Dear Friends, As the new year approaches, I’m struck by how nations are carefully balancing their economic needs with their political ones, and the compromises they’re making in the process. Whether the US should allow semiconductor chips to be sent to China or if Israel should send gas to Egypt are the types of decisions...

There was a major escalation in Washington’s pressure campaign against the Venezuelan regime this week when the US military seized the sanctioned oil tanker Skipper off the coast of Venezuela on the very same day that the Nobel Peace Prize was being awarded to Maria Corina Machado—the Venezuelan opposition leader. The Trump administration has been...

Dear Friends,   The kinetic wars of the past several years have sparked an urgent need for increased diplomacy and military defenses alike. We’re seeing both at play right now in Eastern Europe, where Washington is trying to advance ceasefire negotiations while developments on the physical battlefield might be the ultimate decider. We discuss this...

Dear Friends,   New security developments—which appear to spring up overnight—are often underpinned by growing tensions. Twin terrorist attacks within 24 hours in South Asia. Coalition governments teetering on the brink in places like Israel. Military buildups accelerating among two former WWII Axis powers. Mass protests materializing quickly in Mexico. For those of us who...

Dear Friends,   What a government chooses not to do can be as meaningful as what it does. When Secretary of State Rubio boards a plane to Canada for the G7 but the administration boycotts the G20 in Johannesburg and skips COP30 in Brazil entirely, that’s not simply calendar management, it’s strategic signaling. When a former jihadist...