The coronavirus pandemic is President Donald Trump’s 9/11 — but rather than identifiable terrorists to target, there is an invisible virus threatening global stability. This crisis will test the president’s ability to rely on his experts and to acknowledge and rectify his errors. The U.S. intelligence community sounded the alarms in January 2020, urging the […]
The Navigator from CGP
U.S. Humanitarian Leadership: The Long Walk Home
The US response to emergencies has been severely hindered by this administration’s hostility to refugees, migrants, other vulnerable populations, and the federal agencies that assist them – whether through financial contributions, specialized expertise, or humanitarian diplomacy. This is in sharp contrast to previous administrations that considered humanitarian assistance to be an important aspect of […]
Planning for an International Response to COVID-19 in Northern Syria
The provision of tests and medical equipment to the crowded camps in northern Syria must be made a priority in order to prevent a catastrophic coronavirus outbreak in the area. The arrival of COVID-19 in northern Syria would be an unimaginable disaster in a place attempting to cope with nine years of war. As of […]
Pakistan and the Future of the Taliban: 10 Things to Consider
Image courtesy of Pakistan Foreign Office Developing an intra-Afghan understanding is a necessary step for peacebuilding in Afghanistan, but it cannot happen with Afghanistan’s neighbors pulling the various groups in different directions. U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, had a clear mandate to cut a deal with the Taliban and, to give him […]
A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Post Pandemic World
For the United States, the geopolitics of the COVID-19 pandemic will boil down to a contest with China. The COVID-19 pandemic could transform the world. Many geopolitical experts are concerned that this crisis, more than any other this century, has the potential to permanently reconstitute the global order. Some are even arguing that while the […]
A Black Sword: Oil, the Price of Power, and Strategic Relevance
Oil isn’t dead. Its demise as a strategic commodity — like the decline in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s power of price and in the Middle East’s strategic relevance — has been greatly exaggerated. A decade ago, American energy companies began to explore for and extract unconventional oil. They then pumped, piped, trucked, and shipped […]