America & the World

The accelerating decoupling from China and its supply chain consequences. Dollar hegemony under sustained challenge. NATO cohesion stress-tested by domestic politics. Energy architecture shifting faster than policy can follow. Middle East realignment and its effects on American posture and exposure.

For anyone whose decisions cross borders, this section connects foreign development to domestic consequence — consistently, without the usual lag.

  • What Would It Actually Take for Trump to Build an Enduring Alliance Legacy?

    In June 2025, Celeste Wallander — former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, the official who oversaw American military assistance to Ukraine under Biden — published an essay in Foreign Affairs titled “Beware the Europe You Wish For.” Her argument was counterintuitive and, as it has turned out, prophetic. America spent decades demanding…

  • America Is Running Low on the Missiles It’s Been Firing at Iran.

    After more than four months of sustained combat operations against Iran, the United States military is running low on certain precision munitions. NPR reported this week, citing a US official not authorized to speak publicly, that stockpiles of some precision missiles are almost depleted. The official did not specify which systems. The implication of the…

  • Ebola Past a Thousand

    Congo’s outbreak crossed a thousand cases and hundreds of dead, with barely a headline here.

  • Europe Counts the Heat Dead

    France logged thousands of excess deaths at the heatwave’s peak. The US rarely counts heat this honestly.

  • The World Weighs In on America at Two Hundred Fifty

    Beautiful and terrible, from Brazil to Egypt. And a founding copy of the Declaration surfaces in a British archive.

  • The Rocket That Was Supposed to Fly Next Week

    A New Glenn rocket exploded on the pad days before launch. The hardware can be rebuilt. The country’s growing dependence on a few private rockets is the part worth watching.

  • Trump Left Beijing Without a Deal. The Summit Produced a Warning, a Market Drop, and One Oil Agreement.

    President Trump arrived in Beijing with Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Eric Trump, and members of his Cabinet. He met with Xi Jinping for two hours and fifteen minutes at the Great Hall of the People. He left without agreements on Taiwan, the Strait of Hormuz, or the trade framework that both governments had described as…

  • Israel Built a Secret Military Base in Iraq. What That Reveals About How This War Is Actually Being Fought.

    Israel established a clandestine military outpost in the Iraqi desert and launched airstrikes against Iraqi troops who nearly discovered it. The report, based on sources including US officials, describes an operation conducted in sovereign Iraqi territory, without the knowledge or consent of the Iraqi government, in the context of a broader regional war that has…

  • Trump Called Iran’s Ceasefire Response Totally Unacceptable. What Comes Next Has a Limited Menu.

    Iran submitted a response to the United States ceasefire proposal. President Trump called it “totally unacceptable.” Oil markets responded immediately — prices jumped three percent on the news. The response from the markets is the most direct available measure of what the rejection means in practical terms: the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the energy…

  • Trump and Xi Meet in Beijing This Week. What Is Actually on the Table.

    The Trump-Xi summit in Beijing on Thursday is being described, accurately, as the most consequential bilateral meeting between the United States and China in a generation. The agenda is not a formality. It contains live questions about Taiwan, the Strait of Hormuz, rare earth exports, artificial intelligence, trade, nuclear weapons, and the future structure of…