Geopolitical Perspectives - WestExec Advisors

Ely Ratner quoted in Bloomberg article: “Don’t Count on U.S.-China Trade Relations Warming Up Anytime Soon”

"Beijing has a reputation for waiting out U.S. administrations in the hope that the next person in the White House will take a more modest approach. This time, that strategy is unlikely to work. Analysts agree that the policy direction presumably would have shifted toward a tougher line even if Hillary Clinton had won the presidency in 2016, though likely with stylistic differences. 'The paradigm on China needed to be broken,' says Ely Ratner, deputy national security adviser to former Vice [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:24:47-04:00April 4, 2019|Economy & Trade, Geopolitical Perspectives|

Julie Smith quoted in The New York Times article, “With Trump, NATO Chief Tries to Navigate Spending Minefields”

"...Friction is growing in Germany. The Social Democrats, Ms. Merkel’s center-left coalition partners who control the finance ministry and were in charge of the latest budget plan, are using the dislike of Mr. Trump in their election campaign ahead of European parliamentary elections in May. "Julianne Smith, a fellow at the Bosch Academy in Berlin and a former Obama administration national security official, said the Social Democrats were using the military budget to show they were the party 'that stands up [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:25:29-04:00April 2, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Julie Smith in Foreign Policy: “NATO Needs Solidarity for Its 70th Birthday”

"NATO marks its 70 anniversary this week—a remarkable milestone for a military alliance made up of 29 (soon to be 30) separate member states. But the big commemoration, scheduled for April 3 and 4 in Washington, has faced trouble from the start. "Given U.S. President Donald Trump’s past behavior at NATO gatherings (last year, he called allies “delinquent”), the alliance wasn’t even sure hosting an anniversary summit was a good idea. Last fall, it wisely downgraded the event to the foreign [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:25:40-04:00April 2, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Mike Singh in The New York Times: “How to Make Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian Peace Plan Work”

"After two years of playing coy, the Trump administration is reportedly finally ready to unveil its plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The plan’s details remain confidential, but if it is anything like President Trump’s moves so far on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, it will be bold. "Some of those steps have worked out far better than the president’s critics anticipated. Moving the United States’ embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, for example, failed to elicit the protests in the wider Arab world many [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:25:53-04:00April 2, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Michael Camilleri testifies on democratic governance before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs

Michael Camilleri testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the subject of “Understanding Odebrecht: Lessons for Combating Corruption in the Americas.” Read the full testimony here: Full Article

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:27:22-04:00March 26, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Dennis Ross interviewed in Foreign Policy: “Trump’s Golan Giveaway ‘Makes It Harder’ to Achieve Peace”

"With a single tweet on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump reversed a decades long U.S. policy on a fraught issue in the Middle East, announcing he would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the strategically important Golan Heights on the Israel-Syria border. The move came two weeks before a critical Israeli election in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a Trump ally who is facing indictment, is fighting for his political career. Foreign Policy spoke with Dennis Ross, a veteran U.S. diplomat of multiple [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:27:42-04:00March 22, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Mike Singh testifies before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on U.S. Policy in the Arabian Peninsula

On February 6, Mike Singh testified alongside David Harden, Mara Karlin, and Jake Sullivan on U.S. Policy in the Arabian Peninsula. Watch the full hearing here: Full Hearing

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:37:17-04:00February 6, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Michael Camilleri in Americas Quarterly: “All Eyes on Guatemala as Crisis Brews Ahead of Elections”

"It’s not every day that a purportedly friendly foreign nation tries to intimidate the United States by dispatching a fleet of military vehicles to the U.S. Embassy. It is rarer still for the vehicles in question to have been donated by the United States itself and diverted from their intended mission of combatting crime and narcotics trafficking. And it is perhaps unprecedented that such a turn of events would elicit only a tepid response from the U.S. government, followed a short [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:37:50-04:00February 4, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Dan Shapiro and Dana Stroul in NPR: “Here’s Why U.S. Aid To Palestinians Needs To Continue”

"Is U.S. assistance to the Palestinians an indulgence we can do without? Will its elimination leave Israelis, Palestinians and U.S. interests better off? Unless Congress and the Trump administration act quickly, we are about to find out. "Since 1993, the United States has provided more than $5 billion in assistance to the West Bank and Gaza. This generous program continued across Republican and Democratic administrations, with bipartisan Congressional support, despite ups and downs in the peace process, spikes and drops in [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:38:06-04:00January 31, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Michael Camilleri and Fen Osler Hampson in The Washington Post: “Seize the money of Venezuelan kleptocrats to help the country and its people”

"President Trump has said “all options are on the table” as he looks at ways to divert Venezuela’s revenue from the Maduro regime and offer direct aid to Juan Guaidó’s newly established interim government, which the United States formally recognized on Jan. 23. "Having put sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, the administration should go one step further. One option the Trump administration should consider is to seize the assets of Maduro henchmen that are lying fallow in U.S. bank accounts [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:58:13-04:00January 29, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|