court.”

Foreign policy

Rand Paul claims win over 'war caucus,' defends Trump on Syria

With Republicans and Democrats alike piling on Trump and raising concerns that his decision could lead to Turkish attacks on U.S. Kurdish allies and a resurgence of ISIS, Paul declared that “most Americans would actually agree with President Trump that this is not a war that has our national interest at stake.”

“These are the people that have never met a war they didn’t like and have never met a war they wanted to end,” Paul told reporters on Tuesday afternoon, singling out the Cheney family as part of their long-running feud with Paul. “They’ve been wrong about everything in foreign policy for the last several decades.”

The bipartisan backlash Trump faced Monday may have led the administration to begin some damage control. On Tuesday. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told reporters that “I understand he’s reconsidering. I do not think we should abandon the Kurds." When asked to clarify, a Cassidy spokesperson said the senator saw reporting that cited Trump may be rethinking the withdrawal.

Foreign policy

British Foreign Policy in the Middle East: A Secret History of Self Interest

The U.K. has elections every five years, an independent judiciary, freedom of speech and association, and strong laws protecting the equality of all citizens and civil liberties. Yet real power rests in the hands of an elite few who control policy-making institutions and the dominant ideas in society.

British foreign policy-making is so centralized that it is akin to an authoritarian regime. A prime minister can send troops into action without even consulting parliament.

Britain is currently fighting several covert wars with no parliamentary authorization or debate. Away from Yemen, special forces are operating on the ground in Syria, despite parliament only having approved air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) group. The British covert war in Syria has been going on since 2011, with almost no discussion by elected MPs.

In 1976, Lord Hailsham famously termed the U.K. an “elective dictatorship” because parliament is easily dominated by the government of the day and faces few constraints on its power. But this was before former prime minister Margaret Thatcher centralized decision-making still further, regularly bypassing the cabinet and relying on a small set of advisers – a strategy continued by Tony Blair, leading to the disastrous invasion of Iraq.

Foreign policy

Buttigieg suggests Bolton shouldn't be allowed near the Situation Room

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) suggested Sunday that national security adviser John Bolton should not be allowed near the Situation Room.

Buttigieg took aim at Bolton, suggesting that someone who was involved in the lead up to the Iraq War shouldn’t be “allowed that near the Situation Room to begin with.”

Buttigieg, who announced his presidential exploratory committee in January, did not call out Bolton by name when asked about the conflict in Venezuela, but accused him of “carelessly” floating the idea of using military force to deal with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“The situation in Venezuela is highly disturbing. The regime lost its legitimacy,” Buttigieg said. “That being said, that doesn’t mean we carelessly threaten the use of military force, which it appeared the national security adviser was doing at one point.”

"I don’t understand how somebody leading us into the Iraq War is allowed that near the Situation Room to begin with," Buttigieg, who served in Iraq, said.

Foreign policy


When Humanitarian Aid Is Used as a Weapon to Bring Down Regimes

Ostensibly aimed at alleviating Venezuela’s spiraling crises of hunger, health, and security, the humanitarian aid put forward by the United States also serves another purpose. Venezuelan opposition leaders here and the U.S. officials offering up much-needed aid posit that the mission could induce military officers to turn away from their government. Aid groups on the ground worry, however, that a political operation thinly padded with humanitarian objectives could send a precarious situation down an even worse path—disastrous American efforts to intervene in Latin America from decades past serve as a reminder of how badly things can go.

After years of decline, living conditions for most Venezuelans worsened substantially in the past year. Thousands of people who flee the country each day, many on foot, testify to miserable hunger and sickness at home, where food continues to grow scarcer. Then last month, Maduro officially began a new term in office after winning what international observers said was a sham election, and tensions ratcheted up markedly. Venezuelan legislators hailed their own leader, Juan Guaidó, as the interim president, and huge protests erupted across the country. In the weeks since, though, Guaidó’s efforts to win over Venezuela’s powerful military leaders have made little headway, and the two sides are now deadlocked.

Foreign policy

Trump comes clean… from world’s policeman to thug running a global protection racket

Trump is not scaling back US military power; he is rationalizing it like a cost-benefit analysis, as perhaps only a real-estate-wheeler-dealer-turned president would appreciate. Trump is not snubbing US militarism or NATO allies, nor is he letting loose an inner peace spirit. He is as committed to projecting American military as ruthlessly and as recklessly as any other past occupant of the White House. The difference is Trump wants to do it on the cheap.

Here’s what he said to reporters on Air Force One before touching down in Iraq:

“The United States cannot continue to be the policeman of the world. It’s not fair when the burden is all on us, the United States… We are spread out all over the world. We are in countries most people haven’t even heard about. Frankly, it’s ridiculous.” He added: “We’re no longer the suckers, folks.”

Foreign policy

China says ready to engage US as envoys meet

Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China told his US counterpart Rex Tillerson that Beijing was ready to work with the Trump administration, according to a Chinese account of their meeting in Bonn.

Wang and Tillerson met on Friday at a G20 gathering of foreign ministers -- the highest-level Sino-US encounter since President Donald Trump was elected.

Trump had infuriated Beijing by calling into question Washington's long-standing "One China" policy, but later reaffirmed it in a conciliatory phone call to Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.

Foreign policy

Out of the loop: Rex Tillerson finds state department sidelined by White House

Rex Tillerson began his first foreign outing as US secretary of state on Thursday, meeting counterparts from G20 countries in Bonn, but he has left behind in Washington a department that is severely weakened and cut out of key policy decisions.

Since starting the job two weeks ago, Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil executive, has soothed nerves at the state department by consulting widely with regional and country experts, but it has been hard to disguise the gap between the department headquarters at Washington’s Foggy Bottom and the White House where far-reaching foreign policy decisions are being made.

Foreign policy

Tillerson and Mattis in guarded approach to Russia

Senior US officials have been setting out their position on Russia, in some of the new administration's first diplomatic moves.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US would consider working with Russia in some areas but would stand up for its own interests.

Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said Washington was not ready to collaborate militarily with Moscow.

US President Donald Trump has called for improved ties with Moscow.

But the new administration's diplomatic initiative comes as questions are raised about the Trump team's dealings with Russia dating back to last year's election campaign.

Foreign policy

The State Department Goes to War on Donald Trump

Americans may be under the impression that the president they elect is the man who directs the country’s foreign policy and sets its immigration rules. But a thousand or so officials in the State Department are of a different opinion. They have put their names to a cable registering official dissent in protest against President Trump’s executive order that bans most travelers from seven terrorism trouble spots—Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen—from entering the United States. But the dissenting diplomats go far beyond merely criticizing the order: they play politics and attack the very principles behind the president’s immigration policy. Indeed, they substitute their worldview for his.

Foreign policy

Rex Tillerson Is Confirmed as Secretary of State Amid Record Opposition

Rex W. Tillerson, the former chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday in a 56-to-43 vote to become the nation’s 69th secretary of state just as serious strains have emerged with important international allies.

... In a brief swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump said Mr. Tillerson understood “the importance of strengthening our alliances and forming new alliances to enhance our strategic interests and the safety of our people.”

Foreign policy

Trump lays groundwork to change U.S. role in the world

President Trump began this week to reshape the U.S. role in the world, laying the groundwork, in a series of planned and signed executive actions and statements, for the “America first” foreign policy on which he campaigned.

Already, Trump has mandated construction of a border wall with Mexicoand a clampdown on local immigration enforcement. Other directives drafted but not yet signed would halt all refu­gee admissions and entry into the United States of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries deemed terrorist hotbeds; declare a moratorium on new multilateral treaties; and mandate audits of U.S. funding for international organizations, including the United Nations, with a view toward cutting U.S. voluntary contributions by 40 percent.

Foreign policy

Top State Dept. officials exit after Tillerson visit

Four top career officials at the State Department left the same day Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson paid a visit to Foggy Bottom to introduce himself, officials said Thursday.

The four — including Patrick Kennedy, State’s long-time undersecretary for management, who had been with the department since 1973 — and the others left on Wednesday.

“As is standard with every transition, the outgoing administration, in coordination with the incoming one, requested all politically appointed officers submit letters of resignation,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

Foreign policy

Western ‘messiahship’ bred Ukrainian crisis, Arab Spring, & refugee flood – Lavrov

The foreign policies of Western nations have been driven by ‘messiahship’ and attempts to export their values worldwide, Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday. This approach ultimately led to the Ukrainian crisis, the ‘Arab Spring’ & the refugee crisis.

“The export of values continues to sow crises in international relations. This export of values and the demand to adhere only to a European perspective launched the crisis in Ukraine,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

“Exporting democracy led to the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ [and] gave birth to the export of refugees into Europe,” Lavrov said at a press conference on the results of Russian diplomacy in 2016. He also noted that from his point of view, current Western values are not traditional for Europe itself.

“If we talk about the Western, European values that we are all constantly reminded of as exemplary, they are not the values that were professed by the ancestors of modern-day Europeans, they are something new, modernized.” 

Foreign policy

Germany shivers in new wind blowing from US

German politicians and civil servants are desperately trying to build and forge ties with Team Trump. It doesn't appear to be going terribly well.

The US president-elect has condemned Angela Merkel's decision to let in 890,000 migrants as a "catastrophic mistake" and dismissed the European Union as "basically a vehicle for Germany".

He has also threatened German car-maker BMW with a 35% tariff if it builds a plant in Mexico.

His remarks have provoked dismay, but not surprise, in Berlin. And it's still not clear when Chancellor Merkel will meet the new president.

For now the only certainty is that there will be no immediate reprise of the warm political alliance fostered by Mrs Merkel and Barack Obama.

Foreign policy

Donald Trump says UK 'doing great' after Brexit vote

The UK is "doing great" following its vote to leave the EU, US President-elect Donald Trump has said.

In his first UK interview - with former Justice Secretary Michael Gove for the Times - Mr Trump said he thought the UK was "so smart in getting out".

Mr Trump promised a quick trade deal between the US and the UK after he takes office on Friday.

He also criticised "obsolete" Nato and German Chancellor Angela Merkel's immigration policies.

Mr Trump spoke to the Times and German newspaper Bild ahead of his inauguration on Friday.

Foreign policy

Donald Trump's foreign policies will be good for France, says Marine Le Pen

French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen believes Donald Trump’s foreign policies will be beneficial for France and she says she will try to win back powers from the EU rather than push for an immediate "Frexit" if elected in May.

Le Pen, who polls suggest will at least make the second round run-off vote in this year’s presidential election, supported Donald Trump’s victory in the US election.
While she says she is “not accountable” for Trump’s internal policies in the US and has no plan to create a register for Muslims arriving in France, Le Pen does believe the controversial president elect will be good for France.