Category: US Foreign Policy
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Operation Epic Fury… one month on.
There has to be an argument that encapsulates the ‘2026 Gulf War,’ whether it is an ideological approach or a continuation of the conflict in the Middle East that started in 1991, is a question that has vexed most analysts, historians and international lawyers trying to define the intellectual, political and legal parameters of Operation…
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Will the 20 point plan lead to more….
Having read Yair Lapid’s argument for change in Israel there is one lesson and that is not to take anything coming out of the mouth of Netanyahu as having any value when in negotiation. In announcing Trump’s proposal for his 20 point peace plan, there is a realisation that Netanyahu had decided to destroy the…
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The miracle of Lebanon
The miracle of Lebanon is that it did not de-generate into the mess of the 1970s and 1980s. The Lebanese security forces have managed a crisis through extraordinary diplomacy even though it has been starved of funding by a political class that has been driven by infighting. Parliament has managed to elect a new government,…
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Diplomacy or revenge
There was something that didn’t quite fit in with the news conference given by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The niceties of the press conference were mixed with a statement from the state that rambled on with threats and then on to international law. The elements that were most talked about were those of international law,…
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Russia’s push to a revanchalist future
Russia is going to set out its demands for a cessation to the hostilities in Ukraine in the coming week. The ideas, thoughts and arguments whether there is any workable argument that means Ukraine can accept an agreement is likely to be negated by the smattering of arguments coming from Washington. Whether Trump knows what…
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Europe’s move to superpower status
Europe is in a bind, the idea that Trump is controlling the war in Ukraine has come to a head. Britain, France and Germany have come to agreements on how European defence forces will navigate the very difficult waters of a Europe without the United States. But one of their arguments was to integrate Türkiye…
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The polarisation of identity
JD Vance argues that a security guarantee does not meet the defence capabilities necessary to guarantee Ukrainian sovereignty. The vice president in an interview with Fox placed his argument in front of millions of Americans who were his target audience. After the debacle of the White house meeting with Zelensky, it is not really a…
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With soft power comes influence
It was very much a trick of the Conservatives in the UK to stop all spending whether the economy needed it or not. But Trump’s tactic or should I say Rubio’s is extraordinary, “Stop all Foreign Aid”. Of course they have the ultimate answer to stop voices being heard and that is to fire the person…
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Christmas News Letter
Welcome to the final newsletter of 2024 from WorldThoughts.UK This year has been extraordinary, from a continuation of the war in Ukraine to the war in Gaza and finally the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. The argument that has been at the forefront of most conversations has been who will be the next…
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Is it time to get tougher with Russia….
With the end of Navalny, Russians seem to have lost the one voice that could be heard by millions who were either gasping at the audacity of his latest prank or just finding an understanding of what an extraordinary man he was. But Russia has never been short of these kind of characters until now,…