Recent contradictory statements from U.S. and Israeli officials highlight how the two sides are working at cross purposes over the war in Gaza, but also illustrate Washington’s seeming inability to restrain a key ally. And yet, the Biden administration has appeared to go out of its way to give Israel diplomatic cover for the war.
A recent spate of commentary has drawn the analogy between today’s regional conflicts and those of the 1930s that led to World War II, often as a cautionary tale for how to deal with contemporary international security dynamics. These analogies, however, misread the past, with potentially dangerous implications for the present.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump upended what was once a relatively staid global economic and trade system. For all of the upheaval he created, though, Trump left office with only one clear-cut accomplishment: an updated NAFTA deal. And even as Trump sowed chaos in America’s trade relationships, most of the world reinforced its commitment to trade liberalization.
