New York Times (December 20)
“The vision of two separate states, with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace” is proving elusive despite “years of arduous negotiations to solve the Middle East conflict.” As confidence wanes in the realizability of a two-state solution, it may be the time to consider alternatives.
Tags: Alternatives, Confidence, Conflict, Elusive, Israel, Middle East, Negotiations, Palestine, Peace, Two-state solution
Washington Post (December 11)
“To get a taste for the havoc possible in today’s digital world, consider the recent cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.” The massive 100 terabytes of stolen data has revealed “embarrassing details about executive salaries and secret movie negotiations—but the hack is also a worrisome moment in cybersecurity…. It is now a fact that many of the world’s most powerful nations are building cyberforces, either directly or with mercenary proxies. This is creating a cyberspace with plenty of risks.”
Tags: Cyberattack, Cyberforces, Cybersecurity, Digital, Embarrassing, Executives, Havoc, Mercenaries, Movies, Negotiations, Risks, Salaries, Sony, Stolen data
Washington Post (October 2)
In his negotiations on a nuclear agreement with Iran, “President Obama should resist the temptation to make further concessions in order to complete a long-term deal by November. In the absence of a dramatic change in its positions, Iran should be offered, at best, an extension of the existing arrangement, with the current sanctions left in place — and threatened with tougher measures if it does not accept.”
Tags: Concessions, Extension, Iran, Negotiations, Nuclear agreement, President Obama, Sanctions, Temptation
New York Times (January 4, 2014)
“Five months into the latest American effort to nudge Israelis and Palestinians toward a peace agreement, the one party clearly committed to a deal is the United States.” Over 20 talks have been held, with the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry logging ten trips to the region. Despite these efforts to reach an agreement by the end of April, “there is no evidence of concrete progress, but there are increasing signs that both sides may be positioning themselves to blame the other if negotiations collapse.”
Tags: Agreement, Blame, Collapse, Evidence, Israel, John Kerry, Negotiations, Palestine, Positioning, Progress, U.S.
Chicago Tribune (October 16)
“Raising the debt limit neither authorizes new spending nor increases our national debt by a single dime…. It simply allows us to pay the bills Congress has already racked up.” As such, the debt ceiling should be repealed. “All it does is make the markets jittery and provide an opportunity for contemptible, hypocritical grandstanding that distracts from serious negotiations about taxes and spending. At worst it crashes the economy. No president, Democrat or Republican, should ever again have to negotiate with Congress with such a threat over his or her head.”
Tags: Congress, Debt ceiling, Democrat, Economy, Markets, National debt, Negotiations, President, Republican, Spending, Taxes, U.S.
Chicago Tribune (October 8)
“President Barack Obama’s decision to skip a trip to Asia … was understandable given the circumstances, but it also has consequences. This is a crucial moment in America’s negotiations for free trade with Asia, and Obama is 10,000 miles away from the action.”
Tags: Asia, Circumstances, Consequences, Free trade, Negotiations, Obama, U.S.
New York Times (March 2)
The outcome of recent negotiations with Iran “was frustratingly incremental, but it keeps alive the slim possibility of a diplomatic solution…. It is hard to know whether Iran will ever abandon its nuclear ambitions.… Mistrust runs deep on all sides. Still, it makes sense for the United States and its partners to be creative in pursuit of a deal that will prevent Iran from producing a nuclear weapon.”
Tags: Deal, Diplomacy, Iran, Mistrust, Negotiations, Nuclear weapons
New York Times (December 27)
“Just before the Christmas break, negotiations on the so-called fiscal cliff ended on an absurdist note.” House Republicans rejected the President’s “overly generous budget deal,” as well as “their own leadership’s proposal.” This is unacceptable. “No deal means the end of federal unemployment benefits” for 3 million people and an increase in payroll taxes for 125 million households.
New York Times (August 18)
Competition over territorial status in the South China Sea ”has become a virtual free-for-all. Confrontations over territorial control are alarmingly frequent and could get out of hand, with dangerous consequences.” The East China Sea is also the scene of rising tension. While “China would prefer to deal with territorial disputes bilaterally because it thinks it can strong-arm its neighbors,” the U.S. has an important role to fulfill by taking “a neutral position on the claims” and proposing fair negotiations to settle the disputes.
Tags: China, Confrontation, East China Sea, Negotiations, South China Sea, U.S.
