Clifford D. May
Columns by Clifford D. May
Cold War II and Biden’s new ‘new world order’
These are confusing times, and President Biden is not helping to bring clarity. Last week, for example, he told the Business Roundtable that "there's going to be a new world order." What could he possibly have meant? Published March 29, 2022
The death of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction)
Central to America's Cold War strategy was the principle of MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction. Published March 22, 2022
Fall of the Golden Arches Theory: Enriching tyrants doesn’t prevent wars after all
McDonald's is closing its restaurants in Russia, which means no more Happy Meals in Gorky Park. But there's also a McNugget of geostrategic significance in this development. Published March 15, 2022
Putin’s troops ravage Ukraine while his envoy steers Team Biden’s talks with Iran
We all have our patterns of behavior. Published March 8, 2022
Russia, Ukraine and the West’s grand delusion of freedom
Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging a war of imperial conquest. That's despicable but, from a historical perspective, hardly novel. Published March 1, 2022
Putin’s winter war
In my column on Feb. 1, I offered a prediction that Russian President Vladimir Putin would "not start a war during the Olympics, which take place in the People's Republic of China. Published February 22, 2022
Coalition of the unwilling: Western elites prefer not to fight authoritarianism
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan addressed the British Parliament, expressing optimism about the "global campaign for democracy now gathering force." Published February 15, 2022
Amnesty International spreads the virus of antisemitism
Antisemitism is an easily transmissible virus. Mutations are not necessarily less lethal. Published February 8, 2022
If Putin wins, it’s not only Ukraine that loses
Unless your name is Vladimir Putin, you don't know whether Russian troops are going to invade Ukraine. Published February 1, 2022
To the fashionably woke, Uyghur lives don’t matter
Chamath Palihapitiya is a household name - at least in the kind of houses featured in the Wall Street Journal's weekly "Mansion" section. Published January 25, 2022
All the president’s enemies
As he begins his second year in office this week, President Biden looks toward the horizon and sees multiple challenges and threats. Published January 18, 2022
The U.N.’s final solution to the Israel question
Historians usually date the start of the Holocaust to June 1941 when German troops invaded the Soviet Union, identified Jewish civilians, lined them up and shot them by the thousands. Published January 11, 2022
U.S. adversaries are becoming South American conquistadores
In November 2013, then-Secretary of State John Kerry, addressing the Organization of American States, made news by announcing: "The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over." Published January 4, 2022
American Revolution was not about tyranny (or slavery)
Science is never settled. Among those who established that: Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Einstein. History is never settled either. No one has done more to establish that than Andrew Roberts, the great British historian. Published December 29, 2021
Biden’s weak defense of democracy
The Summit for Democracy upset China's totalitarian rulers. That's the most positive thing I can say about the two-day virtual conference convened by President Biden earlier this month. Published December 22, 2021
China, Russia and Iran: The empires strike back
Let's play Jeopardy! The answer: "All were great empires in the past, and all now have rulers determined to establish great empires in the future." And the question is: "What are China, Russia and Iran?" Published December 15, 2021
Beijing’s strategy for global dominance
The Cold War was a struggle for global supremacy between two superpowers. It ended thirty years ago this month when the Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin. Published November 30, 2021
Saule Omarova: Biden’s leftist banker
For decades, Joe Biden was known as a man of the center-left, a normal guy, a regular Joe. His views have changed. I'm going to venture a guess as to why. Published November 23, 2021
United Nations’ transnational bureaucrats now do Beijing’s bidding
For decades, the United Nations has wasted billions of dollars, achieved little, and tolerated misconduct - the Oil-for-Food scandal and sexual exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers are just two examples. Published November 16, 2021
Chill out about global warming
At the United Nations Climate Summit (aka COP26) in Glasgow last week, President Joe Biden declared that climate change is "the existential threat to human existence as we know it." Published November 9, 2021