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