U.S. Foreign Policy Archive

Three years ago, Yevgeny Prigozhin barely registered a blip on Google trends in English or Russian. Today, the Kremlin-connected businessman better known as “Putin’s chef” is persona non grata in many places around the world, including the United States, where the Treasury Department leveled another round of sanctions against Prigozhin this week for his role in Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Although Prigozhin’s close ties to President Vladimir Putin have long been known to Russian observers, stretching back to their younger days in St. Petersburg in the 1990s, the Kremlin insider was virtually unknown in the United […]

CHIQUIRINES, Guatemala—In August, Abner Lopez Macario, a 30-year-old farmer and father of two, found himself out of luck and back in Chiquirines, a town in the muggy coastal lands of Guatemala surrounded by sprawling banana plantations. Far from being a bittersweet return after years abroad, Lopez Macario’s homecoming was an admission of defeat. Three months earlier, after a 20-day trek through Mexico guided by a migrant-smuggler, he, his wife and his two sons made it all the way to the border of the United States in the back of a truck. Upon reaching El Paso, Texas, they had sought out […]

A momentous week in which the House of Representatives opened an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump overshadowed the announcement in New York that the United States and Japan had reached agreement on a mini trade deal. While its economic impact will be limited, the deal’s implications for the global trading system could be more significant—and not in a good way. The Trump White House is trumpeting the new U.S.-Japan deal as “phenomenal” and a big win for American farmers, but how big is it really? And is it enough for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to sell at home? […]