"...[B]ut in the long run Trump's biggest mistake has been his clueless approach to Asia. Europe is important, but its current problems are mostly internal and the United States cannot do much to address them. The Middle East is a mess, of course, but the United States does not need to fix it, does not know how to fix it, and shouldn't waste time, money, or soldiers' lives trying to fix it. Trump may find himself dragged back into the Middle East cauldron — especially if he tries to get tough with Iran — but his missteps there have done little damage so far (fingers crossed)."

"Indeed, Kushner’s role in the White House actually reveals a deeper problem: Trump doesn't actually care if his policies work or not. He doesn't care if health care is ever fixed, if the climate warms up and millions of people die, if coal miners or autoworkers get new and better jobs, if the Islamic State is ever defeated, or if U.S. infrastructure is rebuilt. All he cares about is whether he can convince people that he's responsible for anything good that happens and persuade them that adverse developments are someone else's fault. It has been apparent from day one that Trump cares first and foremost about himself, his family, and his fortune. Full stop. Doing the people's business — that is, actually governing — is hard work, and it really cuts into the time you can spend on the golf course."

"Let's not mince words. What Friedman is really proposing is a foreign invasion of Syria. Isn't such an action more likely to deepen the Hobbesian state of anarchy that already exists there, with the intervening force arrayed on one side? Putting an effective lid on the sectarian conflict in Syria would require a massive military occupation involving several hundred thousand troops (at least), and even that might not be enough. We've seen this movie several times in recent years, and the results have been uniformly disappointing."

"What began in 2001 as a focused effort to topple the Taliban and rout al Qaeda has become an endless, costly, and unrealistic effort with no clearly discernible endpoint and little hope of success. It has become our forgotten war, and the chief aim of those in charge of the operation seems to be keeping it off the front pages and out of the public eye."

"Like the president he now serves, Anton doesn't understand how the global trading order actually works. Trade agreements are long and complicated today because they are no longer primarily concerned with reducing tariffs (which are already quite low). Instead, contemporary trade agreements are mostly about harmonizing labor, regulatory, environmental, and copyright standards across many different societies, precisely for the purpose of creating fairer competition between states. Agreements of this kind are very much in America's interest, because otherwise U.S. workers would have to compete with foreign industries where labor and environmental standards are much lower than they are in the United States."

Audio recording of a February 27, 2017 MEI Book Talk with Dr. Christopher Phillips, Senior Lecturer in the International Relations of the Middle East at Queen Mary, University of London and an Associate Fellow at the Chatham House Middle East and North Africa programme on his latest book The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East.

"But to believe that ragtag radicals like al Qaeda or the Islamic State constitute a threat on a par with Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, or some of the serious opponents the United States has faced in the past is silly. Frankly, it makes me question the guts, steadiness, and judgment of some of our present leaders, if they are so easily spooked by such weak adversaries. Let's hope these fraidy-cats never have to deal with a truly formidable foe."

What these modern-day Jacobins don’t realize, alas, is that destroying institutions is easier than building them. If their assault on our core political traditions and institutions is successful, the United States will at best end up weaker and poorer. At worst, it will cease to be a meaningful democracy. The fact that the generally conservative Economist Intelligence Unit recently downgraded America — that’s right, the "Land of the Free" — from a "full" to a "flawed" democracy tells you just how serious this problem is. Based on the early evidence, Trump and Bannon want to accelerate that trend.

"Government bureaucrats have been held in low regard for a long time, which makes them an easy target. But you also can't do anything in public policy without their assistance, and my guess is that Americans will be mighty unhappy when budget cuts, firings, resignations, and the like reduce government performance even more. Get ready for a steady drip, drip, drip of leaks and stories emanating from dedicated civil servants who are committed to advancing the public interest and aren't going to like being treated with contempt and disdain by a bunch of hedge fund managers, wealthy Wall Streeters, or empty suits like Energy Secretary Rick Perry, all led by President Pinocchio."