Attention to the Unseen

Olga Lautman writes: If the United States were to use military power against allied territory, it would bring the post–WW II security order to an end, collapse NATO from within, and hand Russia the biggest geopolitical victory it has never been able to secure on the battlefield, while placing the alliance on a path where American forces could, for the first time, find themselves in direct confrontation with NATO troops. I wrote about Greenland yesterday and will continue to focus…

Read More Read More

Politico reports: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk issued a dire warning about the future of Europe, saying the continent is “finished” without unity, following a week that saw fractures in the stances of EU countries on foreign policy. Tusk, a pro-European centrist, wrote on social media Monday that Europe won’t be taken “seriously” if it is “weak and divided: neither enemy nor ally.” “It is already clear now. We must finally believe in our own strength, we must continue to…

Read More Read More

Larry Diamond writes: To understand the depth of Donald Trump’s betrayal of the democratic movement in Venezuela, it is necessary to appreciate the consummate courage, planning, and organization behind the opposition victory on July 28, 2024. For her valiant efforts to organize and lead the campaign for democracy, María Corina Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. In her moving acceptance speech on Dec. 10, read by her daughter (due to her late arrival in Oslo from a perilous…

Read More Read More

The Guardian reports: The meeting had been requested by Colombia, which delivered a carefully calibrated rebuke of Washington. The country’s ambassador, Leonor Zalabata Torres, condemned the US action as a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity. “Democracy cannot be defended or promoted through violence and coercion, and it cannot be superseded, either, by economic interests,” she said. “There is no justification whatsoever, under any circumstances, for the unilateral use of force to commit an act of aggression.”…

Read More Read More

Olga Lautman writes: When a sitting U.S. president openly claims the right to seize foreign territory for “security” and resources, Europe is no longer dealing with rhetoric but with timing. Yesterday should have been another clear wake-up call that these threats are no longer hypothetical. As with Venezuela, which Trump sought to act against during his first term, Greenland has been on his agenda since at least 2019. The difference is that during his first term, there were still restraints—Congress,…

Read More Read More

The New York Times reports: Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday appeared to pivot away from President Trump’s assertion a day earlier that the United States would “run” Venezuela, emphasizing instead that the administration would keep a military “quarantine” in place on the country’s oil exports to exert leverage on the new leadership there. When asked how the United States planned to govern Venezuela, Mr. Rubio did not lay out a plan for a U.S. occupation authority, like the…

Read More Read More