USA and Canada

Photo: A family flees an active conflict neighbourhood in eastern Ghouta, Syria, using a cart to carry their belongings. Credit: UNICEF/Amer Al Shami.

Experts Slam Syria, Slate Trump and Favour a UN Mechanism

By J C Suresh

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – The Trump administration's latest missile strikes in response to Syrian chemical weapons use is not embedded within a broader U.S. strategy to deter further chemical weapons use, protect Syrian civilians caught in the horrible Syrian civil war, and bring a political resolution to the seven-year misery of the people of Syria, according to Tom Countryman and Daryl G. Kimball, Chair and Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA).

They are "deeply concerned" that the U.S., UK, and French military operation was taken without specific authorization by the U.S. Congress, and with (apparently) little consultation with Congress.

: J C Suresh; THE WORLD; Middle East; 14 April 2018

Photo: President Donald Trump with Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, on March 14, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. Credit: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead.

U.S. Congress Should Prevent Saudis from Going Nuclear

By Kingston Reif, Daryl G. Kimball and Kelsey Davenport

Kingston Reif is Director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy and Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. Kelsey Davenport is the Association's Director for Nonproliferation Policy. This article appeared as Issue Brief on April 5, 2018 with the caption 'The Risks of Nuclear Cooperation with Saudi Arabia and the Role of Congress'. It is being reproduced with permission from the Association. – The Editor.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Curbing the spread of nuclear weapons and the technologies to make them has long been and remains strongly in the U.S. national security interest, especially in the troubled Middle East.

: Arms Control Association; OPINION; 07 April 2018

Trump Ends Deportation Protection for Liberians in the U.S.

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | MONROVIA (IDN) – Liberians living in the U.S. since a devastating civil war that took 250,000 lives from 1989 until 1997 are now in the crosshairs of the current Trump administration which has terminated their protected status with effect from March 31, 2019.

Some five thousand Liberians have been eligible for either Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) since March 1991, allowing them to remain in the United States. But the total number of Liberians in the U.S. is estimated at 100,000.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 30 March 2018

Photo: John Bolton speaking at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland on February 27, 2015. Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0

Bolton's Policy Opinions Would Worsen Proliferation Dangers

By Daryl G. Kimball

Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. Following is the text of his statement on the choice of John Bolton, former U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, as President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – The United States already faces an array of complex and dangerous foreign policy challenges that require pragmatic decision and sober diplomatic engagement with American allies and foes alike.

: Arms Control Association; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 23 March 2018

Trump Plans a Treaty with North Korea, Abandon One with Iran

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Like it not we find that we’re having to get used to the paradoxes, contradictions and confusions of the Trump era.

None is more apparent than his attack on the landmark Iran de-nuclearisation agreement, fashioned by the Obama Administration and the Iranian government. President Donald Trump wants to unwind it, even though it has the 100 percent support of the UN Security Council which in an unanimous vote enshrined the agreement in international law.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 March 2018

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivers remarks at a joint press availability at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja, Nigeria on March 12, 2018. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

Sacked Tillerson Cuts Short Long-Awaited Africa Visit

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – An extended visit to Africa by the U.S. Secretary of State to mend fences after President’ Donald Trump's crude description of African and the Caribbean countries was cut short March 13 by the dismissal of the embattled Secretary Rex Tillerson.

President Trump had announced such a visit in late January. In a letter to all African leaders, he reportedly described the purpose of the "extended" visit as reaffirming "the partnerships and values we share with the African Union, member states and citizens across the continent".

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 13 March 2018

Photo: Trump's shift from the tiny Trump Tower to the "bigly" White House has traumatized the best and the brightest of America. BY-SA-3.0

The Rise of Donald Trump and the Decline of America

By H. L. D. Mahindapala*

"… my administration, I believe, has had the most successful year in the history of the Presidency," Donald Trump, Conservative Political Action Conference, Maryland, February 23, 2018.

MELBOURNE, Australia (IDN) – Since it is generally agreed that one week is a long time in politics, it is time to ask, at the end of one year, how far have America’s stature grown since Donald Trump set out “to make America great again.” From the first step he took to march on the road to White House he has been chanting the mantra of “making America great” which also translates into “putting America first”. They are two shades of the same slogan.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 13 March 2018

Photo: Donald Trump speaking on US foreign policy: YouTube

US Foreign Policy and Trump's Contradictions – Part 5

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the fifth of a five-part article looking at US foreign policy in historical context and its global implications under President Donald Trump.

BERGAMO, Italy (IDN) – If Trump wanted to be unpredictable, he certainly succeeded. It is the reason for the uncertainty, confusion and variety of assessments about the course of his foreign policy.

Unpredictability itself is destabilising and can be understood as an effective strategy against an opponent, but against allies? And for how long can it work? How useful is it for the credibility of the aims pursued? Is it not the attitude of a poker player inclined to bluffing? And what happens when the other players want to "see" the cards?

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 13 March 2018

Photo: Donald Trump and ‘America First’: YouTube

US Foreign Policy and Trump's Contradictions – Part 4

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the fourth of a five-part article looking at US foreign policy in historical context and its global implications under President Donald Trump.

BERGAMO, Italy (IDN) – All US administrations between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have experienced considerable fluctuations, both in the face of development of their actions and because of unforeseen events.

Each administration has its own characteristic slogan "to sell" on the domestic and international political market, a certain rhetoric with which it seeks to differentiate itself from the previous one and which conveys a certain basic vision, attitude or political priority.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 11 March 2018

Photo: The House of Peace on the 38th parallel, likely to be the venue of the Trump-Kim summit by May 2018. Source: lifeinkorea.com

Surprise Trump-Kim Summit by May with Global Repercussions

By Jayantha Dhanapala

The writer is a former Sri Lanka Ambassador and UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs. He was also President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs for ten years until August 2017. Click here for his previous stimulating contributions for IDN. – The Editor.

KANDY (IDN) – Donald Trump has always had the capacity to surprise us. Amidst the actions to fulfil his Presidential Campaign promise to "Make America Great Again" by slapping tariffs on friendly allies and having declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, he has now signalled a dramatic volte-face on talks with Kim Jong-un of the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) whom he had frequently taunted as the "little rocket man".