Inflection Points

Inflection Points

A weekly column by Atlantic Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe, Inflection Points focuses on the global challenges facing the United States and how to best address them.

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Inflection Points

Nov 11, 2018

Trump’s test on Iran: Turning disruption to progress

By Frederick Kempe

Without minimizing the other challenges, my wager is that the Iran issue may become the Trump administration’s most defining foreign policy challenge over the coming two years, viewed alongside North Korea as part of a dual effort to counter rogue regimes.

Financial Sanctions and Economic Coercion Iran

Inflection Points

Nov 4, 2018

US midterms’ World impact

By Frederick Kempe

Allies are worried that the American model is losing traction, prompting Chinese leaders to promote their state capitalist model as a viable alternative for developing and developed countries alike.

Elections United States and Canada

Inflection Points

Oct 28, 2018

The threat to Europe

By Frederick Kempe

The same brand of nationalism and populism that unifies Trump's voters, and inflames his detractors at home and abroad, is a far more fundamental challenge to one of history's great experiments, the European integration project that evolved after World War II.

European Union International Organizations

Inflection Points

Oct 20, 2018

How Turkey gains from the grisly drama over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

By Frederick Kempe

The most worrisome aspect of the Khashoggi affair and its aftermath, says one well-informed Western diplomat in Turkey, is the glimpse it provides into an unraveling world order constructed by the U.S. and its allies, and the jungle that appears to be growing in its place.

International Norms Saudi Arabia

Inflection Points

Oct 13, 2018

Saudi silence on Khashoggi must end

By Frederick Kempe

I count myself as one of those who had been captivated by the possibility of change and the compelling MBS personality. What impressed me was his focus, energy and vision, laid out over three lengthy meetings in Riyadh and Washington, of how his country had gone wrong and what he would do to modernize it with next-generation support.

Saudi Arabia

Inflection Points

Oct 6, 2018

Trump’s China offensive

By Frederick Kempe

Four pieces of news this week underscore the far-reaching, multi-faceted nature of the Trump administration efforts aimed at China, with senior officials promising more in the weeks ahead.

China Economy & Business

Inflection Points

Sep 23, 2018

Navigating the next crisis

By Frederick Kempe

In my many years of taking the global pulse around UN week, where more than 120 leaders will gather, I've seldom seen or sensed such uneasiness and uncertainty.

Inflection Points

Sep 16, 2018

Great powers, big questions

By Frederick Kempe

Just as US leaders after World War II conjured up an approach that fit their times, ultimately resulting in a system of global institutions and regional alliances, so must the United States and its friends and allies rise to this new era of global competition.

China Politics & Diplomacy

Inflection Points

Sep 9, 2018

China, Trump and an ‘epochal shift’

By Frederick Kempe

Moral of the story: In an increasing number of places in the world, it isn’t that the US and its democratic allies are losing the battle for influence. They are too frequently no-shows.

China Politics & Diplomacy

Inflection Points

Sep 1, 2018

McCain’s ‘Causes greater than ourselves’

By Frederick Kempe

Most of all, Senator McCain understood that the cancer of US political polarization and self-centered myopia was as hazardous in a larger sense as brain cancer had been to him personally.

Politics & Diplomacy United States and Canada
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