“Julianne Smith, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a bipartisan think tank, said Macron ‘found the right recipe’ to handle Trump and seized an opportunity to influence him. “‘Macron is smart,’ Smith said. ‘He knows what he is up against. But he also knows Trump can be persuaded…’” Read the full article here: Full Article
"'There are so many sanctions and they are so complex and they cover so many entities in Iran, especially in the financial sector, it's very difficult to find legal, viable, credible, efficient business counterparts in Iran for international businesses to do business with,' says Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former Treasury Department sanctions official. "Even if Western companies do find Iranian business and banking counterparts, Rosenberg says, there's no telling what can happen along the supply chain. 'Now most of the big [Iranian] [...]
"‘For retaliation to be smart it needs to be applied in a targeted and judicious manner for the purpose not of inflicting pain but to change behaviour,' [Daniel Russel] said. 'And you can't claim that Trump's retaliatory measures - the tariffs, the threats, the listing of companies like Huawei - have led to better behaviour by China.' "‘On the contrary [China has] dug itself in more determinedly,' Mr. Russel said. 'The Trump administration has not been able to close any deal, [...]
“‘When talking to the South Koreans and the Japanese, they will quickly take you back to 1592, when the Shogun Hideyoshi invaded South Korea.’ “‘There is a long litany of grievances. Particularly in the last three years, there has been steady series of events. One slap is met by another slap between Seoul and Tokyo.' "...‘There have been series of actions and reactions that should have caused the Trump administration not to mediate, but to moderate, to remind both allies that [...]
"Michèle Flournoy is one of the most recognizable names in U.S. national security policy today, one often floated as a candidate to be the first female secretary of defense. But Flournoy says it will take more than one woman cracking the glass ceiling to change the role of women at the top of the field. “'We had a women’s leaders' lunch in the Clinton administration in the Pentagon on the civilian side, and like eight of us had lunch together very [...]
“'Johnson’s friendship with Trump and their joint admiration society is a liability for him with the Europeans,' said Julianne Smith, a former United States deputy national security adviser now with the Center for a New American Security, who recently finished a fellowship in Berlin. “'The closer he allies himself with Trump the more difficulty he’ll have going forward with the Europeans, from trade to security,' she said..." Read the full article here: Full Article
“After the carnage in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, we are finally talking more about the increasing threat of domestic terrorism, which has killed more people in America since 9/11 than the foreign terrorism of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. With the body count growing at an alarming rate, it is time to turn from talk to action and confront this threat before it claims more American lives. "As former homeland security and counterterrorism advisers in Democratic and Republican administrations, we [...]
“'As much as Israel’s founding leaders may have disagreed with one another, men like David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin always in the end put the interests of the state above their own,' said Ross. 'They understood that whether you were making a choice or doing nothing, you were making a choice...'” Read the full article here: Full Article
"During his first two and a half years in office, President Donald Trump and his administration have laid waste to numerous international agreements originally designed to strengthen U.S. security, bolster U.S. alliances, and constrain U.S. adversaries. The toll has been particularly high with respect to deals concerning nuclear arms control and nonproliferation. "Over the past 14 months, the administration has withdrawn from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and abandoned the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Both of these valuable [...]
"Although many administrations have relied on sanctions, Trump has used them with zeal at a cost to the U.S., said Liz Rosenberg, the director of the Energy, Economics and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. She was a senior adviser to one of Mandelker’s predecessors at Treasury during the Obama administration. "Where the U.S. once coordinated with Europeans on issues such as counterterrorism and nuclear nonproliferation, Trump’s sanctions are often one-sided and do not prioritize partnerships, Rosenberg [...]