In this mailing:
- Con Coughlin: Boris Johnson's Victory Heralds a Golden Era in US-UK Relations
- Burak Bekdil: Turkey's East-West Carpet Trading
- Is Vaping Cannabis as Safe as You Suppose?
by Con Coughlin • December 19, 2019 at 5:00 am
The US president said a future US-UK trade agreement has "the potential to be far bigger and more lucrative" than any deal that could have been made with the EU. Compared with the calamitous impact a victory for Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose politics is defined by his visceral anti-Americanism, would have had on transatlantic relations, Mr Johnson's return to Downing Street will have been greeted with enormous relief in the White House, as it means Washington now has a firm ally in London, someone who is committed to breathing new life into the vital and long-standing partnership between Britain and America.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's return to Downing Street means that Washington now has a firm ally in London, someone who is committed to breathing new life into the vital and long-standing partnership between Britain and America. Pictured: Johnson meets with US President Donald Trump on September 24, 2019, at United Nations Headquarters in New York. (Image source: The White House)
Boris Johnson has only been back in Downing Street a few days following his stunning victory in Britain's general election, but there are already early signs that his premiership will preside over a dramatic revival in transatlantic relations not seen since the heyday of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. First and foremost, the British prime minister has made it abundantly clear that his first priority will be to break the Brexit deadlock that has effectively paralysed British politics, and the country's ability to make its voice heard on the international stage, at the earliest possible opportunity, thus opening the way for a trade deal with Washington.
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by Burak Bekdil • December 19, 2019 at 4:30 am
In addition, Turkey is in talks with Russia to purchase a second batch of the S-400 system, including coproduction and technology transfer options. If the S-400 system is operated in Turkey, Moscow could find a built-in cyber backdoor to spy on NATO assets. Turkey's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said in September that it was unacceptable for Turkey not to have its own nuclear weapons – although Turkey is a signatory to both the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. In 2016, Erdoğan said that Turkey did not need to join the European Union "at all costs" and could instead become part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a security bloc dominated by China, Russia and Central Asian nations Erdoğan thinks that he can forever benefit from the East-West divide by officially belonging to West but more-than-courting the East. He seems to love playing the Russia card to Americans and the America card to Russians. He should be led to understand that he cannot play this carpet trading game forever.
Turkey's strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, thinks that he can forever benefit from the East-West divide by officially belonging to West but more-than-courting the East. Pictured: Erdoğan meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Sochi, Russia, on November 22, 2017. (Image source: kremlin.ru)
While NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, celebrated its 70th anniversary on December 4, these days it is sitting on a different paradigm than it did since its birth in Washington DC in 1949. Three years later, in 1952, Turkey, along with its Aegean rival Greece, became a member. In the 67 years since its membership, Turkey has moved from being a staunch ally defending Europe's southeast flank in the Cold War to being NATO's unresolved burden. In nice, Kodak-moment speeches, optimists cite Turkey's unique geography, its airbases, it warehoused American nuclear weapons, its past in the alliance, its strategic presence in the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea, its leverage on Muslim countries, a growing need to "keep the family together" and fear of losing Turkey -- especially to Russia.
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December 19, 2019 at 4:00 am
Details to follow for Gatestone Institute's conference in on the effects of cannabis.... Coming in 2020.
(Image source: iStock)
Details to follow for Gatestone Institute's conference in on the effects of cannabis.... Coming in 2020.
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