Published on by Gary Grappo
Published first at The Cipher Brief on December 10, 2020
It would be unwise for President-elect Joe Biden to immediately rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aka, the Iran nuclear accord. The situations in Iran, in the US and in the Middle East today aren’t what they were in 2015 or 2018. As conditions have evolved, so must approaches to the problem. In his […]
Published on by Gary Grappo
Published first at Fair Observer on November 9, 2020
Joe Biden will take on the world’s oldest democracy’s greatest challenge: healing a very divided nation. After four days of agonizing vote tabulations, interminable political commentary, overwrought election dissection and national public angst, Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the 2020 election as America’s next president. Biden partisans are entitled to some celebration. It was […]
Published on by Gary Grappo
Published first at Fair Observer on October 26, 2020
By strong-arming Sudan into signing a normalization agreement with Israel, Donald Trump has placed political self-interest above the democratic future of one of Africa’s most fragile states. On October 23, the Trump administration announced the agreement between Israel and Sudan to normalize relations. Ordinarily, such an agreement would be good for both countries. But for Sudan, still […]
Published on by Gary Grappo
Published first at Fair Observer on October 13, 2020
Foreign policy may not figure highly as voters choose their next president, but the dramatic changes to America’s traditional approach to international relations are contributing to the people’s much-elevated anxiety over their current president. It has become cliché to assert that unless their country is at war, Americans pay scant attention to foreign policy in […]
Published on by Gary Grappo
Published first at The Cipher Brief on August 24, 2020
Lebanon today is occupied. It is reeling from political and economic collapse, widespread anti-government demonstrations, the coronavirus pandemic and, most recently, a 2,700-ton blast that leveled the port of Beirut. All of it may be laid at the feet of an entrenched, scandalously corrupt and colossally inept political class in partnership with the world’s most […]