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Trump’s win is a loss for the Middle East
By Annelle Sheline, Research Fellow for the Middle East
Politico Magazine, 8/15/20
The Trump administration announced a deal this week between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which was immediately hailed as “an historic day for peace in the Middle East” by Mike Pompeo’s State Department. A flurry of similar analyses framed the deal as “a big win for Trump,” and a “geopolitical earthquake.”
READ HERE
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Biden wins, then what?
By Andrew Bacevich, President
TomDispatch, 8/13/20
Assume Joe Biden wins the presidency. Assume as well that he genuinely intends to repair the damage our country has sustained since we declared ourselves history’s “Indispensable Nation,” compounded by the traumatic events of 2020 that demolished whatever remnants of that claim survived. Assume, that is, that this aging career politician and creature of the Washington establishment really intends to salvage something of value from all that has been lost.
READ HERE
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Yet another heartbreak for the Middle East
By Annelle Sheline, Research Fellow for the Middle East
Inkstick, 8/14/20
On August 4, a massive explosion devastated Beirut’s port and the surrounding area. My corner of the Twitter-verse quickly filled with videos and speculation about the blast. Friends and colleagues expressed anguish and anger, especially as the likely cause, 2750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate stored without safety measures, became apparent.
WATCH HERE
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Democrats should pledge to stop creating refugees
By Board Member Amed Khan & CEO Lora Lumpe
Responsible Statecraft, 8/13/20
The Trump administration will be remembered for enacting many policies that exacerbate human suffering, particularly its inhumane handling of immigration and refugees. In addition to packing people into cages at detention centers, tearing children from their mothers, and banning travel to the U.S. from several predominantly Muslim nations, Trump’s team eviscerated the U.S. refugee intake program. This year, it capped intake at a miserly 18,000 refugees (down from 110,000 in the last year of the Obama administration), during a time when more people have been forced to flee their homes than any period since the inception of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in 1980.
READ HERE
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The center can hold
By Non-Resident Fellow Rajan Menon & Alexander Motyl
The American Interest, 8/11/20
What a difference 30 years makes. In the early 1990s, thanks to Francis Fukuyama’s celebrated “End of History” thesis, the gist of which was that liberalism had won the war of ideas, and Thomas Friedman’s best-selling Lexus and the Olive Tree, a full-throated paean to globalization, the air was thick with optimism. Liberal democracy and market capitalism were, it appeared, the wave of the future. Democracy promotion was all the rage in think tanks and universities. Linearity seemed to be destiny.
READ HERE
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How the U.S. can protect human rights in the Middle East
By Annelle Sheline and Leah Hunt-Hendrix
Responsible Statecraft, 8/12/20
The events of the summer of 2020 drove Americans’ sense of national pride to historic lows. For many Americans, footage of federal troops attacking protesters in U.S. cities evokes images that Americans are more accustomed to seeing in authoritarian countries. Although the news cycle has largely moved on, state and local governments continue to violate the rights of Americans protesting police brutality; meanwhile, U.S. condemnation of human rights abuses abroad increasingly rings hollow.
READ HERE
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- On V-J Day, U.S. pushes for a stronger Japanese military by Jack Detch/ Quoted: Senior Research Fellow for East Asia Jessica Lee, Foreign Policy, 8/15/20
- UN Security Council rejects U.S. proposal to extend Iran arms embargo by Jennifer Hansler & Richard Roth/ Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, CNN, 8/14/20
- Pompeo calls it ‘just nuts’ to allow Iran to trade in arms as UN rejects embargo extension by Carol Morello/Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, Washington Post,8/14/20
- Quincy Institute leader downplays UAE-Israel deal, Interviewed: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, HillTV, 8/14/20
- Progressives cool on Biden foreign policy by Rebecca Kheel/ Quoted: Deputy Director of Policy and Research Stephen Wertheim, The Hill, 8/14/20
- Kamala Harris is a soft-power boon for America’s global image by Krithika Varagur/Quoted: Deputy Director of Policy and Research Stephen Wertheim, Foreign Policy, 8/13/20
- Get real: Checking China’s power grabs without bending to the hawks by Barbara Boland/Quoted: Research Fellow for East Asia Rachel Esplin Odell, The American Conservative, 8/13/20
- Trump attacks Biden VP pick, calling Kamala Harris a ‘big slasher’ of military funding by Jamie McIntyre/Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, The Washington Examiner, 8/12/20
- U.S. push to uphold Iran arms embargo headed for U.N. Security Council clash by Ben Wolfgang/Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, Washington Times, 8/11/20
- Neoconservative wolves dressed in never-Trumper clothing by Kelley Vlahos/Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, The American Conservative, 8/10/20
- Trump, US face pivotal UN vote on Iran by Rebecca Kheel & Laura Kelly/Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, The Hill, 8/9/20
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