Defense & Security Archive

ARIEL, West Bank—Itzik Ashkenazi first came to this settlement in the West Bank 20 years ago, drawn by the cheap housing and mountain views. On clear days, he can see the Mediterranean and the Israeli city of Tel Aviv in one direction, and the Palestinian city of Nablus in the other. The 50-year-old Ashkenazi, who works as an aide for senior citizens, often whiles away the afternoon with friends, chain-smoking, drinking beer and talking politics at a wobbly aluminum table next to a kiosk that sells snacks, cigarettes and alcohol. This unremarkable lifestyle, Ashkenazi says, is the most potent antidote […]

Donald Trump is not the first American president to run into a brick wall trying to negotiate away North Korea’s nuclear weapons capability. President Bill Clinton thought he had a deal in 1994, known as the Agreed Framework, to end the nuclear threat posed by Kim Il Sung’s dynasty. But the regime of his son, Kim Jong Il, continually demanded new concessions for complying, while secretly exploiting every loophole in the agreement to continue its nuclear activities. President George W. Bush ultimately rejected that deal as unworkable and tightened sanctions. North Korea’s response was to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation […]

It is time to say some goodbyes. Next week will mark the conclusion of this column, roughly 250 editions and a quarter of a million words after I launched it in January 2013. Professional obligations mean that I must move on. I will keep writing about international affairs, but I am sad to bid farewell to this weekly perch. It has been a fruitful but frustrating time to comment on crisis management and multilateral affairs. When I kicked off “Diplomatic Fallout,” a political resolution to the Syrian civil war still seemed possible and Russia had not yet seized Crimea. I […]

The world was riveted this week by the meeting in Hanoi between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Last year’s initial summit between the two leaders in Singapore created nearly giddy hope for an end to the longstanding hostility between the United States and North Korea, particularly the resolution of the thorniest issue of all: North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. But a true breakthrough in Vietnam was always unlikely for one pressing reason: Americans persistently fail to understand how Kim sees the world, instead treating him as they want him to be, rather […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Algeria’s ailing, 81-year-old president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, announced his candidacy for a fifth term last month in the quietest manner possible, issuing a statement to the state news agency. Given his health problems, which have kept him largely out of the public eye in recent years, analysts speculated that Bouteflika was incapable of launching his re-election bid any other way. The response by Algerians, however, has been anything but quiet. In recent days, they’ve taken to the streets in the […]

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and managing editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s failed second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam. For the Report, Ayodeji Rotinwa talks with WPR’s senior editor, Robbie Corey-Boulet, about how the global debate over the fate of African art and artifacts, including the fabled Benin Bronzes, is playing out in Nigeria. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines and what you’ve read on WPR, you can sign up for our free newsletter to get our uncompromising analysis delivered straight to your inbox. […]

Hanoi’s role as host of the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un put U.S.-Vietnam ties in the spotlight. Over the past decade, Hanoi and Washington have succeeded in putting the bitter memories of the Vietnam War behind them to forge a mutually beneficial relationship. But the jolt of Trump’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership early in his term and several potential irritants could complicate efforts to develop even closer ties. In an email interview, Carlyle A. Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales, Canberra, explains the impact of the […]

QUETTA, Pakistan—Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Pakistan last week and promptly pledged twice the amount of Saudi investment in infrastructure that observers had expected: $20 billion. Though it may not all be delivered, the promised money signaled the growing Saudi role in major infrastructure development in Pakistan. Until last year, such projects were being funded prominently, and almost exclusively, by China. But last fall, soon after Prime Minister Imran Khan took office, Pakistan unexpectedly invited Saudi Arabia to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC—the big-ticket Pakistan component of China’s huge Belt and Road Initiative, which was previously only […]