Good Riddance to Castro and a Failed U.S. Foreign Policy (Ted Galen Carpenter, The National Interest)

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/good-riddance-castro-failed-us-foreign-policy-18542

America's Hypocrisy on Foreign 'Provocations' (Ted Galen Carpenter, The National Interest)

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/americas-hypocrisy-foreign-provocations-17629

Why the South China Sea Verdict Is Likely to Backfire (Ted Galen Carpenter, The National Interest)

On July 12, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague issued a decision that could greatly impact the ongoing tensions in the South China Sea. Ruling on a case brought by the Philippines in 2013, the decision of the five-judge panel represented an emphatic victory for Manila’s position and a near total repudiation of China’s claims. In its most significant finding, the tribunal flatly rejected China’s argument that it enjoys historic rights over most of the South China Sea. Such a claim, the panel ruled, had no legal basis. The ruling was a sweeping rebuke of Beijing’s conduct, especially its seizure of uninhabited reefs and its construction of artificial islands. Such actions, the tribunal concluded, violated China’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/why-the-south-china-sea-verdict-likely-backfire-16957

NATO’s mounting internal challenges (Ted Galen Carpenter, Aspenia online)

The Warsaw summit, which took place on July 8 and 9, occurred at a time when the challenges facing the venerable North Atlantic Treaty Organization have never been more serious. Despite the usual expressions of alliance solidarity, there are numerous troubling developments that are likely to plague NATO in the coming months and years. How Western leaders handle those challenges will determine what kind of future the alliance has - or whether it will have any future at all.

http://www.aspeninstitute.it/aspenia-online/article/nato%E2%80%99s-mounting-internal-challenges

Hillary's Hawkishness Began When She Was First Lady (Ted Galen Carpenter, The National Interest)

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/hillarys-hawkishness-began-when-she-was-first-lady-16742

Washington Must Stop Challenging Other Major Powers in Their Neighborhoods (Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato Institute)

http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/washington-must-stop-challenging-other-major-powers-their-neighborhoods

America's Doomed China Strategy (Ted Galen Carpenter, The National Interest)

Two developments in the past month indicate that Washington’s mixed policy of engagement and containment (or “congagement”) toward China has begun to tilt more toward containment. The first development was the visit of Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to India in mid-April and the signing of a bilateral cooperation agreement on military logistics. The other episode is President Obama’s just-completed trip to Vietnam and the announced lifting of the long-standing arms embargo on that country. As usual, American officials insist that the marked change in U.S. policy toward Hanoi is not in any way directed against China. But such statements strain credulity, especially when viewed in the larger context of U.S. warships conducting “freedom of navigation” patrols in the South China Sea and bluntly reminding Beijing of America’s security obligations to the Philippines under a bilateral defense treaty

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/americas-doomed-china-strategy-16365

Is it Time for America to Quit NATO? (Ted Galen Carpenter, The National Interest)

NATO will celebrate its sixty-seventh anniversary in April. Instead of being an occasion for the usual expression of mind-numbing clichés about the alliance’s enduring importance both to U.S. security and world peace, it should become an opportunity for a long overdue assessment of whether the NATO commitment truly serves America’s best interests in the twenty-first century. There is mounting evidence that it does not.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/it-time-america-quit-nato-15615

(Istituto fondamentale-Global) Turbulent triangle: US, Russia, China relations (Ted Galen Carpenter, Aspenia online)

https://www.aspeninstitute.it/aspenia-online/article/turbulent-triangle-us-russia-china-relations