Danielle Pletka, AEI
Zarif is right that the Saudis have used their wealth to hire lobbyists and directly to buy friends in the United States and Europe, which has surely influenced policy in their favor. But then Zarif stops, and it is in his silence where we find the hypocrisy, dishonesty and sheer Machiavellian predacity of the Tehran regime.
Amal Nasser, Al-Monitor
It seems the Houthi rebels are the only ones benefiting from the ongoing war in Yemen, as Saudi Arabia's and Yemen's economies have been badly affected.
Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Boston Review
Brazil's impeachment proceedings, which ended on the last day of August, took five full days in the senate and included a fourteen-hour session with the accused, deposed president Dilma Rousseff. The result of the voteâÂÂthree to one in favor of impeachmentâÂÂhad been predicted for weeks, with the media keeping score of intended and likely votes. But the fact that the outcome had been foretold did not make this conclusion of Brazil's eight-month-long impeachment crisis any less spectacular. Читать дальше...
David Kenner, Foreign Policy
How the Lone Star State explains Assad's war strategy -- and why it's going to be so hard to defeat the regime in San Antonio. Er, Damascus.
Gwynne Dyer, Japan Times
So Kim Jong Un, like his father and his grandfather before him, wants the ability to make nuclear attacks on America's main Asian ally, Japan, for a start, and later on the U.S. itself. Regrettably, that's how deterrence works.The North Korean regime is almost uniquely awful, but the strategic logic would be exactly the same if it were run by much nicer people.
Michael Rubin, Commentary
It is understandable that security headlines now focus on North Korea, the South China Sea, and Iran. All of these cases have one common variable: China. That corruption in the Pentagon decision-making process could allow China a base in the Atlantic might be alongside the Iran deal the true legacy of this administration. That the Pentagon seeks opacity rather than transparency suggests that Secretary of Defense Ash Carter is now aware of just how serious the bungling... Читать дальше...
Jack Farchy, Financial Times
First as a regional governor, then as prime minister, Mr Mirziyoyev has been responsible for Uzbekistan's cotton harvest â an annual mobilisation of millions of citizens that human rights groups have decried as forced labour. âÂÂHe is known for being the one to hold governors accountable for meeting cotton quotas,â says Steve Swerdlow, a specialist on Uzbekistan at Human Rights Watch.
Kori Schake, Defining Ideas
The likeliest outcome for Cuba is American apathy. In that case, the embargo won't be lifted or even wither away, and Cuba won't continue to get special treatment (the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act gives refugees automatic admission and legal residence after a year). Cubans clearly fear that, too. Emigration figures illustrate their worry most starkly: 26,500 Cubans have come across the U.S.-Mexican border in recent months. They are coming on tourist visas via fellow socialist paradise Ecuador... Читать дальше...
Josh Rogin, Washington Post
The Israeli government has signed a letter preventing Congress from giving Israel any more money than President Obama wants it to have.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, New York Times
Saudi Arabia's effort to persuade its Western patrons to back its shortsighted tactics is based on the false premise that plunging the Arab world into further chaos will somehow damage Iran. The fanciful notions that regional instability will help to âÂÂcontainâ Iran, and that supposed rivalries between Sunni and Shiite Muslims are fueling conflicts, are contradicted by the reality that the worst bloodshed in the region is caused by Wahhabists fighting fellow Arabs and murdering fellow Sunnis.
David Wertime, Foreign Policy
Hong Kong protesters gets most of the press, but the latest conflict in Wukan means more to mainlanders.
William Ruger, American Conservative
Like his predecessors, Obama has pursued a foreign policy of primacy, not restraint.
Dana Kennedy, Politico EU
In a pretty principality, it can get ugly.
Anton Barbashin, The Russia File
By Anton Barbashin NovosibirskâÂÂRussia's third largest city and the unofficial capital of SiberiaâÂÂrarely makes international news.
David Axe, Daily Beast
Saudi Arabia has got a horrible human-rights record and a bloody war next door. And now it's about to get its own fleet of flying, death-dealing robots.
Tyler Cowen, Bloomberg View
Even if there's no recession, the damage will be heavy and long-lasting.
David Ignatius, Washington Post
With respect to Russia, it's a slippery slope.
Victor Davis Hanson, National Review
The final months of Obama's term are a dangerous period for America, which has forgotten the necessity of deterrence in international affairs.
Greg Miller, National Geographic
These maps were captured in the waning days of World War II as the U.S. Army took control of Japan. American soldiers confiscated thousands of secret Japanese military maps and the plates used to print them, then shipped them to the United States for safekeeping.
Nick Paumgarten, New Yorker
How Yvon Chouinard turned his eco-conscious, anti-corporate ideals into the credo of a successful clothing company.
Ayesha Ray, War on the Rocks
India's Kashmir Valley has been the scene of a Pakistan-backed insurgency since the 1990s. The Indian army and its associated security forces have been eng