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Indonesia Joining BRICS is a Huge Deal

Indonesia Joining BRICS is a Huge Deal

On January 6, Indonesia formally entered BRICS as a full member. It was an important geopolitical shift that went largely unreported and little discussed in the mainstream western media. BRICS is an international organization whose primary purpose is to balance U.S. hegemony in a new multipolar world. Its roots go back to 1996 and the emergence of the core group of Russia, India, and China (RIC). In 2009, along with Brazil, BRIC held its first summit. In 2010, South Africa joined, and BRICS was formed, making it, perhaps, the only major international body in which representatives of Africa...

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Did Trump’s Ukraine Peace Plan Just Leak?

Did Trump’s Ukraine Peace Plan Just Leak?

A leaked document has given us a first glimpse at President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian online newspaper Strana, U.S. officials handed the plan to European diplomats who then passed it on to Ukraine. The existence of the plan has not been verified, and Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has said “no ‘100-day peace plan’ as reported by the media exists in reality.” If the plan is real, and if it is being put on the table by the Trump administration as a finished product that, if rejected, will lead to more sanctions on Russia...

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Trump vs Ukraine: The Coming Battle Over Conscription

Trump vs Ukraine: The Coming Battle Over Conscription

There may be a battle looming, not just between the United States and Ukraine over the conscription of men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, but also within the Donald Trump administration. The call for Ukraine to cast a wider conscription net predates the Trump administration. Facing imminent loss on the battlefield after NATO had bankrupted its supply of weapons, demanding that Ukraine throw more men into battle emerged as the last grasp solution during the Joe Biden administration. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, “In fact, we believe manpower is the most...

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Trump One, Biden Nothing

Trump One, Biden Nothing

Before the first day of Donald Trump’s second term in office, he already had more diplomatic achievements than Joe Biden did on the last day of his. The entrance of the Trump team into the negotiations was the difference in Gaza. Biden opened his administration with the promise of “a new era of relentless diplomacy.” But after four years of wasted opportunity, the Biden administration would struggle to name a single diplomatic accomplishment. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s inclusion in his January 2 exit interview with The New York Times of the Biden administration’s “core goal” of...

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The United States Always Knew NATO Expansion Would Lead to War

The United States Always Knew NATO Expansion Would Lead to War

The present severed from the past is easily misunderstood. In discussions of the Russia-Ukraine war, not enough is made of the historical fact that, at the end of the Cold War, the newly independent Ukraine promised not to join NATO, and NATO promised not to expand to Ukraine. Not enough is made of the fact that Article IX of the 1990 Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, “External and Internal Security,” says that Ukraine “solemnly declares its intention of becoming a permanently neutral state that does not participate in military blocs…” That promise was later enshrined in Ukraine’s...

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Should Panama Be Afraid of Trump’s New Imperialism?

Should Panama Be Afraid of Trump’s New Imperialism?

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has recently taken to calling the outgoing Prime Minister of Canada the “Governor…of the Great State of Canada.” In past days, he has gone beyond the jocular tone that some Canadian ministers have insisted he had, citing quite specific reasons why Canada would benefit from annexation by the States. Canadians, he said, pay taxes that are “far too high.” Trump said that, if Canada “was to become our 51st State, their Taxes would be cut by more than 60%, their businesses would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other...

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U.S. Foreign Policy 101: Rebranding Villains into Partners

U.S. Foreign Policy 101: Rebranding Villains into Partners

Maybe Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who is now the leader of Syria, really has changed. Maybe he has matured, as he told CNN, as if his years as an al-Qaeda terrorist leader were a youthful indiscretion. But the world cannot simply take the pragmatic rebel at his word. On December 8, after Bashar al-Asaad fell and Jolani took over control of Syria, U.S. President Joe Biden said, “We’ve taken note of statements by the leaders of these rebel groups in recent days and they’re saying the right things now. But as they take on greater responsibility, we will...

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Praying For a Christmas Truce in Ukraine

Praying For a Christmas Truce in Ukraine

On December 11, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as one of the last things he would do at the end of his term as the European Union’s rotating president, said he had proposed a Christmas truce between Ukraine and Russia. "At the end of the Hungarian EU presidency, we made new efforts for peace. We proposed a Christmas ceasefire and a large-scale prisoner exchange," he said. Sadly, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “clearly rejected and ruled out” the idea. There is a history of a Christmas truce, and there is a history of civilian and military leaders rejecting it. On Christmas...

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