Articles written by the author
The Answers to Our Problems Aren't as Simple as Left or Right
The American body politic has experienced two big — and enormously revealing — shocks in the past month.Has Our Luck Run Out?
The year 2019 will be remembered for a lot of things, but in foreign policy it may well be remembered as the year our luck ran out.Tiger Woods and the Game of Life
Although my day job is writing the foreign affairs column for The New York Times — more Persian Gulf than fairway golf — thinking about golf and playing as often as I can is my all-consuming hobby. So like millions of others, I was awed by Tiger Woods’ comeback for the ages by his winning the Masters at 43 years old. What can be learned from it?Tiger Woods and the Game of Life
Although my day job is writing the foreign affairs column for The New York Times — more Persian Gulf than fairway golf — thinking about golf and playing as often as I can is my all-consuming hobby. So like millions of others, I was awed by Tiger Woods’ comeback for the ages by his winning the Masters at 43 years old. What can be learned from it?Bibi Trump and Donald Netanyahu
There are two countries that I’ve been professionally, emotionally and intellectually involved with my entire journalism career — the United States and Israel. I’ve never been more worried about both, because President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are essentially the same person, and they pose the same threat to their respective nations.A Green Real Deal, for Real Results, Real Soon
Here’s some news you may have missed. Southeastern Africa got hit in March with a cyclone that United Nations officials say was one of the worst weather disasters to ever strike the Southern Hemisphere. “Ever” is a long time.America Risks Loving Israel to Death
JERUSALEM — Amos Yadlin, the former head of military intelligence in Israel, likes to say that Israel as a Jewish-majority democracy faces two existential threats: a nuclear-armed Iran and turning itself into a binational state by permanently occupying the West Bank with its 2.5 million Palestinians. And while Israel has a strategy for addressing the first threat, it has none for the second.Ilhan Omar, AIPAC and Me
I’ve been watching with more than a little interest the controversial statements about Israel and the Israel lobby by Ilhan Omar, a freshman Democratic congresswoman from the 5th District of Minnesota, because it turns out that we have a lot in common — up to a point.Warning! Everything Is Going Deep: 'The Age of Surveillance Capitalism'
Around the end of each year major dictionaries declare their “word of the year.” Last year, for instance, the most looked-up word at Merriam-Webster.com was “justice.” Well, even though it’s early, I’m ready to declare the word of the year for 2019.Time for GOP to Threaten to Fire Trump
Up to now I have not favored removing President Donald Trump from office. I felt strongly that it would be best for the country that he leave the way he came in, through the ballot box. But last week was a watershed moment for me, and I think for many Americans, including some Republicans.Trump takes on China and Persia at once, what's to worry about?
If you’re keeping score at home on the Trump foreign policy, let me try to put it in a nutshell: The president has engaged America in a grand struggle to reshape the modern behavior of two of the world’s oldest civilizations — Persia and China — at the same time.
President Trump, come to Willmar
WILLMAR, Minn. — In 1949 my aunt and uncle moved from Minneapolis to this town in west-central Minnesota, where they started a small steel distribution company. I visited them regularly for 50 years. About 40 years ago, my aunt whispered to me one day that she had been in her local grocery store and had heard someone ... “speaking Spanish.”
How to defeat Trump
Growing up, I was always fascinated with the magician-psychic Uri Geller, who was famous for bending spoons with his supposed supernatural powers. How did he do that? I wondered. I’ve been thinking about him lately as I’ve watched an even more profound magic trick playing out in our politics. We have a president who can bend people.
Trump is wasting our immigration crisis
SAN DIEGO — On April 12, I toured the busiest border crossing between America and Mexico — the San Ysidro Port of Entry, in San Diego — and the walls being built around it. Guided by a U.S. Border Patrol team, I also traveled along the border right down to where the newest 18-foot-high slatted steel barrier ends and the wide-open hills and craggy valleys beckoning drug smugglers, asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants begin.
The United Kingdom has gone mad
LONDON — Politico reported the other day that the French European affairs minister, Nathalie Loiseau, had named her cat “Brexit.”
Trump and Congress: Loving Israel to death
JERUSALEM — Amos Yadlin, the former head of military intelligence in Israel, likes to say that Israel as a Jewish-majority democracy faces two existential threats — a nuclear-armed Iran and turning itself into a binational state by permanently occupying the West Bank with its 2.5 million Palestinians.
Who to elect for a foreign policy crisis at 3 A.M.?
Maybe I missed it, but I haven’t heard any of the Democrats running on the argument that he or she is the best person to answer the White House crisis line at 3 in the morning.
Ilhan Omar, AIPAC and me
The first thing we have in common is that I was raised in the 5th District of Minnesota, specifically the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park.
The Trump musical: 'Anything goes'
Most important, they’re doing it with utter impunity — confident that either no one is watching or no one will meaningfully call them out.
AI still needs HI (Human Intelligence)
The beating heart of 24/7 back then was a vast floor of young phone operators, most with only high school diplomas, save for a small pool of techies who provided “help desk” advice.
