While the U.S. remains the world's strongest military and economic power, its place and role on the international stage is shifting. There are potentially dramatic implications for international peace and security from a U.S. foreign policy that is increasingly inward-looking, less predictable, less multilateral, and more reliant on the threat or use of military force to achieve its objectives. In 2017, Crisis Group established its first program dedicated to analysing U.S. policy, understanding who makes and shapes it, and offering recommendations to help guide its trajectory.
The U.S. is levying sanctions more than ever to hold warring parties accountable, restrict their access to resources and nudge them toward negotiations. Yet these measures can have unintended ill effects. Washington should take additional steps to alleviate these problems.
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It really shouldn’t be the case that the U.S. considers its influence severely weakened because it can’t provide military equipment or training to a certain country.
[US President Joe] Biden is in an election cycle, and the types of sanctions relief Iran is seeking won’t pass muster with the Congress.
[The Pentagon’s narrow interpretation of the Leahy Law is] a dishonest reading of the plain text and intention of Congress.
Moving forward, the United States should ensure military coups are never seen by its partners as a viable option.
Whenever the American forces there [in Syria] are attacked, the question arises again: Why are they there?
Why the U.S. government will find no easy answers in the Sahel's coup belt
As opioid overdose deaths rise in the U.S., members of Congress have broached the idea of using U.S. military force against the Mexican criminal networks that traffic in narcotics. Such notions are irresponsible, and other politicians and opinion leaders should vigorously push back against them.
U.S. President Joe Biden promised to end the “forever wars” launched after the 9/11 attacks. In Somalia, however, his administration has reinvigorated a flawed military-first approach to battling Islamist militants. Washington should complement those efforts with others aimed at stabilisation and political reconciliation.
This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard speaks with Crisis Group’s China expert Amanda Hsiao about U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to China after months of deteriorating relations between Beijing and Washington.
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