Give Lindsey Graham credit. When it comes to regime change, at least he is consistent. The Republican senator from South Carolina has supported the removal of dictators from US adversaries such as Iraq and Libya, and now he wants new leadership for a crucial US ally: Saudi Arabia. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “is a wrecking ball,” Graham said at a press conference Tuesday after he and a small group of senators had received a CIA briefing on the October murder of Washington Post journalist Ja

Viewpoints Dec. 6, 2018

Even as politicians in the US and Europe rage about foreigners supposedly swamping their shores, one of the world’s most insular countries -- Japan -- is on the verge of passing what might be its most sweeping immigration reform to date. Welcome as this would be, the plan isn’t sweeping enough.A bill approved by the lower house of the Diet would open Japan’s doors to two types of foreign workers. Lower-skilled laborers in 14 sectors would for the first time be able to apply for five-year visas a

Viewpoints Dec. 6, 2018

As president-for-life, Xi Jinping is neither bound by rules nor limited by rivals. He has upended a careful political balance by concentrating power in his own hands, and overturned a cautious approach to foreign policy, while throwing in jail anyone he views as a threat. China’s most dominant leader since Mao Zedong now has 90 days to head off an all-out trade war with the US provoked, in part, by his own mercantilist policies. Can anybody convince him to make a U-turn?Strong-willed politicians

Viewpoints Dec. 5, 2018

Investors may worry that the trade war will wreak havoc on Starbucks’ prospects in China, its second-largest market. The real concern isn’t any kind of patriotic boycott, but competition from a homegrown challenger.Luckin Coffee, which officially launched in January, already has more than 1,500 stores in 21 cities across China. Starbucks, whose mainland adventure began in 1999, has more than 3,400 outlets in 140 cities. Both are racing to expand further: Luckin is aiming for 2,000 stores by year

Viewpoints Dec. 5, 2018

The liberating role social networks played during the Arab Spring and the Russian protests of 2011 and 2012 was widely lauded. Little of that enthusiasm is on display today amid the violent “yellow vest” protests in France -- even though Facebook is still doing what it does best: letting people channel their rage.In a 2011 paean to “the Facebook revolution,” Chris Taylor of the tech news website Mashable wrote that Facebook was “democracy in action.” Philip Howard of the University of Washington

Viewpoints Dec. 5, 2018

Just because the US and China have agreed to call a truce in their trade war doesn’t mean that it’s over: This was a classic exercise in can-kicking. Nonetheless, most cans have quite a few kicks in them, and overall this is good news for the global economy. Instead of sweeping everything under the rug, as was the case before US President Donald Trump took office, America and China have found a new way of addressing conflict by talking openly.Let’s consider the announcement itself. The US has pl

Viewpoints Dec. 4, 2018

The G-20 Summit in Argentina ended without fireworks involving the US, which was appropriate in a way, given the pall cast by the death of President George H.W. Bush.The US went along with a watered-down communique rather than stand in the way of a consensus, as it recently did at the APEC summit and the G-7. And rather than ending the meeting with a dramatic breakthrough or a loud breakdown, America reached an agreement to freeze trade tariffs with China that went somewhat beyond the one it rea

Viewpoints Dec. 4, 2018

A crucial challenge for the Democratic Party is to formulate a foreign policy platform that goes beyond critiquing US President Donald Trump and lays out a compelling vision of America’s role in an increasingly dangerous world.Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who will likely be a leading candidate for the party’s nomination in 2020, offered up her vision in a recent speech at American University. That speech, and an accompanying article in Foreign Affairs, outlined a strategy of progressive internationali

Viewpoints Dec. 4, 2018

It was appropriate that US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping flew to Buenos Aires for their showdown summit at the close of a month that began with the centennial of the end of World War I. America’s economic tussles with China are all too reminiscent of the rivalry at the beginning of the last century between Britain, the superpower, and the rising power, Germany.This is not as bleak a comparison as it sounds, for two reasons. First, nobody now seems to be planning on immi

Viewpoints Dec. 2, 2018

If you want to understand why the Senate voted last week to move forward with a resolution ending US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, read the speech that Bob Corker delivered from the Senate floor on Wednesday.The outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has long been an ally of Saudi Arabia in Washington. And yet Corker voted to move the Yemen resolution out of his committee. Mind you, he didn’t say he would be supporting it when it comes to the floor for a vote. Rath

Viewpoints Dec. 2, 2018

Imposing martial law after a naval clash with Russia in the Kerch Strait looked like a political masterstroke for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, coming ahead of an election that polls suggest he will lose. But by the time parliament had finished with his decree, it was clear he had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The president’s initial plan was to declare martial law throughout Ukraine for 60 days. With an election scheduled for March 31, this threatened to throw into disarray

Viewpoints Nov. 29, 2018

Sunday’s dramatic events in the Kerch Strait, where Russian troops seized three Ukrainian navy vessels, highlight the Kremlin’s resolve to hold on to the spoils of its aggression against Ukraine and flout its international obligations. They also show the lengths Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is willing to go to to remain in power.The clash had been brewing since April, a month before the opening of a new 19-kilometer bridge across the Kerch Strait between the Russian mainland and annexed

Viewpoints Nov. 28, 2018