US National Security Adviser John Bolton announced an escalation of US sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela during a bellicose speech delivered in Miami on Thursday to an invitation-only audience of right-wing exiles and Republican functionaries. Bolton’s speech on the Trump administration’s policy toward Latin America amounted to a demand for regime change in Cuba and…
A crucial Pentagon report on the US defense industrial base and “supply chain resiliency” bluntly accuses China of “military expansion” and “a strategy of economic aggression,” mostly because Beijing is the only source for “a number of chemical products used in munitions and missiles.” Russia is mentioned only once, but in a crucial paragraph: as…
The Trump Administration trade policy is nowhere so clear as in the energy area. For years it was thought that the younger Bush Administration was one of the most energy industry friendly in history. But the Trump Administration has gone far beyond that. Hiring Ray Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, as US Secretary of…
History may one day rule this was the fateful geopolitical moment when the European Union clinched its PhD on foreign policy. Last week, EU foreign policy head Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, announced at the UN a “special purpose vehicle” (SPV) to deal with the Trump administration’s sanctions on Iran after…
Perhaps it is Donald Trump’s business background that leads him to believe that if you inflict enough economic pain on someone they will ultimately surrender and agree to do whatever you want. Though that approach might well work in New York real estate, it is not a certain path to success in international relations since…
On Sept. 20 the US imposed punitive measures against China’s military under the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), in retaliation for its purchases of Russian military equipment. The move is meant to “punish” Moscow for what American officials call “malign activities.” The State Department slapped sanctions on China’s Equipment Development Department (EDD)…
