Who Is Making American Foreign Policy—the President or the War Party?

§ The preceding 40-year Cold War witnessed many instances of high-level attempts to sabotage détente policies of US and Soviet leaders. Considering that US warplanes knew the area very well and that the Department of Defense, headed by Ashton Carter, had openly expressed opposition to the Obama-Putin plan for a US-Russian alliance against terrorist forces in Syria, the American attack on Syrian Army forces, which blatantly violated preconditions of the agreement, may not have been “accidental,” as DOD claims and as US media similarly reports. If the attack was intentional, we are reminded of the power of the American war party, which is based not only in DOD but in segments of the State Department, in Congress, and in the mainstream media, notably The Washington Post. Judging by Ambassador Samantha Power’s tirade against Russia at the UN, not even Obama’s own team fully supports his overtures to Moscow, undertaken, no doubt, to enhance his desultory foreign policy legacy.

We can’t vote for either one: On world stage, Clinton and Trump present different, but serious, dangers

As of this past week Americans voters have their choices in November—all three of them. I do not see them as nearly as clear or simple as a lot of people might have imagined even a little while ago. The exception is the third of these alternatives, the right to remain silent—a phrase ordinarily used in another context but perfectly correct in this one. This position seems to have just gotten a great deal clearer, if not simpler.

In my read, the race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as it now shapes up does not present voters with anything like an obvious choice. Neither does it seem certain at this moment which of two candidates unworthy of election—let us speak honestly—will triumph. Nor can one say which of the two would be worse, and this, pathetically, is the metric now establishing itself in many voters’ minds.

U.S. Foreign Policy Got In The Way Of Helping Greece, Greek Ex-Official Says

WASHINGTON — The United States did not pressure Germany more heavily to give Greece debt relief because it needed Germany’s cooperation in higher-priority foreign policy matters, according to a former Greek finance minister.

Yanis Varoufakis, the ex-cabinet official who became famous as the face of Greek defiance in the first half of 2015, said the United States, like the International Monetary Fund, believed Greece’s European creditors must provide the country with debt relief if it was ever to regain financial independence. High-ranking officials in Germany, which is Greece’s largest sovereign lender, remain reluctant to reduce the Mediterranean nation’s debts.

GOP Foreign Policy Experts Warn A Trump Presidency Would Endanger America

WASHINGTON -- Sixty Republican national security heavyweights vow in an open letter released late Wednesday to work “energetically” to prevent GOP front-runner Donald Trump from winning the party's nomination.

The experts, who represent vastly divergent GOP ideologies, describe Trump's vision of American influence as “wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle.” They warned that a Trump presidency would “make America less safe” and “diminish our standing in the world.”

Bernie Sanders' foreign policy judgment is better than Clinton's experience

As Bernie Sanders has risen in the polls, he has been taking increasing heat for some of his apparently vague foreign policy positions and the fact that his campaign does not have a team of establishment foreign policy advisers, unlike typical front-running candidates.

Instead of just questioning Sanders’ choice, we should really be questioning why any of the candidates of either party are employing the same old foreign policy advisers – many of whom not only supported the Iraq war but every disastrous military intervention since. These are the same people who now think that yet another regional war will somehow fix the chaos in the Middle East.

Harper's Revolutionary Foreign Policy

`No Canadian prime minister has put his personal stamp on foreign affairs more than Stephen Harper. And no prime minister has parted so radically from the national traditions of the past.

Canada used to play the role of a noble and sometimes self-serving Boy Scout abroad. The nation brokered peace deals, elevated the status of women, fought international poverty, championed arms control, and shared critical science.

Harper’s dollarama foreign policy on trial at Munk Debate

Stephen Harper has given Canada a complex – a military industrial complex to be precise. Among other things, Canada’s long farewell to diplomacy will be front and centre at the Munk Debate on foreign policy Monday night in Toronto.

But will the opposition lay a glove on the man who has single-handedly gutted foreign aid, erased peacekeeping as part of the Canadian vocabulary, and turned Canada’s foreign policy into Wrestlemania with real blood? If the debate on the economy is anything to go by, the answer is almost certainly no.

Leaked internal report warns of Canada's declining world influence

Canada’s international clout is “under threat” as its honest-broker role is replaced with a more assertive stand that plays down traditional multilateralism, an internal Foreign Affairs briefing document is warning senior federal government insiders.

The presentation, obtained by The Globe and Mail, is stamped “Secret” and was prepared by senior Foreign Affairs officials for a deputy-minister-level meeting Sept. 9. Departmental officials do not lay blame at the feet of the Conservative government, which has run foreign policy for the past nine years, but their analysis echoes criticism of Prime Minister Stephen Harper levelled by ex-diplomats, foreign observers and his political opponents.

Hillary Clinton Promises A More Muscular Foreign Policy As President

WASHINGTON -- In the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election, Hillary Clinton’s vote to authorize the Iraq War six years before haunted her on the campaign trail. It put her in stark contrast with then-Senator Barack Obama, who touted his foresight in opposing the ill-fated war. But if Clinton was scarred by the perception that her foreign policy agenda is too hawkish for the Democratic Party, she showed no signs of it Wednesday morning in a speech detailing her plan to counter Iran after the implementation of the nuclear deal.

That Conservative foreign policy election plank: Shaky, incoherent and quite possibly dangerous

Prime Minister Stephen Harper likes to portray himself as a leader who stands by his foreign friends through thick and thin. But can they really depend on him? And can we depend onthem?

Like the economy, Harper has made foreign policy a key plank in his Conservative Party's reelection strategy. And that stalwart support for certain groups and countries is a showpiece part of the prime minister's vote-winning effort.

Harper's 'principled' foreign policy is empty rhetoric for profit

Both Swedish and Canadian foreign policy approaches were recently criticized for their stance on selling arms to Saudi Arabia, with the Canadian government defending its decision to supply Light Armored Vehicles (LAVs) to a country with one of the worsthuman rights records in the world, at the same time as Sweden decided to cancel its arms deal with the gulf state.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper describes Canada's foreign policy as 'principled', though he is less clear about what these principles are. In contrast, Sweden -- a country often compared to Canada as reflecting similar social and political values -- defines its foreign policy as explicitly feminist.

Iran, Cuba And China: Obama Steadily Builds Diplomatic Legacy

WASHINGTON -- It may be hard to remember today, but Barack Obama became president, more or less, thanks to his foreign policy. His early opposition to the war in Iraq gave him the wedge he needed to differentiate himself from the far-and-away frontrunner, Hillary Clinton.

During the campaign, he used Iran to further drive home the contrast. In a debate in July 2007, Obama said he'd meet with then-Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "without precondition." It was an extension of Obama's diplomacy-first foreign policy, and he came under withering attack not just from the GOP, but also from Clinton.

Ted Cruz’s Foreign Policy Advisor: End Nuclear Negotiations, Start War With Iran

John Bolton, the former U.N. ambassador and informal foreign policy advisor to presidential candidate Ted Cruz, is advocating for the bombing of Iran.

In an op-ed published in Thursday’s New York Times, Bolton slams the Obama administration’s ongoing negotiations to contain Iran’s nuclear program as unrealistic, and argues that “only military action like Israel’s 1981 attack on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor in Iraq or its 2007 destruction of a Syrian reactor, designed and built by North Korea, can accomplish what is required.”

Jeb Bush Is Taking Foreign Policy Advice From These Influence Peddlers

WASHINGTON -- After the attempted Christmas Day underwear bombing of a jetliner in 2009, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff blanketed cable news to reiterate his long-standing support for the adoption of full body scanners at airports. His revelation on CNN that Rapiscan Systems, the manufacturer of those machines, had been a client of his consulting firm sparked criticism that his advocacy was self-serving.

Airport security is not the only area in which Chertoff might offer advice that aids his bottom line -- and, more importantly, CNN is not his only listener.

Canada opposes 15 Palestinian attempts to join United Nations treaties

OTTAWA - Canada has formally opposed Palestinian attempts to join 15 different United Nations treaties and conventions — a position that puts the federal government on the wrong side of history and at odds with its citizenry, the Palestinian envoy in Ottawa says.

Canada is objecting in writing to the UN because it maintains Palestine is not a legal state. The Palestinians have formally replied to Canada's objections in writing, issuing a pointed reminder that they won non-member observer status in November 2012 at the UN General Assembly.

The dispute has sparked the most scathing Palestinian criticism to date of the Harper government's unwavering support of Israel.

Brother of Mohamed Fahmy lashes out at John Baird and Canada's handling of his case

Last week, the family of jailed Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahm were so convinced of his immediate release from an Egyptian prison that his fiancée was shopping for a plane ticket to Canada, and a Toronto hotel room was booked in anticipation of a press conference upon his arrival.

But today, Fahmy -- who was working as the bureau chief for Al Jazeera English when he was arrested more than 400 days ago -- remains behind bars in Cairo. And instead of making plans for his freedom, he is just hours away from an uncertain retrial that has the potential to prolong his imprisonment indefinitely.

John Baird made a mess of foreign policy

So now it falls to Robert Douglas Nicholson — the plodding journeyman — to inherit the world of John Baird.

The office will elevate Nicholson, but will Nicholson elevate the office? Will he bring to it less certainty and more humility? After Baird, the mogul of the megaphone, it won’t be that hard.

To his chorus of admirers, Baird was “principled.” He was “a rare beacon of light” and “a pillar of strength.” He was “a great foreign minister.”

That superlative comes from Jason Kenney, the new defence minister. Ironically, Kenney should be foreign minister; more than anyone in cabinet, Kenney has the intelligence and sophistication for serious diplomacy.

Democrats Need an Elizabeth Warren for Foreign Policy

It’s not exactly surprising news, but The Wall Street Journal reported Friday morning that Hillary Clinton is leaning towards a much more interventionist foreign policy than Barack Obama, should she become president:

Private meetings that she’s held with various foreign-policy experts offer some hints as to how she might part ways with President Barack Obama when it comes to crises in Ukraine, Syria and other global trouble spots. The major takeaway from these private talks is that she wants a strategy more suited to shaping conditions overseas, as opposed to reacting to events as they arise, people familiar with the meetings said.…

“She’s much less risk-averse” than Mr. Obama, said Aaron David Miller, vice president of the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars who has taken part in Mrs. Clinton’s foreign-policy briefings. [Emphasis added.]

How Our 1989 Invasion of Panama Explains the Current US Foreign Policy Mess

As we end another year of endless war in Washington, it might be the perfect time to reflect on the War That Started All Wars—or at least the war that started all of Washington's post-Cold War wars: the invasion of Panama.

Twenty-five years ago this month, early on the morning of December 20, 1989, President George H.W. Bush launched Operation Just Cause, sending tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of aircraft into Panama to execute a warrant of arrest against its leader, Manuel Noriega, on charges of drug trafficking. Those troops quickly secured all important strategic installations, including the main airport in Panama City, various military bases, and ports. Noriega went into hiding before surrendering on January 3rd and was then officially extradited to the United States to stand trial. Soon after, most of the US invaders withdrew from the country.

President Vladimir Putin Defends Russia's Aggressive Foreign Policy

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will defend its geopolitical interests, President Vladimir Putin warned Thursday as he promised economic reforms to pull his country back from the brink of recession. But Putin's patriotic bluster and vague promises did little to assuage real fears that Western sanctions, plummeting oil prices and a collapsing ruble are crippling Russia's economy.

In his annual state-of-the-nation address at the Grand Kremlin Palace, Putin announced measures to spur the country's flagging economy, which is set to enter recession in 2015 for the first time in six years.