"NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Vikram Singh, former deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a former defense negotiator. They discuss the U.S. and Taliban's ceasefire deal..." Read the full transcript here: Full Transcript
"After over a year of intensive talks, press reports indicate that an official agreement between the U.S. and Taliban is imminent. The agreement reportedly begins with an immediate reduction in violence by all sides, followed by the signing of a U.S.-Taliban agreement. This would lead to intra-Afghan peace negotiations, accompanied by a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops. Implementing and verifying each step in this process will require meticulous diplomacy, but this reported agreement could mark a major turning point in the [...]
"Chancellor Angela Merkel can’t seem to make up her mind. For months, her administration, the Germany Parliament, and outside experts have been debating whether to rely on high-risk vendors for the construction of the country’s 5G telecommunications networks. Unfortunately, this important debate keeps getting sidetracked. Because the Trump administration is using another one of its ill-conceived “maximum pressure” campaigns to persuade Germany to ban Huawei, this debate has morphed into a black and white choice between the United States and China. [...]
“'The first year I was here, the Europeans all said, "It’s fine, because all the adults are in the room,”' said Celeste Wallander, who was on President Barack Obama’s National Security Council. 'The second year, it was, "Tell us this is as bad as it’s going to get." The third year, it was like, "Oh my God, this is awful. What do we do," and this year they’ve all normalized it...'" Read the full article here: Full Article
"Over the course of 20 years in public service, including 15 at the Department of Justice, I had the opportunity to work under some great Justice Department leaders, including Janet Reno and Bob Mueller. I couldn’t have picked two people from more different backgrounds or life experiences to serve as mentors for a career in the Department. But each in their own way shaped me as a lawyer, as a prosecutor, as a public servant, and as a person. Many of [...]
"'A good prosecutor withdraws from a case when they can't in good conscience continue to participate. That's how serious it is,' said Lisa Monaco, a partner at O'Melveny who was a senior justice department official in the Obama administration..." Read the full article here: Full Article
"Historically, the strategic foundation for U.S. involvement in the peace process has been twofold. First, the peace process was a way for the United States to manage seemingly contradictory partnerships with Israel and the Arab states, few of which recognized Israel and several of which had waged war repeatedly against the Jewish state. As Egypt and Jordan relinquished their own claims to the West Bank and Gaza beginning in the 1970s, the Arab world largely threw its support behind the Palestinian [...]
"Ms. Merkel will simply not take risks even when they are necessary, said Julianne Smith, a former Obama official now with the German Marshall Fund in Washington. 'It’s the worst of all worlds — we need Merkel to lead and sadly it’s not happening,' she said..." Read the full article here: Full Article
“'AQAP [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] remains a significant, lingering concern, in part because the group was so fixated on aviation as a target, and the kind of bomb-making expertise that the group developed was unlikely to have been contained to just a few select individuals,' said Nicholas J. Rasmussen, a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. “'That kind of knowledge and expertise is of course shareable and transferable — not just within AQAP but beyond to other Al [...]
"Europe’s momentum in developing a clear-eyed approach toward China has stalled. In March 2019, the European Commission issued a white paper naming China a systemic rival and economic competitor. That publication marked a fundamental shift in how far European institutions were willing to go in raising the challenges China poses to Europe’s openness and prosperity. It also reflected shifts that were occurring in capitals across Europe. Just as the European Union was rolling out its white paper on China, German Chancellor [...]