I Was in the CIA. Trump’s Petty Fights and Insults Will Make Us All Less Safe.
Steven Hall spent more than 30 years in the CIA, the bulk of them running and managing intelligence operations in Eurasia and Latin America. He […] More
Trump
Trump-Kim Nuclear Diplomacy: Round Two in Vietnam
Bottom Line Up Front At the end of February, U.S. President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un will meet in Vietnam following […] More
What A Safe Zone in Syria Would Actually Look Like
A senior Kurdish official has dismissed the idea of creating a 20-mile wide safe zone in Syria presented by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, something […] More
The Growing Threat of Iranian Missiles
Bottom Line Up Front Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities enable it to project power while compensating for an otherwise modest conventional military capacity. Iran’s supply […] More
A U.S. Terrorism Prevention Strategy
The Trump Administration is defunding the nation’s primary anti-domestic terror program at the Department of Homeland Security and DHS’ Office of Terrorism Prevention has removed […] More
One Bad Decision on Syria Doesn’t Necessarily Lead to Another
President Donald Trump now says U.S. troops will “slowly” be withdrawn from Syria after his controversial announcement in December, saying that troops would be pulled […] More
The High Cost of President Trump’s Decision-Making Style
The Administration will start the new year with a new acting Secretary of Defense after President Donald Trump accepted James Mattis’s resignation letter and moved […] More
Trump’s Team on Syria Weighs Risk
Reports that President Trump has ordered a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria are not inconsistent with prior messages we’ve heard from the President this […] More
The United States at War in Somalia
Bottom Line Up Front On December 17, the U.S. reported that it had conducted six airstrikes in Somalia, killing 62 militants from the al-Qaeda-linked […] More
The Urgency of Resetting Relations With China
Bottom Line Up Front: The Trump Administration is confronting China on issues that have been developing for years and have percolated to the top of […] More
‘Bringing Down the Hammer’ on China Trade Negotiations
Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is out on bail in Vancouver while she fights an extradition request to the United States. This, as President Donald Trump […] More
How to Support and Distance Yourself from the President’s DoD Budget
OPINION — Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer last week joined the very public chorus of defense experts in questioning whether President Trump’s call for reducing […] More
Adam Schiff’s Agenda
OPINION — “Do the Russians continue to hold some financial leverage over the president?” That is one question Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) will be looking to […] More
What Scares Vladimir Putin?
The U.S. is calling for more rigorous enforcement of sanctions against Russia after Russian ships fired on and seized three Ukrainian boats on Sunday, claiming […] More
Trump’s Thanksgiving Message
OPINION — The media should be satisfied with President Trump’s telephoned “visit to the troops overseas” from his Mar-a-Lago resort on Thanksgiving Day, and not […] More
Resetting the Crucial U.S.-Saudi Relationship
President Donald Trump is expected to receive a full report on the killing of Washington Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Tuesday. The President called a […] More
Paris and the Prospects & Perils of a Post-American Order
Bottom Line Up Front As the recent World War I centenary tribute in Paris foreshadowed, the world order may be shifting, with the contours […] More
The True Border Mission
OPINION — President Trump’s pre-election-day deployment of U.S. Army units on the southwest border may turn out to be more of a dangerous, long-term precedent […] More