Bernie Kaussler

Trump says any country that buys oil from Iran will not be allowed to do any business with U.S. The Trump administration said it wants to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Iran has denied that it seeks such a weapon.

It is safe to say that nuclear negotiations are not going well…

The „secure the border“ team seems very keen on forcing Ukraine to redraw theirs.

Great work, my Hacking for Defense students have been working on exact this phenomenon last semester! 👊🏼

Absolutely! It would not just be a rescue effort of research & science for the public good, but ultimately serves EU security/defense. For EU states to build up defense also requires an entire new ecosystem from social sciences. The US security apparatus rests on the think tank circuit. EU lacks it.

What Does Trump See in Putin? A Conversation With Fiona Hill

On the latest episode of “The Foreign Affairs Interview,” Fiona Hill discusses Donald Trump’s admiration for Vladimir Putin—and why his push for warmer relations with Moscow is raising alarms across European capitals:

Not surprisingly Russia moved the goalposts today and is essentially demanding for the U.S. and Europe to completely abandon Ukraine during the cease fire period. Of course that is also Putin‘s long term goal.

Perhaps the White House speech police should also ban the word „shutdown“? That may helpful this week…

La double peine imposée à l’Ukraine par Donald Trump Les États-Unis bafouent un engagement de 30 ans à assurer la souveraineté et la sécurité de l’ex-république soviétique.

Some of my thoughts European/Canadian leadership and deterrence amidst the trans-Atlantic chaos that unleashed by the Trump administration.

Stanford freezes staff hiring, citing possible federal cuts and increased taxes Stanford freezes staff hiring, citing possible federal cuts in research funding and increased taxes.

Stanford University has announced a staff hiring freeze to ward against “potential financial uncertainties” from the Trump administration’s efforts to cut research funding and to tax endowments.

A JL Partners poll that was mentioned in Politicos this morning asked 1001 voters who they view as the U.S. closest ally:
🇬🇧 UK: 43%
🇨🇦 Canada: 24%
🇫🇷 France: 6%
🇷🇺 Russia: 6%
🇨🇳 China: 5%
🇩🇪 Germany: 4%
🇲🇽 Mexico: 4%
🇺🇦 Ukraine: 3%

That makes upending the int. liberal order a little easier to sell at home

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff referred to the early 2022 Istanbul protocols as offering "guideposts" for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. An agreement based on those protocols would be a capitulation document.🧵 (1/9)

Europe facing up to new era due to Trump, Dutch minister says Europe is "at the start of a new era" and needs to learn to rely on itself, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said on Monday as the continent scrambles to react to U.S. President Donald Trump's stunning reversal of decades of major U.S policies.

We're all Gaullists now, says Dutch - yes, Dutch - foreign minister, in response to Merz remarks on Trump & European defence.

"The era that started at the fall of the Berlin Wall is now over," says Caspar Veldkamp.

Beindruckend! 👍🏼

Verfolge die Bundestagswahl aus den USA, hatte er das heute nach der Wahl gesagt?

ARD vs. ZDF choose your fighter

Bundestagswahl 2025: Wahlbeteiligung gegenüber 2021 offenbar massiv gestiegen Während bei der vergangenen Bundestagswahl um 14 Uhr lediglich 36,5 Prozent der Wahlberechtigten ihre Stimme abgegeben hatten, waren es diesmal 52 Prozent. Vor-Ort-Eindrücke, Faktenchecks und Live-Analysen im SPIEGEL-Blog.

Während bei der vergangenen Bundestagswahl um 14 Uhr lediglich 36,5 Prozent der Wahlberechtigten ihre Stimme abgegeben hatten, waren es diesmal 52 Prozent. Vor-Ort-Eindrücke, Faktenchecks und Live-Analysen im SPIEGEL-Blog.

Of course the U.S. ( under current management) would still „make money“ if Russia were to control these resources or all of Ukraine for that matter. This sure isn’t a security assurance for Zelenskyy, it’s one for US venture capitalists.

Russia launches 267 drones into Ukraine, setting new record ahead of invasion's anniversary Russia launched 267 drones into Ukraine on Saturday night, according to the Ukrainian air force, in the largest such attack of the war.

A good reminder that Putin doesn’t want peace but seeks to dominate Ukraine. Even if one would call this power-based negotiations helping Russia to gain more leverage ( think of Nixon‘s 1972 Christmas bombing), Moscow does this with impunity. Team Rubio continues to reach out its hand to Lavrov.

Ich wohne in Virginia und mein Wahlbezirk in Bayern hatte alle Stimmzettel am 06.02 erhalten und noch am gleichen Tag zur Post gegeben. Ich warte aber immer noch… vielen Dank für die Story. So kann ich weder in den USA noch in Deutschland wählen.

I suspect that the madness that is current U.S. foreign policy and the authoritarian trend under Trump ought to increase voter turnout for all of Germany‘s mainstream parties. These massive protests across 🇩🇪 certainly would support that assumption.

MAGA talking points these last 7 days:
- EU democracies are the real problem
- far right pro-Russian party needs to win in 🇩🇪
- No to Ukrainian territorial integrity
- No NATO membership
- Zelensky must go
- 🇺🇸🇷🇺 talks without Europe
- and now: ❗️Ukraine started it all

100% ! Es gibt keinen Plan! Ich rede täglich mit Republikanern in DC und die „Strategie“ scheint den Krieg einfach zu vergessen… es stört auch keinen, dass Putin schon fast alles gegeben wurde bevor Verhandlungen überhaupt angefangen haben. „We are over Zelensky!“ Das ist der Vibe hier im Kongress.

Appeasment of Russia today may pave the way for it to wage large scale war. According to Danish intelligence "Russia is likely to be more willing to use military force in a regional war against one or more European NATO countries if it perceives NATO as militarily weakened or politically divided,"

We shouldn't take anything off the table before the negotiations have even started.

It is clear that any deal behind our backs will not work.
You need the Europeans, you need the Ukrainians.

Extracts from my doorstep ahead of NATO Defence Ministers meeting ↓

Team Trump seems to be relying on power-based negotiation techniques towards allies and principled-negotiation towards its foes. The US has little leverage left at this point… never mind much deterrent value towards Russia.

After seeing a rather uncomfortable King Abdullah in the Oval Office, Egypt‘s al-Sisi will cancel his White House visit if the forceful displacement of Palestinians is on agenda. Haven’t seen Arab states this united in their opposition to the U.S. - perhaps since 2003…

Looks like the emergence of the racketeering doctrine as far as European security is concerned.

USAIDStopWork

This website documents how many U.S. jobs have been lost as a result of the freeze on foreign assistance. So far, employers or employees have reported 10,758 jobs cut since the stop work orders landed on Jan. 24

Als Politikwissenschaftler in den USA sehne ich mich nach solchen Problemen. In Deutschland ist die Welt noch in Ordnung. Ob das alles noch ein Nachspiel hat oder nicht, Fakten und die Wahrheit scheinen noch zu zählen. Die amerikanische Politik ist jenseits der Realität.

Memory-Holing Jan. 6: What Happens When You Try to Make History Vanish? The Trump administration’s decision to delete a DOJ database of cases against Capitol riot defendants places those who seek to preserve the historical record in direct opposition to their own…

The erasure of the Jan. 6 records comes while the administration is also seeking to whitewash the teaching of U.S. history, threatening to withhold funds from schools that teach about America’s troubled history of racial and gender discrimination.

By @alecmac.bsky.social