Opinion

JD Vance recently declared that cutting off funding to Ukraine ranks among his proudest achievements in the Trump administration. The statement deserves to be taken seriously — not as a policy position, but as a moral self-portrait. A man who considers the abandonment of a democratic nation under active military assault one of his finest moments has told us exactly who he … [Read more...] about JD Vance’s Pride in Abandoning Ukraine Is a Confession, Not a Boast

France's exclusion from the Washington talks on Israeli-Lebanese normalization should have been a diplomatic scandal. A historic ally, the self-appointed guardian of the Levant, the country that wrote Lebanon's constitution and still commands the largest European contingent in UNIFIL — locked out of the most consequential Lebanon negotiation in thirty years. The story writes … [Read more...] about France’s Irrelevance in Lebanon Diplomacy

There is a version of the Pakistan-as-venue story that writes itself as a footnote — a logistical convenience, a neutral location, a country that happened to be available. That version is wrong. The selection of Islamabad as the site for US-Iran ceasefire negotiations is a strategic choice with consequences that extend well beyond the talks themselves, and understanding why … [Read more...] about Why Islamabad

The return of American and Iranian delegations to talks — even under the anodyne framing of "ceasefire discussions" — marks a meaningful inflection. Both sides have now fought enough to know what continued fighting costs, and both are signaling, through the controlled leak to Reuters, that they are willing to be seen negotiating. That is not nothing. But it is also not close to … [Read more...] about A Ceasefire Is Not a Deal

Step back from the immediate battlefield narratives and a broader pattern comes into focus, one that is far less about any single conflict and much more about how Europe chooses to interpret power, ideology, and threat. Across Gaza, Iran, and Hezbollah, Europe has consistently defaulted to a framework built on diplomacy, institutional legitimacy, and the belief that … [Read more...] about Why Europe Is Dangerously Shortsighted About Gaza, Iran, and Hezbollah