A large-scale NATO military exercise earlier this year. Credit…Davide Monteleone for The New York Times Viewed through the Cold War prism, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s decision at its recent summit meeting at the Hague to boost the defence spending by member countries to 5 percent of national income may appear to a naive onlooker as …
Middle East in Crisis – 4
Russian President Vladimir Putin (3rd from left on top) met with heads of international news agencies, St. Petersburg, June 19, 2025 Putin in reflective mood muses on US-Iran confrontation The US President Donald Trump who sought President Vladimir Putin’s active help a fortnight ago to mediate in the negotiations over Iran nuclear issue has …
Middle East in Crisis – 2
Scene of an apartment building destroyed by an Iranian ballistic missile impact, Bat Yam, Israel, June 15, 2025 Netanyahu’s war on Iran has no future An unnoticed undercurrent of the Israel-Iran war is that three Christian nations in Europe — UK, France and Germany — have joined the fray with alacrity on the side …
Middle East in Crisis —1
Protestors in an anti-Israeli gathering hold up Iranian and Palestinian flags, Tehran, Iran, June 13, 2025 Why did Israel jump the gun? The Israeli Defence Forces called the aerial attack on Iran by some 200 planes in the early hours of Friday, June 13, as a “preemptive strike.” International law gives no scope to attack …
Profiles in courage: Trump & Eisenhower
Satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows damage after Ukrainian drone attack on Belaya Air Base, Irkutsk, eastern Siberia, June 4, 2025 President Donald Trump had a difficult week. No, this isn’t about Elon Musk or Harvard University. On Wednesday, his call to Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t go well. It turned into a ‘conversation’, …
Trump won’t walk away from Ukraine war
President Donald Trump: Bracing for a longer Ukraine war One of the mysteries of the Ukraine endgame is that President Donald Trump did not issue an executive order on January 20 withdrawing all support for Ukraine. That would have been the easiest way to end the war. The conditions were propitious — Candidate Trump didn’t mince …
A Third Way to end the war in Ukraine
Ukraine’s president Vladimir Zelensky (L) with European leaders and NATO chief at the European summit, Paris, March 27, 2025 In an unguarded moment, perhaps, ex-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson blurted out recently in an interview that the ultranationalist elements who rule the roost in Kiev are a formidable obstacle to ending the war in Ukraine. For …
Trump’s presidential diplomacy is surging
The United States President Donald Trump (R) received the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Mark Rutte, White House, Washington, March 13, 2025 The US President Donald Trump by far outstrips any of his predecessors in post-cold war era in the transparency of his foreign policy agenda and in his attempt to connect the …
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Trump invites Putin to a roller coaster ride
Top US and Ukrainian diplomats held talks, Jeddah, March 11, 2025 The political optics of the joint statement issued after the US-Ukrainian talks at Jeddah on March 11 lasting nine hours is hard to tell since President Donald Trump prides himself on his ability to strike deals. Prima facie, the optics are that Ukraine caved …
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Trump’s ingenuity vis-à-vis Russia, Iran
US President Donald Trump (L) disclosed that he has addressed a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) suggesting talks on the nuclear issue, Washington, March 5, 2025 Through the past three year period, Moscow claimed that it faced an existential threat from the US-led proxy war in Ukraine. But in the past …