An Army for Hire: Trump Wants to Make Money by Renting Out American Soldiers

An Army for Hire: Trump Wants to Make Money by Renting Out American Soldiers

To stay that there has been some strange stuff coming out of the White House lately would be an understatement. If President Donald Trump knew a bit more about history, he would understand that countries that rent out their national armies to serve as mercenaries usually wind up holding the short end of the stick….

What’s the Point of NATO If You Are Not Prepared to Use It Against Iran?

What’s the Point of NATO If You Are Not Prepared to Use It Against Iran?

Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance commits all members to participate in the defense of any single member that is attacked. An attack on one is an attack on all. Forged in the early stages of the cold war, the alliance originally included most of the leading non-communist states in Western…

Unintended Consequences: Did Trump Just Give the Middle East to China and Russia?

Unintended Consequences: Did Trump Just Give the Middle East to China and Russia?

By the series of actions in recent months in Iraq and across the Middle East, Washington has forced a strategic shift towards China and to an extent Russia and away from the United States. If events continue on the present trajectory it can well be that a main reason that Washington backed the destabilization of…

NATO Flounders in the Middle East

NATO Flounders in the Middle East

Never reluctant to poke its nose into regions where it has no commitments or relevance, the Nato military alliance is stumbling round in Iraq, the crucible of Middle Eastern disruption. Following the U.S. drone-strike killing of Iranian General Soleimani and the deputy commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Nato’s Secretary General, Jens…