Five Things to Read on Trump’s Syria Withdrawal

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: December 20, 2018

President Donald Trump’s completely unexpected decision to pull 2,000 U.S. troops out of the conflict in Syria – announced this week via Twitter without much visible consultation – has predictably caused a bit of a shitstorm in the natsec community in Washington DC. There seems to be wide-ranging speculations about Trump’s motivations to make this […]

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Assad Just Gassed Putin’s Chance at a Deal

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: April 5, 2017

It’s always difficult to pinpoint the moment in which a policy changes, but yesterday’s horrific chemical weapons attack in Idlib appears to signal a shift in how the Trump administration may view its options in the conflict. The attack, which has already killed more than 100 people and injured another 400, including a great number […]

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Bibi’s Big Day in Washington

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: March 3, 2015

The level of attention directed toward today’s speech before the U.S. Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is nothing short of remarkable. He’s on the front page of pretty much every news service, on every channel (even the disinterested European broadcasters), clogging the Twitter timeline of everyone remotely interested in politics. Bibi’s goal is […]

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Israel, United States More Unpopular than Russia

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: March 7, 2007

Yesterday the BBC released the results of the latest GlobeScan International Policy Attitudes survey, which asks respondents to rate countries according to whether they have a negative or positive impact on the world. The most unpopular countries are the following: 1. Israel (56% negative) 2. Iran (54% negative) 3. United States (51% negative) 4. North […]

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