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Robert Benson

@robertbenson92.bsky.social

D Phil, Free University Berlin; Berlin Social Science Center; Consultant OECD Paris; Analyst Center for American Progress (CAP). World Traveler.

159 Followers  |  144 Following  |  31 Posts  |  Joined: 28.02.2025
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Posts by Robert Benson (@robertbenson92.bsky.social)

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Trump’s 28-Point Peace Plan Will Invite the Next War The Trump administration’s leaked “peace plan” hands Moscow strategic victories, forces Ukraine to swallow unilateral concessions, and sets the stage for a deadlier future war.

The Trump administration’s leaked “peace plan” hands Moscow strategic victories, forces Ukraine to swallow unilateral concessions, and sets the stage for a deadlier future war. Our latest at CAP: www.americanprogress.org/article/trum...

21.11.2025 21:08 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Trump’s Sanctions on Russia Are Serious—Enforcement Will Decide Whether They Work President Trump’s new sanctions finally target the heart of Russia’s war machine, but only aggressive, disciplined enforcement will decide whether they actually bite.

Trump’s new sanctions finally target the heart of Russia’s war machine, but only aggressive, disciplined enforcement will decide whether they actually bite. I walk you through what needs to happen: www.americanprogress.org/article/trum...

18.11.2025 22:30 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

International lessons on how to re-build democracy.

14.11.2025 13:31 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Turnberry trap: Trump, Europe and global reordering The bloc’s challenge isn’t to restore the old transatlantic bargain but to build a new one before the next crisis hits.

My think piece on Trump, Europe, and global re ordering after the trade deal.

www.politico.eu/article/us-e...

03.09.2025 13:09 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Putin did more than eat Trump’s lunch in Alaska. He ate Trump for lunch and swallowed him whole. The losers? Ukraine, the EU, NATO, and the United States of America.

28.08.2025 19:50 — 👍 1294    🔁 358    💬 47    📌 8

The battle of our day is no longer about Democrats versus Republicans or left versus right.

The choice right now is democracy or dictatorship. And we're sliding faster than I ever thought possible into the latter.

Everyone must choose which side they’re on.

25.08.2025 21:51 — 👍 5225    🔁 1591    💬 171    📌 95

We took a moment to unpack the Anchorage and Washington summits this week - do watch.

19.08.2025 11:27 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 2    📌 0
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The Trump-Putin Alaska Meeting: Preventing a Surrender Summit Trump’s planned Alaska meeting with Putin risks becoming a “surrender summit” that pressures Ukraine into abandoning NATO aspirations and accepting imposed neutrality, rewarding Russian aggression.

This is hardly a light news week, but please do read: Our take at American Progress on Trump's potential Surrender Summit. www.americanprogress.org/article/the-...

12.08.2025 20:06 — 👍 7    🔁 6    💬 1    📌 0

That's absolutely right.

Firing the chief labor statistician isn’t just a scandal—it echoes the early warning signs from Argentina, Turkey, and the Soviet Union, where gutting independent economic institutions paved the way for autocracy and total economic collapse.

We’ve seen this movie before.

04.08.2025 15:29 — 👍 23    🔁 9    💬 0    📌 1

Firing the chief labor statistician isn’t just a scandal—it echoes the early warning signs from Argentina, Turkey, and the Soviet Union, where gutting independent economic institutions paved the way for autocracy and economic collapse. We’ve seen this movie before. It doesn't end well.

04.08.2025 15:13 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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‘Welcome to hell’: Inside the megaprison where the U.S. deported migrants Interviews with 16 former detainees of El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center offer the most complete view yet of conditions inside the notorious prison.

This was an excruciating read. Torture and rape facilitated by the US government. Unconscionable crimes.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

01.08.2025 20:46 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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America’s Window To Stop Russia Is Closing Trump’s hasty ultimatum and symbolic tariffs will not deter Putin; only rapid weapons deliveries and enforceable energy sanctions can shift the battlefield and force Moscow to meaningfully negotiate, ...

The window is closing to stop Putin: my latest. www.americanprogress.org/article/amer...

01.08.2025 15:29 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Do join!

11.07.2025 01:33 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Some thoughts on what we can expect at next week's NATO summit: hint, Trump may be itching for a fight.
www.americanprogress.org/article/nato...

20.06.2025 21:11 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

We're going to see quite a split screen today:
Millions protesting peacefully in defense of democracy, and a would-be dictator ordering tanks to tear up DC streets to make him feel powerful.
It's obvious what the right side is. Be on it.

14.06.2025 12:14 — 👍 4229    🔁 902    💬 100    📌 28

Israel bombing Iran in the middle of US diplomacy is an astonishing and totally unnecessary escalation and humiliating for Trump who said he was ending wars.

13.06.2025 01:03 — 👍 441    🔁 98    💬 14    📌 3
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Democratic backsliding in Europe holds lessons for America Authoritarians’ early popularity can delay resistance — but that’s when the real damage gets done.

Authoritarians’ early popularity can delay resistance — but that’s when the real damage gets done. My piece for Politico.
www.politico.eu/article/demo...

24.04.2025 16:17 — 👍 9    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 1

This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.

17.04.2025 21:55 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Fourth Circuit opinion: make this go viral.

The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order....

17.04.2025 21:55 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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How State Capture and Corruption Harms Citizens: Lessons From Abroad Examples from abroad serve as prescient warnings that corruption and state capture erode services, impoverish societies, and compromise public safety.

The same patterns of systemic corruption, democratic backsliding, & economic exploitation that have marred other parts of the world are now happening in the U.S. New from @robertbenson92.bsky.social:

17.04.2025 20:45 — 👍 22    🔁 12    💬 0    📌 0

We’re not in a good place.

16.04.2025 16:09 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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How State Capture and Corruption Harms Citizens: Lessons From Abroad Examples from abroad serve as prescient warnings that corruption and state capture erode services, impoverish societies, and compromise public safety.

Examples from abroad serve as prescient warnings that corruption and state capture erode services, impoverish societies, and compromise public safety.
www.americanprogress.org/article/how-...

16.04.2025 11:17 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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America the Unstable The US will pay a market penalty for Trump’s turmoil

Last week may be remembered as the true, quantifiable beginning of the end of American economic exceptionalism. Terrifying. on.ft.com/4cuKN3T

13.04.2025 15:05 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

“[As Europeans] we knew that we were living in a continuous history. It never comes to an end.” He might also have quoted the great American novelist William Faulkner, who said: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

12.04.2025 20:45 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

“The question is whether Americans can ever understand that we are living in a continuous experience that has no end, and that you can never segment life into different problems,” Kissinger said.

12.04.2025 20:45 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

"More important, however, was their exposure to societal breakdown and the eternity of geopolitics — an experience that no Wasp could emulate.

12.04.2025 20:45 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
Financial TimesFinancial Times News, analysis and opinion from the Financial Times on the latest in markets, economics and politics

Rarely have I come across such a perfect crystallization of the difference between American and European thinking—one that I’m increasingly convinced will lead to U.S. disaster. Quote below from the FTs Big Read.

12.04.2025 20:45 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Take a look at our new CAP report on threats to democracy abroad and what lessons can be derived here at home.

09.04.2025 15:08 — 👍 13    🔁 11    💬 2    📌 0

Can someone explain to me the absolutely mind boggling silence of elected officials over these state sanctioned kidnappings of U.S. residents.

28.03.2025 22:38 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Greenland PM denounces US 'foreign interference' ahead of visit Greenland's prime minister, Mute Egede, accused Washington on Monday of interfering in its political affairs by sending a US delegation to the Danish territory, which is coveted by US President Donald...

Unlike the U.S., Beijing doesn’t self-sabotage. Grotesque spectacle.

www.google.com/url?q=https:...

24.03.2025 12:24 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0