Please do take a look at my latest with Luke Zahner for Stars and Stripes.

Iran Spotlights How Trump Is Fracturing the Transatlantic Alliance President Trump’s war with Iran is exposing how Europe has grown too divided and too dependent to resist an increasingly coercive transatlantic alliance.

Some thoughts: "By refusing to articulate a clear alternative to Trump’s militarism, centrist governments in Europe leave space for far-right and nationalist parties to present themselves as the only political forces willing to defend European interests." www.americanprogress.org/article/iran...

Trump’s 28-Point Peace Plan Will Invite the Next War The Trump administration’s leaked “peace plan” hands Moscow strategic victories, forces Ukraine to swallow unilateral concessions, and sets the stage for a deadlier future war.

The Trump administration’s leaked “peace plan” hands Moscow strategic victories, forces Ukraine to swallow unilateral concessions, and sets the stage for a deadlier future war. Our latest at CAP: www.americanprogress.org/article/trum...

Trump’s Sanctions on Russia Are Serious—Enforcement Will Decide Whether They Work President Trump’s new sanctions finally target the heart of Russia’s war machine, but only aggressive, disciplined enforcement will decide whether they actually bite.

Trump’s new sanctions finally target the heart of Russia’s war machine, but only aggressive, disciplined enforcement will decide whether they actually bite. I walk you through what needs to happen: www.americanprogress.org/article/trum...

International lessons on how to re-build democracy.

The Turnberry trap: Trump, Europe and global reordering The bloc’s challenge isn’t to restore the old transatlantic bargain but to build a new one before the next crisis hits.

My think piece on Trump, Europe, and global re ordering after the trade deal.

www.politico.eu/article/us-e...

Putin did more than eat Trump’s lunch in Alaska. He ate Trump for lunch and swallowed him whole. The losers? Ukraine, the EU, NATO, and the United States of America.

The battle of our day is no longer about Democrats versus Republicans or left versus right.

The choice right now is democracy or dictatorship. And we're sliding faster than I ever thought possible into the latter.

Everyone must choose which side they’re on.

We took a moment to unpack the Anchorage and Washington summits this week - do watch.

The Trump-Putin Alaska Meeting: Preventing a Surrender Summit Trump’s planned Alaska meeting with Putin risks becoming a “surrender summit” that pressures Ukraine into abandoning NATO aspirations and accepting imposed neutrality, rewarding Russian aggression.

This is hardly a light news week, but please do read: Our take at American Progress on Trump's potential Surrender Summit. www.americanprogress.org/article/the-...

That's absolutely right.

Firing the chief labor statistician isn’t just a scandal—it echoes the early warning signs from Argentina, Turkey, and the Soviet Union, where gutting independent economic institutions paved the way for autocracy and total economic collapse.

We’ve seen this movie before.

Firing the chief labor statistician isn’t just a scandal—it echoes the early warning signs from Argentina, Turkey, and the Soviet Union, where gutting independent economic institutions paved the way for autocracy and economic collapse. We’ve seen this movie before. It doesn't end well.

‘Welcome to hell’: Inside the megaprison where the U.S. deported migrants Interviews with 16 former detainees of El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center offer the most complete view yet of conditions inside the notorious prison.

This was an excruciating read. Torture and rape facilitated by the US government. Unconscionable crimes.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

America’s Window To Stop Russia Is Closing Trump’s hasty ultimatum and symbolic tariffs will not deter Putin; only rapid weapons deliveries and enforceable energy sanctions can shift the battlefield and force Moscow to meaningfully negotiate, ...

The window is closing to stop Putin: my latest. www.americanprogress.org/article/amer...

Do join!

Some thoughts on what we can expect at next week's NATO summit: hint, Trump may be itching for a fight.
www.americanprogress.org/article/nato...

We're going to see quite a split screen today:
Millions protesting peacefully in defense of democracy, and a would-be dictator ordering tanks to tear up DC streets to make him feel powerful.
It's obvious what the right side is. Be on it.

Israel bombing Iran in the middle of US diplomacy is an astonishing and totally unnecessary escalation and humiliating for Trump who said he was ending wars.

Democratic backsliding in Europe holds lessons for America Authoritarians’ early popularity can delay resistance — but that’s when the real damage gets done.

Authoritarians’ early popularity can delay resistance — but that’s when the real damage gets done. My piece for Politico.
www.politico.eu/article/demo...

This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.

Fourth Circuit opinion: make this go viral.

The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order....

How State Capture and Corruption Harms Citizens: Lessons From Abroad Examples from abroad serve as prescient warnings that corruption and state capture erode services, impoverish societies, and compromise public safety.

The same patterns of systemic corruption, democratic backsliding, & economic exploitation that have marred other parts of the world are now happening in the U.S. New from @robertbenson92.bsky.social:

We’re not in a good place.

How State Capture and Corruption Harms Citizens: Lessons From Abroad Examples from abroad serve as prescient warnings that corruption and state capture erode services, impoverish societies, and compromise public safety.

Examples from abroad serve as prescient warnings that corruption and state capture erode services, impoverish societies, and compromise public safety.
www.americanprogress.org/article/how-...

America the Unstable The US will pay a market penalty for Trump’s turmoil

Last week may be remembered as the true, quantifiable beginning of the end of American economic exceptionalism. Terrifying. on.ft.com/4cuKN3T

“[As Europeans] we knew that we were living in a continuous history. It never comes to an end.” He might also have quoted the great American novelist William Faulkner, who said: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

“The question is whether Americans can ever understand that we are living in a continuous experience that has no end, and that you can never segment life into different problems,” Kissinger said.

"More important, however, was their exposure to societal breakdown and the eternity of geopolitics — an experience that no Wasp could emulate.

Rarely have I come across such a perfect crystallization of the difference between American and European thinking—one that I’m increasingly convinced will lead to U.S. disaster. Quote below from the FTs Big Read.

Take a look at our new CAP report on threats to democracy abroad and what lessons can be derived here at home.