By SETH J. FRANTZMAN

 

IN PROGRESS…

 

The decline of western powers and rise of populism: Merkel, Italy, Hungary, Boris, Macron

 

The rise of Iran, Russia, China and Turkey

 

A post-American world

 

Trump’s speech and Bush sr.

 

Towards the end of the liberal world order and a new era of chaos: Russia in Ukraine, From Syria to Libya, Turkey’s invasions and bombing, the end of western humanitarian intervention.

 

 

 

The US is outsourcing its policy to Turkey

 

US ambassadors tend to have clientitus

 

US policy is compartmentalized

 

US diplomats work against US commanders

 

The US has a tendency to support dictators and ethnocracies abroad

 

The US has abandoned any semblance of values and support for democracy or human rights

 

The US misleads its partners

 

US lobbies tend to support US enemies and some US diplomats seem to prefer enemies to friends

 

The Trump administration ran Syria policy for years but saw it as primarily wanting to spite Obama

 

There seems little desire to increase US influence

 

The US tends to believe it needs to strengthen dictators and “moderates” and betrays allies to do so

 

US believes in cliches, such as Sunni vs. Shia or “Iran bad” and “Turkey good”

 

The US has given up on making peace or forcing ceasefires

 

The US basically has three lobbies in its MidEast policies, the ran lobby, the Muslm brotherhood lobby and the Israel lobby