Video game enthusiasts like me will know what a double tap is. But for any non-gamer/hunters out there, a double tap is a shooting technique where two shots are fired in rapid succession at the same target and can also describe a second fatal shot once the enemy …
Read More »Trump, Realism and the Multipolar World
Donald J. Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2025, thus assuming the presidency for his second and final term. The world that awaited President Trump in 2025 is vastly different from the world he strode into as president in 2017. China and Russia are now in a partnership …
Read More »Living With Illiberalism?
The fundamental challenge facing the United States and the West today is not how to adapt to an Asian Century. It is how to live in a world with many illiberal regimes— and resist the illiberal pressures at home. During the Cold War, it was arguably more simple …
Read More »The Middle East That President Trump Has Inherited
The Middle East needs U.S. foreign policy to address two key threats: a weakened but unpredictable Iran and the resurgence of Sunni extremism in Syria. As President Trump begins his second term, he inherits a Middle East from his predecessor that has undergone unprecedented changes. Today, the region’s …
Read More »China is Winning, the World is Losing: U.S. is Struggling to Counter China’s Asymmetric Tactics
Recent years have seen a noticeable ramp-up of China’s aggressiveness in the South China Sea. While China previously held a far more passive stance in regards to its neighbors, it seems that shaky footage of Chinese Coast Guard vessels or fishing boats shadowing and attacking Philippine vessels with …
Read More »Can the international order survive Trump 2.0?
During his first week in office, US President Trump took aim at the norms and institutions of the post-Cold War order, from global management of climate and health to international trade rules. For a decade or more, big players – including Washington – have edged away from the …
Read More »Remaking the World Order: No Small Feat
The United States needs to redefine its role in world affairs, what does that mean and what will it take? The liberal rules-based international order it built and sustained in the years after the Second World War is disintegrating at an accelerating pace. After a period of comity …
Read More »Trump 2.0 and Palestinians: From Reversal to Repression and Deportations
In my new book, The Fall of Israel (2025), I examine the activities of all US postwar administrations regarding the Israelis and Palestinians. The first Trump administration did not just differ from its precursors. It turned upside down five decades of US policies regarding Palestinians. In the next …
Read More »The Imminent Consequences of Trump’s Executive Orders
In the past decade, the U.S.-led geopolitics and trade/tech wars have undermined international cooperation setting the stage for stagnation in global economic prospects. Trump 2.0 will escalate the status quo, weaponizing executive orders in the name of “national security.” Over half a decade ago, I first warned about …
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