Biden’s soft-power policy faces reality of Xi-Putin big-power world

President Joe Biden took office with what was, in many ways, a soft-power vision of foreign policy. But China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have been busy reminding the United States that today’s world is one of big-power competition.

Regional experts say one key objective of Mr. Putin’s recent actions regarding Ukraine is to convince the U.S. to deal with Russia as the great power he sees it to be. At the end of a week of inconclusive diplomacy addressing Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that if nothing else, “they are taking us seriously now.”

US special operations presses on in Ukraine amid threat of Russian invasion

U.S. special operators are continuing with a mission to build up an elite fighting force in Ukraine, military officials said, even as Russia threatens invasion with its thousands of troops, tanks and artillery massed along their borders.

“The bottom line is that our training mission in Ukraine is ongoing,” Lt. Col. Juan Martinez, spokesman for U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, said Tuesday.

Martinez said there are a “ton of outside factors at work,” but that the command hasn’t stepped back from Ukraine.

Predicting 2022 – The Year of the Tiger – Part II

The same inaction by Western leaders to hold China accountable for the global pandemic that infuriates Western citizens only emboldens the Communist Party leadership, which sees inaction as a license to do more.

China will be constantly assessing the political strength of its adversaries. European political leaders have never demonstrated the stomach to confront military threats. During my tenure as U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, I observed Europeans always believed dialogue was more important than confrontation. Bad agreements were better than no agreements and being party to agreements that did not work was better than withdrawing.

The Biden Administration’s ‘Diplomacy’ with the Iranian Regime

As part of its “diplomacy”, the White House first told the Iranian leaders not only that it is willing to lift nuclear-related sanctions, but also that it is considering lifting non-nuclear related sanctions.

Not only has the Biden administration’s diplomatic route lifted some of the sanctions on the Iranian regime and its Houthi proxy, the administration has also looked the other way regarding the Islamic Republic’s malign actions in the region.

Why a counterterror program in the Sahara needs to be eliminated, not reformed

The “Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership Program” has done more harm than good and wasted taxpayer dollars.

On March 24, the “Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership Program Act” was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The bill, introduced for the third time, would give a firmer legal foundation to the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership. The TSCTP is an executive branch program co-led by the State Department, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Department of Defense. For the bill’s proponents, making TSCTP more accountable to Congress would enhance its effectiveness in addressing violence in West Africa. A better idea, however, would be to scrap this ineffective program, repurpose the money, and challenge the flawed thinking behind the program itself.

The American Trap

The American Trap – My Battle to Expose America’s Secret Economic War Against the Rest of the World. Frédéric Pierucci (with Mathieu Aron). HOdder & Stoughton, London, 2020.

It becomes more clear with more and more readings that the “American trap” is the U.S. dollar, and that for some it is no secret. Frédéric Pierucci’s well written personal story tells how he became a pawn in the greater game of economic control of the world’s finances and the world’s politicians and corporations. This story reminded me of John Perkins’ Confessions of an Economic Hitman in that it is not an academic research paper nor a journalistic exposé, but the story of one person’s journey into the darker side of geopolitical manipulations.

Fatah builds bridges with Syria after rupture with Hamas

A senior Fatah delegation visited Syria, carrying a message from President Mahmoud Abbas to his Syrian counterpart about the need to bring the Palestinian cause back on the table in the run-up to the Arab summit scheduled to take place in Algeria in March.

The Syrian government headed by President Bashar al-Assad continues to adopt a policy of estrangement vis-a-vis Hamas, which has been in place since 2012 when the Islamist movement decided to support the Syrian revolution against Assad’s regime.

Turkish-backed factions wary of jihadi group in north Syria

The opponents of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham are accusing it of trying to wrest control over the areas of the Turkish-backed factions in north Syria, in light of its recent rapprochement with some of these factions.

Tensions between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which controls Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, and Turkish-backed Syrian factions are escalating once again. The Azm Operations Room, which brings together a number of Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army factions, accuses HTS of planning to enter FSA-held areas in north Syria.

Fighting in Yemen’s Marib intensifies amid government advances

Yemen’s bloody war is ramping up once again as the UN warns of dire consequences for civilians.

Fighting is intensifying around the Yemeni city of Marib since government forces captured neighboring Shabwa province last week.

Reuters reported today that a pro-Yemeni government militia backed by the United Arab Emirates known as the Giants Brigade has joined the fight at Marib to push back Houthi rebel forces attempting to capture the oil-rich enclave.

SDF hands over 50 Iraqi IS suspects as prison concerns mount

The SDF has transferred another group of IS suspects with Iraqi nationality but arrested in Syria, alongside some of the thousands of Iraqis in al-Hol camp, to Iraq as the potential for jailbreaks remains high.

Fifty Iraqi men suspected of belonging to the Islamic State (IS) and who had been captured in northeastern Syria were handed over to the Iraqi authorities Jan. 8 at the country’s northwestern border crossing of Rabia.