The Pope and the President Offer Competing Americanisms An odd couple of two Americans, each powerful in his own way, throws into relief the ambiguous, portentous and often tortuous relationship between the United States and the world. Whose vision will wi...

Leo XIV and Trump are opposites in every way except one: They're both American. And one of them has the better worldview

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

If Rubio Is America’s Superego, Stephen Miller Is the Id The American attack on Venezuela to snatch-and-grab its dictator was many things: militarily masterful, legally cynical, strategically and morally warped, and entirely uncertain in its ultimate outcom...

... in which I put America's foreign policy on the couch -- and it's "dark and deadly"

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

Trump Is Tying His Legacy to Whatever Happens in Venezuela Possibly, just possibly, Donald Trump just scored a foreign-policy success that could define his legacy. By striking Venezuela and whisking away Nicolás Maduro (along with Maduro’s wife), the US presi...

Whether Trump goes down in history as a strong leader or toxic loser will now depend largely on whether Venezuela thrives or dives

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

Dismiss the Doomsday Clock at Your Own Peril We’re once again approaching the annual resetting of the Doomsday Clock. Last January, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a group of very smart people, moved the hand...

The famous Doomsday Clock has humanity at 89 seconds to midnight, when apocalypse strikes. In 2026, I see the second hand moving in the wrong direction ...

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

Turning the Monroe Doctrine Into Donroe Is Awful Geopolitics As of this week, the United States has bombed and sunk 25 boats alleged to be carrying drugs in the waters near Venezuela, killing at least 95 civilians onboard — almost certainly unlawfully. It has a...

The 'Trump Corollary' - a.k.a. Donroe - expresses the caprice of a geopolitical bully who lacks a coherent strategy and projects dominance for its own sake

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

The US Is Now All-In for European Nationalism As I re-read the frightening section on Europe in the new National Security Strategy of the United States, I couldn’t help but recall, with a rueful chuckle, a book titled The Postnational Constellati...

Europe’s nationalist demons are back, and they now have a mighty ally across the Atlantic

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

The US Quietly Made a New National Security Plan Out of Whims It was long overdue and published discreetly, unaccompanied by the usual presidential speechifying so far. And yet America’s new National Security Strategy — the document that in theory will guide for...

The new National Security Strategy shows a White House contorting itself to give coherence to the whims of a president who does whatever he wants

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

The situation in Venezuela isn’t about being macho or lethal.

Pete Hegseth doesn’t understand that, @andreaskluth.bsky.social says 🎥

Hegseth and His War Department Have Lots of Explaining to Do He “could count by twos and tie his shoes.” That’s the opening line in episodes of Franklin, a children’s TV series about an eponymous turtle that goes on to do a lot of learning. The same thing, minu...

How did a man who posts pics of Franklin the turtle blowing up boats end up in the command chain to launch nuclear weapons?

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

The Duty to Disobey Unlawful Orders Was America’s Idea “Stauffenberg pointed the way: if your obedience requires you to do criminal, unhuman things, you are no longer bound by your oath. A soldier’s final benchmark must always, in the last instance, be hi...

In Nuremberg in 1945, the Americans established the principle that "just following orders" is no excuse for crime.

The six members of Congress are right to remind us of that today

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

Whose idea was the Ukraine peace plan?

@andreaskluth.bsky.social explains why Trump has left US foreign policy vulnerable to outside players, like Russia 🎥

The Ukraine Peace Plan Is 28 Points of Embarrassment When the captain has no compass, the crew starts fighting over nautical charts and the rudder. So it is with the United States, which now has several foreign policies rather than one, as factions insi...

Trump's "peace plan" for Ukraine proves the United States has not one but several foreign policies — and no president to make them cohere

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

A US Stand-Down Over Venezuela Is Still Possible Say that Donald Trump has by now realized that attacking, or even invading, Venezuela might turn into a disaster. He wants to back down and redeploy the mighty American armada in the Caribbean to do s...

History and theory show that climbing down after escalating is hard.

But Trump can still do it in Venezuela.

And he should

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

Donald Trump is about to repeat a mistake he has been making with America’s partners all over the world. This time, it’s with Saudi Arabia.

@andreaskluth.bsky.social explains 🎥

The US Is Treating the Saudis As It Should Treat NATO Donald Trump is about to repeat a mistake he has been making with America’s partners all over the world: He keeps confusing the proper uses of clarity and ambiguity in foreign policy, using one when t...

Trump keeps confusing deliberate ambiguity and clarity when dealing with other countries, from Europe to Asia and the Middle East

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

The US Has No Idea How to Deal With North Korea Thank goodness that Donald Trump did not — despite speculation that he might — meet the dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, while the American president was visiting the Korean peninsula last month ...

Kim Jong Un feels stronger than ever to stare down the US.

Trump has no answers

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

The White House Is Using Africa as a MAGA Prop First, South Africans were the ones baffled by the bizarre sounds coming out of the White House. Now it’s Nigerians’ turn. And other Africans may be next.

In treating Nigeria, South Africa, and all of Africa and the world like domestic enemies, Trump is making huge strategic errors in foreign policy

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

“A House of Dynamite” should be required viewing for all world leaders, especially those with nuclear weapons.

@andreaskluth.bsky.social explains why 🎥

Just the Threat of US Nuclear Testing Is Bad Enough Just as nuclear war, in all its sheer insanity, has returned to Hollywood and public attention, the leaders of the world’s two atomic superpowers seem to be doing their best to make the jitters worse.

If Trump resumed nuclear testing, he'd be helping China, not the US, and starting a global arms race

He won't, but threatening is almost as bad

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

‘House of Dynamite’ Nails the Psychological Reality of Nuclear War Late in the new movie A House of Dynamite, the American president, evacuating in his helicopter and having to decide whether to launch nuclear weapons at no one in particular, in retaliation for an in...

"A House of Dynamite" by Kathryn Bigelow shows the insanity of nuclear weapons and 'strategy'.
Every world leader should view it.

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

Hegseth Is Waging War Against the Laws of War If you’re still not sure whether the United States is at risk of sliding into authoritarianism, talk to some Americans who know all about the proper and improper uses of violence. They are the men and...

If you're still not sure whether America risks sliding into authoritarianism, talk to these military lawyers (called JAGs)

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

The US Is Courting Disaster in Venezuela One of the many puzzles in current American foreign policy concerns the Western Hemisphere, and specifically the Caribbean near Venezuela and Colombia. At huge cost, the administration of President Do...

The US is staging a huge show of military might off the coast of Venezuela ... to do what exactly?

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

The US Has No China Policy, No Strategy and No Clue As the presidents of the United States and China prepare to meet on the sidelines of an economic summit in South Korea — an encounter that may not actually happen — some foreign-policy strategists in ...

Rarely if ever has a US administration been so confused and at a loss about what it wants from China, and how to get it

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

What’s happening in Gaza will define US-Israel relations for a generation.

@andreaskluth.bsky.social explains what’s at stake 🎥

The Gaza Ceasefire Won’t Win Back Young Americans for Israel Huzzah, hosanna and hallelujah: To US President Donald Trump for brokering a ceasefire that could, possibly, mark the beginnings of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. To the hostages and their f...

Young Americans - Democrats and Republicans, Jews and Evangelicals - have turned away from Israel. That will change US politics for a generation

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

This Nobel Goes to Machado. For Trump There’s Always 2026 Once again, five otherwise obscure individuals on the Nobel committee in Oslo, chosen by the Norwegian parliament, made controversial news today in giving out their Peace Prize, the world’s most sough...

Now that Trump was passed over for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, here's some unsolicited advice for winning it in 2026.

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

Hubris at the Top Could Start a Major War As the world (including the self-styled peacemaker-in-chief in the White House) holds its breath for the announcement of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, spare a moment to ponder the growing risk of war...

Overconfidence and other cognitive biases are raising the risk of war

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

America’s Global Power - YouTube

The problem with 'peace through strength,' America's friends and foes, and the growing risk of nuclear war ... in 7 short video clips

www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

@opinion.bloomberg.com

Trump's Fixation on Americas Dooms the US as a Superpower As the Trump administration contemplates attacking Venezuela and ousting its regime, a pattern that began with Greenland and Canada in the north and Panama in the middle takes on more detailed contour...

With his fixation on the Western Hemisphere, Trump is committing "superpower suicide"...

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@opinion.bloomberg.com

President Trump stressed the idea of “peace through strength” in a speech to top generals.

But the theory has some flaws, @andreaskluth.bsky.social explains 🎥