Diplomacy
Trump Paused Most of His “Liberation Day” Tariffs After Markets Revolted. China Was the Exception. This Is Starting to Look Less Like a Global Trade War and More Like an Attempt to Reorganise the World Economy Around China.
Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” trade regime lasted in its original form for less than a week. On 9 April, only hours after the new country-specific tariffs came into effect, Trump announced a 90-day pause for…
Trump Finally Announced His “Liberation Day” Tariffs. Markets Lost Trillions. The Most Important Problem May Not Be the Tariffs Themselves, but Whether Anyone Knows How Long They Will Last.
Donald Trump’s promised “Liberation Day” arrived on 2 April, and the scale of the policy was considerably larger than markets expected. The administration announced a 10% baseline tariff on virtually all US imports, alongside substantially…
Trump Is About to Announce His Biggest Tariffs Yet. The Real Change Is That Free Trade Is No Longer the Default Assumption of American Politics.
Donald Trump is preparing what he has called “Liberation Day” on 2 April, when his administration is expected to announce a major new package of tariffs against American trading partners. The exact structure has not…
Trump Has Ordered Major Strikes on Yemen’s Houthis. The Problem Is That Destroying Missiles Is Easier Than Destroying the Incentive to Keep Firing Them.
Donald Trump ordered a major new American military campaign against Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on 15 March, after the Iran-aligned movement threatened to resume attacks on shipping connected to Israel in response to restrictions on…
Trump and Zelenskyy’s Oval Office Meeting Collapsed Into an Argument. The Bigger Issue Is What Happens When an Alliance Becomes a Negotiation Between Unequal Partners.
The meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on 28 February was supposed to demonstrate a new economic partnership between the United States and Ukraine. Instead, it ended in an extraordinary…
Trump Says the Ukraine War Must End. The Hard Question Is Whether Ending a War Quickly Can Create the Conditions for the Next One.
The diplomatic structure surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war changed dramatically this week. On 12 February, Donald Trump spoke directly with Vladimir Putin and announced that negotiations to end the war should begin, before speaking separately with…
Trump Says America Could “Take Over” Gaza. The Proposal Reveals a Larger Problem: Reconstruction Is Easy to Discuss When the People Living There Are Treated as Variables Rather Than Political Actors.
Donald Trump produced one of the most extraordinary foreign-policy proposals of his presidency this week. Standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on 4 February, Trump said the United States could…
Trump Has Started a Trade War With America’s Closest Trading Partners. The Question Is Whether Tariffs Create Leverage Faster Than They Create Costs.
Donald Trump has begun implementing one of the central promises of his second presidential campaign. On 1 February, he ordered a 25% tariff on most imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% tariff…
Israel and Hamas Have Reached a Ceasefire Deal. The Hard Part Was Getting to an Agreement. The Harder Part May Be Making Sure Neither Side Decides It Is Better Off Breaking It.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect today, beginning the first phase of an agreement intended to pause more than fifteen months of war in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages in…
Jimmy Carter Has Died at 100. His Life Is a Reminder That Losing an Election Does Not Have to Be the End of Political Relevance.
Former US President Jimmy Carter died today at his home in Plains, Georgia, aged 100, making him the longest-lived president in American history. Carter served only one term, from 1977 to 1981, and left office…
Assad Is Gone. Now Syria Has to Avoid the Mistake That Has Destroyed So Many Revolutions: Winning the War and Losing the State.
Two weeks after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government, Syria is beginning the much less dramatic and much more difficult process of determining what replaces it. Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS),…
Bashar al-Assad’s Government Has Collapsed. After Thirteen Years of Civil War, the Hardest Question Is Who Actually Owns the Victory.
Syria has undergone one of the most dramatic political collapses of the twenty-first century. On 8 December, rebel forces entered Damascus and Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, ending more than fifty years of rule by…
