Will the last country left in the International Criminal Court please turn off the lights? Russia has said it is formally withdrawing its signature from the founding statute of the international criminal court, a day after the court published a report classifying the Russian annexation of Crimea as an occupation. The repudiation of the tribunal, … Continue reading Another one bites the dust

Hey, I wonder what our best pal is up to these da- Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel thought it would be a nice going-away present for visiting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev: an unmanned helicopter used for agricultural research. Now it emerges that Israel may run into trouble with the United States for handing over the … Continue reading Checking in with America’s Best Friend and Ally in the Whole Wide World

Like most of the rest of the world, I am being emotionally held hostage by the presidential elections, so I hope you'll forgive me if things aren't very active around here today. I should be writing a piece for pay, but I can't even focus well enough to do that and there's potentially some money … Continue reading Let the madness end

It's going to be another day with me mostly away from the blog, sorry, but in the interim you should enjoy my friend Brendan James's profile of natsec "expert" Robert Caruso. Caruso is, apparently, a Navy veteran with impressive credentials: Which brings us to the strange case of Robert Caruso, a young, intense, and charismatic … Continue reading Saying all the right things

Apologies for the late content; it's been a busy day culminating in a vet visit for our dog--she needed to get pre-op blood work done before she gets...fixed (don't tell her). In lieu of anything new and exciting from me, I'm going to steer you to what is honestly one of the nuttiest stories I've … Continue reading The craziest thing you’ll read, well, maybe ever

Earlier today a car bomb killed eight or nine people near the northeastern Nigerian town of Gubio, in that country's Borno state. On the plus side, it appears that the carnage was confined to the bombers themselves, who were apparently attempting to strike a military checkpoint when their bomb went off. On the minus side, … Continue reading Nothing is coming up Nigeria

Early this month, something horrific happened at an Oromo Irreechaa celebration/impromptu political protest in the central Ethiopian town of Bishoftu. The Ethiopian government says its police fired warning shots into the air in response to "troublemakers" in the 2 million-plus crowd attending the festival, and those shots triggered a stampede that killed more than 50 … Continue reading Ethiopia’s domino effect

As...expected, I guess, though it wouldn't have been a total shock had something gone awry, Michel Aoun was elected the new President of Lebanon today, ending a more than 2 year vacancy in that position. Aoun is a former army chief of staff who, despite having fought against Syria and its allies during the Lebanese … Continue reading Say hello to President Aoun

I mentioned in passing yesterday that relations between Saudi Arabia and Egypt are a little strained lately, so I thought I should explain that a bit. Basically, it's all about Syria, but it's also a throwback to a simpler time in the history of the modern Middle East. The Saudis are, as ever, intent on … Continue reading Biting the hand that feeds you

Even though I know it exists, I'm still regularly baffled by the assumption, which appears to be common in DC foreign policy circles, that the rest of the world is this static, unchanging thing that can be affected by American actions but never reacts to them. The best current example of this assumption is the … Continue reading Dear Blob: the world isn’t static