BUSINESS
US will leave Europe to its fate. But when and how?
No matter who wins the White House, Europeans should know that Washington is drawing up scenarios for pulling out. They’re not pretty
WORLD
Bringing Evan Gershkovich home will be Joe Biden’s last big win
A big prisoner swap between the US, Russia and maybe other countries is a win for the lame-duck president. Alas, probably his last
WORLD
Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, the US must avert a new nuclear arms race
The next president faces the new danger that two nuclear rivals, China and Russia, gang up. That still doesn’t mean the US needs more nukes
WORLD
US Elections: Biden needs to go for NATO’s sake too
Even as he hosts NATO allies next week, the frail US president can’t dispel the existential doubt he has sown about the alliance
WORLD
Joe Biden can’t champion law at home and flout it abroad
No one should be above the law, not former presidents, nor superpowers or their allies
WORLD
Biden needs to stop sending US bombs to Israel
As Israel’s largest military supplier, the US has the power to influence the war in the Gaza Strip. Time to use it
WORLD
Israel exposes the contradictions in Biden’s foreign policy
The White House can pledge support for Israel come what may, or prevent escalation, but not both
WORLD
Biden must again prevent a wider Middle East war
As Iran and Israel prepare to keep taking an eye for an eye, the US president must ensure the whole region won’t end up blind
WORLD
Even Republicans are now calling out Putin’s lies
The Kremlin’s decades-long disinformation campaign against the US and other countries has done far too much damage. For the sake of Ukraine, it’s time to resist
WORLD
Joe Biden, Fumio Kishida and Ferdinand Marcos go minilateral in the Pacific
This week the US keeps building NATO 2.0 in the Indo-Pacific, even as it prepares to improve NATO 1.0 in July
WORLD
Now Biden must show, not tell, Netanyahu that enough is enough
If Israel ignores the American demand for a ceasefire, the White House must halt all arms shipments
WORLD
Biden and Netanyahu are going from frenemies to enemies
Biden is a true and life-long friend of Israel. But warning Netanyahu against invading Rafah, where about half of Gaza’s displaced population now huddles, is a red line. The president didn’t spell out what consequences its crossing would bring, and his national-security staff subsequently tried to soften the message. Biden must now follow through, if he wants to prevent a terrible conflict from becoming even worse
BUSINESS
Don’t fear AI in war, fear autonomous weapons
The existential question is not about AI as much as the degree of autonomy granted to weapons. Algorithms may make good decisions and minimise death. But the code may also fail or, more diabolically, be programmed to maximise suffering. Automation will accelerate military decisions so much that humans may have no time to evaluate a situation, and in the extreme stress either make fatal mistakes or surrender to the algorithm
WORLD
Is the world close to collapse? Ask the Bronze Age people
Complexity has a cost — in physical energy, administrative friction and other forms. At first, increases in complexity seem affordable and even useful. Eventually, however, a law of diminishing marginal returns on complexity sets in, and the costs, while difficult to see, become harder to bear. If such a complex society is then buffeted by external or internal shocks, it can collapse. The shocks have typically included droughts, famines, plagues, migrations, rebellions, civil wars and invasions
WORLD
The US needs to push Israel, starting at the UN
To get Netanyahu's attention, the US can sponsor a resolution that would formally enshrine the two-state solution in international law as the goal to be pursued by all sides, including Israel. An even more drastic move, if Netanyahu stays intransigent, would be for Washington to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN. That gesture would create facts not on the ground but in international law
WORLD
Seizing Russia’s frozen $300 billion is legal, urgent and right
Will the UN, in the face of Russian aggression against Ukraine, stand up to crimes against humanity or go the way of the League of Nations when it failed to restrain Mussolini and Hitler? More succinctly: Will we advance international law or let it become irrelevant?
WORLD
The US needs to get out of the Middle East—soon
What the debate about the US presence in the Middle East boils down to is opportunity cost. An American soldier standing guard at Tower 22 in the Jordanian desert cannot simultaneously watch over the NATO border in Estonia, the demilitarized zone on the Korean peninsula or Philippine shoals in the South China Sea. Captain America has a shield that’s big but not global. To keep holding it over Europe and East Asia, he must withdraw it from the Middle East
BUSINESS
Ditch the ‘Rules-Based International Order’
Washington all too often invokes the RBIO only against foes, such as Russia, while exempting itself and its friends, notably Israel. The world is skeptical about this American shtick of RBIO, especially in Africa, Asia and South America, where countries are feeling — and often resisting — pressure by Washington to align with the West against Russia and China
WORLD
Biden should handle Iran forcefully — But with restraint
One scenario Biden must consider is that Iran, which until October 7 appeared to strive for a detente with the US, dreads a head-on confrontation and is trying to avoid it, but is finding that its sway over proxies is tenuous because these militias are pursuing their own agendas. A conventional war between the US and Iran would become a humanitarian disaster that could dwarf that in Gaza
WORLD
From Gaza to Ukraine, the UN is fast becoming irrelevant
In times of crisis such as now, the General Assembly and Security Council turn into a Babel in which everybody distrusts everybody else and finding common words becomes impossible. As things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. That centre was to be the League of Nations in the 1930s and the UN in our time
BUSINESS
Israel-Hamas War: A Biden West Asia trip is risky but worth it
Biden has to give succour to Israel in its hour of need, get the hostages held by Hamas out alive, work to protect innocent Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip, and prevent this war from drawing in other countries and becoming conflated with adjacent conflicts, possibly even kindling a global conflagration
BUSINESS
Biden said the right things at the UN. That won’t be enough
The world has noticed that Biden is on a weak footing both domestically and on the Ukraine front. Too many political rifts within America are one reason multilateralism is on the defensive and “minilateralism” is on the rise, in the form of smaller blocs that compete with one another
BUSINESS
Ukraine’s future isn’t German or Israeli but Korean
As Ukraine’s counteroffensive appears to stall, the world gropes for historical models. One stands out
TRENDS
If Prigozhin is gone, long live Putin — and Wagner?
Prigozhin’s disappearance will echo far beyond Russia and Ukraine, and all the way to Africa. There, yet another junta recently seized power in Niger, and may look to Wagner mercenaries to resist retribution from neighboring African democracies, the former colonial power France, or the erstwhile superpower, America.
