SETA DC

Before entering Trump’s personal orbit, John R. Bolton was most famous for his stint as United States Ambassador to the United Nations, where his views contra the multilateral institution, and promoting American unilateralism were espoused in full view of a global audience. Twelve years after his resignation from the position in 2006, he once again caught the eye of a Republican President eager to...

On July 24, Turkish President Erdoğan joined hundreds of fellow worshipers for the first Friday prayers in 86 years inside Hagia Sophia. Built in the 6th century as a Byzantine cathedral, the magnificent structure remained the largest church in the Eastern Roman Empire until the conquest of Istanbul in 1453. After serving as a mosque for centuries under the Ottomans, the Turkish government decided...

In 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, launching an economic blockade by land, air and sea. The self-proclaimed 'Anti-Terror Quartet' offered maximalist demands: thirteen 'conditions' recalling Austria-Hungary's 1914 ultimatum to Serbia. They may even have intended military action. Well into its second year, the standoff in the Gulf has no realistic e...

The trade battle between China and the U.S. didn’t start with Trump and won’t end with him, argue Bob Davis and Lingling Wei. The two countries have a long and fraught political and economic history which has become more contentious over the past three years―an escalation that has negatively impacted both countries' economies and the world at large―and holds the potential for even more uncertainty...

US-Turkey defense relationship has become more complicated in recent years and served as a source of tension at times. The two NATO allies have long-standing security ties and an overall robust defense partnership, as they make up some of the most capable forces within the alliance. In recent years, Turkey has ramped up its defense capabilities against regional threats and proceeded to acquire mis...

Four years after the July 15 failed coup attempt, Turkey finds itself at a significantly changed geopolitical environment. Since that fateful day, Turkish security and foreign policies have been transformed in unprecedented ways so as to render the country a major player in the region including in Syria, Iraq, Libya among others. As it adopted a new counterterrorism doctrine going after the PKK/YP...

Four years after the July 15 failed coup attempt, Turkey finds itself at a significantly changed geopolitical environment. Since that fateful day, Turkish security and foreign policies have been transformed in unprecedented ways so as to render the country a major player in the region including in Syria, Iraq, Libya among others. As it adopted a new counterterrorism doctrine going after the PKK/YP...

Turkey’s involvement in Libya over the past several months has been decisive in changing the balance of power on the ground. While a potential takeover of the Government of National Accord by Haftar’s forces happened toward the end of 2019, Turkish support to the UN-recognized government in Tripoli dramatically changed the course of the conflict. As a proxy struggle plays out between regional powe...

The world came to a screeching halt after George Floyd, a black man from Minneapolis, was murdered by a police officer. For 8 minutes and 46 seconds, Derek Chauvin put his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck, causing him to die by asphyxiation. This horrific incident caused unprecedented protests not only across the US but around the world on nearly every continent in support of George Floyd and cond...

Since the announcement of Trump peace plan in January as the “solution” to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the expectation for Israel to annex parts of the West Bank has become an increasing likelihood. The recently established unity government in Israel is preparing to present a plan to extend Israeli sovereignty to West Bank at the beginning of July. It remains unclear how far Isra...

The SETA Foundation at Washington, DC is pleased to host an expert panel discussion on the ongoing conflict in Libya with Muhittin Ataman, Director of Foreign Policy Program at the SETA Foundation and Silvia Colombo, Head of Italy's Foreign Policy Program at Istituto Affari Internazionali. The discussion is moderated by Kadir Ustun, Executive Director at the SETA Foundation at Washington DC.

As the United States moves ever closer to the November elections, the competition begins to heat up. For the Democrats, former Vice President Joe Biden is set to be the presumptive nominee to take on the Republican’s President Trump at the ballot box. As in 2016, the candidates are clearly differentiated from one another, not only in terms of policy, but also in form. President Trump is clearly co...

We live in a period of great uncertainty about the fate of America’s global leadership. Many believe that Donald Trump’s presidency marks the end of liberal international order-the very system of global institutions, rules, and values that shaped the American international system since the end of World War II. Trump’s repeated rejection of liberal order, criticisms of long-term allies of the US, a...

As the world has turned its focus to the global pandemic, the conflict between the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) and General Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) has continued unabated. Despite multiple calls for ceasefires, Haftar’s forces have continued to advance against Tripoli, bombing hospitals, shelling areas, killing civilians. Turkey’s support for the internationally re...

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted vulnerable populations around the world. With a fundamentally ill-equipped healthcare system, continuous bombing of hospitals and the use of humanitarian aid as a weapon of war by the Assad regime, the Syrian population is suffering greatly. While the health risks posed by the coronavirus pandemic remain real, the civil war dynamics a...

The coronavirus pandemic is likely to redefine the US-China relationship in the months and years ahead. President Trump as well as the Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden have both leveled heavy criticism against China, charging that the country exacerbated the problem by misleading the world about the origins and the nature of the threat. The US wariness over the increasing economic and mil...

From various military missions around the world to membership in multilateral organizations such as the NATO alliance, the US remains deeply involved in international security despite the Trump administration’s preference for bilateral relationships. Questions and the debate over America’s role in international security have become even more relevant in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The globa...

The US leadership, or lack thereof, on a host of global issues has been debated for some time now. The global financial crisis of 2008, international sanctions, Arab Spring, climate change, China’s increasing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific among other issues all have raised questions about various aspects of US leadership. Whether and to what extent the US should lead has become a recurring the...

Coronavirus has disrupted the world in immeasurable ways, slowing global trade to a trickle, causing mass capital flight from emerging markets, and cratering the price of oil. As nations start to recover from this calamity, new questions emerge about the U.S.’s relations with the states in the Middle East. For instance, will the economic impact of the pandemic lead to a more urgent push to withdra...

As the world struggles to manage the coronavirus pandemic, debates about US leadership and the global order have come to the fore. The rapid spread of the virus has placed an unprecedented pressure on healthcare systems around the world, exposing the shortcomings of the national and global public health policies. The pandemic not only magnified the shortcomings of the American healthcare system bu...

The Trump administration’s recently proposed Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, dubbed “the Deal of the Century,” offers a plan to resolve the decades-old conflict all the while declaring Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel. Although it calls for an eventual Palestinian state, the Palestinian leadership expectedly rejected the plan. This peace plan has sparked controversy from global leaders...

Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite IRGC Quds military force and one of the most powerful figures in the Islamic Republic, was killed last Friday in an airstrike in Baghdad conducted by the U.S. While many argue that the tensions will rise and lead to war, the Trump administration has said that the operation was to prevent imminent threat posed to U.S. citizens in the region. The U.S. pullo...

Early in December of 2019, Turkey signed a series of agreements with the Government of National Accord in Libya regarding maritime delimitations in the Mediterranean, mutual security assistance, and military relations. The agreement generated much discussion in the international media as it would have implications for Turkey’s exclusive economic zones. The U.S. Congress recently passed legislation...