It is common wisdom that foreign policy does not decide U.S. presidential elections, and few issues inspire less enthusiasm these days than a Europe stuck in a currency crisis that it seems unable to fix. Europeans are also very familiar with the growing American belief that Europe no longer matters at all in the global arena. As a result, few were expecting any emphasis on Europe or the European Union as one of America’s most steadfast strategic partners in President Barack Obama’s keynote speech at the Democratic Party convention last week. Still, Obama’s only reference to Europe came as a [...]
President Barack Obama accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party to stand for a second term last night in Charlotte, N.C. But by adhering to the traditional schedule for the party’s convention, he excluded the possibility of attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vladivostok, Russia. Obama declined the invitation to attend this year’s APEC conclave because he would not have been able to deliver his keynote address in time to fly out to Russia’s Far East for the meetings. But, ironically, a key reason for speaking in Charlotte — to personally address tens of thousands of party activists [...]
Talk of a U.S. attack on Iran is like a late-summer thunderstorm that rumbles ominously in the distance without ever drifting further away. Few American observers advocate an immediate attack, but a growing number hint that the question is when, not if, a strike takes place. The distance from saber-rattling to war is narrowing. As is often the case in the prelude to war, the discussion has so far been informed more by passion than by analysis, stoked by popular distrust of the Iranian regime. As the United States found when contemplating the invasion of Iraq in 2002, such an [...]
