| | | | "America First" Won't Wash Here… | | | One week before the summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, and it already looks like the US President is trying out his "America First" approach to foreign policy with North Korea by easing up on the pressure to denuclearize, the Korea Herald editorializes. That's bad news for security in the region. Trump "does not want to spend US taxpayers' money on denuclearization and economic rewards to be given to the North, leaving the financial burden to other countries," the paper says. "It is inevitable for the US to be the main player in the nuclear crisis. But that does not mean that its leader can do whatever he likes – lowering the bar for denuclearization, easing sanctions and making premature calculations about money needed for a deal. That would mean he is following in the footsteps of the past US administrations he has harshly rebuked for giving the North more time to develop its nuclear weapons program." | | What a Wedding Cake Might Say About Trump's Travel Ban | | | The US Supreme Court's decision in the case of a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple shed little light on where America should draw the line on gay rights vs religious freedom. But it might have tipped the Court's hand on how it will decide President Trump's travel ban, suggests Richard Primus for Politico Magazine. "Much of the fight is about whether courts should ignore President Trump's Islamophobic statements when reasoning about the purpose of the entry ban. In Monday's decision, Justice Kennedy made plain that it is appropriate to consider the prejudice in things government officials say when analyzing claims that those officials' actions are unconstitutionally discriminatory. The key to the Masterpiece Cakeshop decision, for Kennedy, was a series of statements by two members of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission that displayed, or might have suggested, a prejudicial attitude toward the baker's religious beliefs," Primus writes.
"If the statements of lawmakers can be considered, and if even subtle suggestions of prejudice violate the [free exercise of religion clause] the entry ban is in serious trouble." | | Team Trump Should Read This Speech | | | Seventy-one years ago today, then-Secretary of State George Marshall used a brief speech to sketch out the details of what would later become the Marshall Plan for helping Europe recover after World War II. Team Trump would do well to reacquaint itself with what Marshall said, suggests Hal Brands for Bloomberg. "[T]he plan was rooted not in a narrow, zero-sum form of self-interest but in an enlightened, positive-sum form of self-interest. What is often forgotten today is that the Marshall Plan was not initially popular in Congress, because it required a massive outlay of US resources that would never be directly repaid. It was – literally – a giveaway of American wealth," Brands writes. "What Marshall and other Truman administration officials understood, though, was that Washington had to play the long con rather than the short con – that America would become most secure and prosperous by helping like-minded nations become secure and prosperous." | | | Recently installed US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell sparked anger in Germany and elsewhere when he was perceived to be voicing support for rightist, anti-establishment forces on the continent. Anne Applebaum says in the Washington Post that the comments were a blow against the Atlantic alliance – and hypocritical, to boot.
"Imagine this scenario: A new Chinese ambassador is sent to Washington. Brash and arrogant, he comes from the extreme Maoist wing of the Chinese communist party. A month after his arrival, he gives an interview to the People's Daily, noting with satisfaction the rise of the far left in Western politics," Applebaum writes. "But flip the ideology around, and that is precisely what Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany, just told Breitbart News. 'There are a lot of conservatives throughout Europe who have contacted me to say they are feeling there is a resurgence going on,' he said. 'I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders. I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left.'" | | Why Iran Sanctions Will Be a Boon…to the Iranian Regime | | | As the United States begins re-imposing sanctions on Iran it would do well to remember what history has taught us, writes Peter Beinart for The Atlantic: They don't work. In fact, they usually make the targeted regimes stronger. "Far from promoting liberal democracy, sanctions tend to make the countries subject to them more authoritarian and repressive," Beinart writes. "The reason is that sanctions shift the balance of power in a society in the regime's favor. As sanctions make resources harder to find, authoritarian regimes hoard them. They make the population more dependent on their largesse, and withhold resources from those who might threaten their rule." "But sanctions don't just help despotic regimes tighten their grip. They erode the habits and capacities necessary to sustain liberal democracy over the long term. As sanctions devastate a country's economy, its professionals often emigrate. Families under economic strain withdraw their daughters from school and marry them off at younger ages. And as sanctions restrict the legal flow of goods, people grow accustomed to the black market." | | Why US-China Tensions Could Start Bubbling Over | | US tensions with China don't begin and end with trade – or even differences over the South China Sea. The temperature is rising over US ally Taiwan, and the United States is mulling turning up the heat a little more, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali write for Reuters.
"The United States is considering sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait, US officials say, in a move that could provoke a sharp reaction from Beijing at a time when Sino-US ties are under pressure from trade disputes and the North Korean nuclear crisis," they write.
"The last time a US aircraft carrier transited the Taiwan Strait was in 2007, during the administration of George W. Bush, and some US military officials believe a carrier transit is overdue." - In-flight warning. The Trump administration isn't confining its pressure over Taiwan to military maneuvers, the Financial Times reports.
"US officials have asked United, American Airlines and Delta not to comply with a Chinese demand to write 'Taiwan, China' instead of Taiwan on their websites and maps, according to five people familiar with the issue. The request came after China ordered 36 foreign airlines to remove any language which implied that Taiwan, a democratically ruled independent island claimed by Beijing, was not part of China." | | | | | | |
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