Foreign Policy

Mexican cartels adjusted to restrictions imposed by the global pandemic last year to smuggle huge amounts of narcotics into the U.S. and remain the greatest criminal drug threat to the country, expanding the market as methamphetamine deaths skyrocket. The government

BY RYAN C. BERG Mexico is poised to become just the third country in the world to fully legalize marijuana (after Uruguay and Canada). If legalized, the size of the country would make it the world’s largest legal cannabis market. Already, headlines are

BY DEREK SCISSORS The Chinese Communist Party appreciates American media praise. Yes, China halted COVID-19 and engineered a clear economic recovery. But the party has always denied or distorted major mistakes. Last year it lied about initial virus spread and, consequently, about

BY RYAN C. BERG Mexico’s attorney general has declined to prosecute General Salvador Cienfuegos, accused of cooperating with drug traffickers from the shadowy H-2 cartel. The widely predicted development brings Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) a step further down the

BY LEON ARON On his return from Germany, where he recuperated from an attempt on his life by Russian secret services, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was arrested at the airport and sentenced to 30 days in prison for allegedly violating the

BY KAREN E. YOUNG In ‘Twin Crises Deepen Gulf States’ Policy Competition and Independence’, I argue that, for the Gulf Arab states, the twin crises of the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of oil prices in 2020 have accelerated trends

BY DEREK SCISSORS Key Points American investment in the People’s Republic of China probably exceeds $1 trillion, most occurring in the past six years. The vast majority is portfolio investment—holdings of bonds and, especially, small equities stakes. The amount is

A controversial government program launched nearly a decade ago to protect airline safety has failed miserably to meet its “mission of mitigating the threat to commercial aviation,” according to a scathing federal audit sprinkled with redactions to protect “sensitive security information.” Known

The Chronicle has learned that Hunter Biden met more than two dozen times with Ye Jianming, the globe-trotting billionaire and senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) figure who is entrenched in wide-ranging public corruption scandals around the world. They met so

An email from the now scandalous laptop once owned by Hunter Biden outlines a corruption scheme that gave the Biden family a $5 million no-interest, unsecured, and fully forgivable loan from a Chinese state-owned enterprise. That email was sent to

BY RYAN C. BERG Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Vice President and First Lady Rosario Murillo are on the offensive again. The latest move in their dictatorial rule is a draconian law aimed at non-profit organizations and foreign media outlets. The law

BY CLAUDE BARFIELD Recently, Columbia law professor Tim Wu penned a forceful op-ed titled “A TikTok ban is overdue.” Wu bases his case strictly on reciprocity grounds, though he also raises broader issues regarding China’s oppressive authoritarianism. Citing TikTok and

BY RYAN C. BERG Many criminal groups in the Balkans trace their roots to the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the conflict that ensued. Under a new generation of criminals, these erstwhile local groups, criminals, and

WASHINGTON, DC — Judicial Watch announced today that it received 372 pages of records from the U.S. Department of State that confirm prior reporting that the American Embassy in Ukraine under then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch monitored, very likely in violation of federal law,

BY RYAN C. BERG Brazil recently surpassed a grim statistic: 100,000 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus, which barrels on in the second worst outbreak in the world. Under increasing pressure at home — over 30 impeachment motions have been introduced by opponents in Congress

BY GISELLE DONNELLY Make no mistake: The Trump administration’s plan to remove and realign US forces in Germany and throughout Europe is much more than a fit of presidential pique at Germany or Chancellor Angela Merkel; it is a crippling

BY ANDRES MARTINEZ-FERNANDEZ By most measures, Latin America has become the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with the region struggling to cope with both the pandemic and the resulting socio-economic crises. Now, governments are forced to make difficult decisions

The U.S. government has crafted an amusing new guide to help federal agencies and contractors comply with the ban on Chinese telecommunications and surveillance equipment. The rule was issued last year to combat national security and intellectual property threats against the