October 24, 2019
Election 2020Donald Trump’s approval rating among Republican voters hovers around 90 percent. Numbers that high normally mean no primary challenge. But the Trump presidency has been anything but normal. Former So…
April 18, 2019
South AfricaIn the run-up to South Africa’s national elections, the Democratic Alliance (DA) will receive a boost from the Good Governance Africa’s annual Government Performance Index. Good Governance Africa is …
November 22, 2019
ChinaIn the wake of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s trip to Southeast Asia, where he tried to reassure U.S. allies and partners of ongoing U.S. commitment to the region, and to highlight Southeast Asian…
November 22, 2019
IranI have a rule of thumb on the oil price cycle: When commentators start using the word “never” we are typically at the brink of a cycle shift. For a while now, oil prices have been stuck in a range. T…
November 15, 2019
Election 2020Each Friday, I look at what the presidential challengers are saying about foreign policy on the campaign trail.
December 4, 2018
South AfricaAt the huge FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on December 2, more than one hundred thousand people participated in the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100, sponsored by the Motsepe Foundation. The event raised some $7 billion in commitments for the relief of poverty across the African continent, from big corporations, governments, and small donors. Performers included Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Usher, and speakers included a variety of South African political, economic, and traditional leaders, as well as Mandela’s family. In the audience was Oprah, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and numerous other heads of state. The event was hosted by South African comedian Trevor Noah.
July 17, 2018
South AfricaCyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa since January, was a close colleague of Nelson Mandela and regularly associates himself with the Mandela legacy and seeks to restore the late president’s values as South Africa’s lodestar.
November 13, 2019
United StatesMost grandiose explanations for the United States' persistent surplus in the income balance of the U.S. current account miss the mark. The U.S. debt position tracks the sum of past current account de…
November 11, 2019
United StatesToday is Veterans Day. Americans first celebrated it on November 11, 1919, one year to the day after the end of the conflict they knew as the Great War and we (regrettably) know today as World War I…
November 5, 2019
Defense and SecurityAmir Asmar is a Department of Defense analyst and CFR’s national intelligence fellow. Throughout his intelligence career, his primary area of focus has been the Middle East. He held a wide range of a…