Geopolitical Perspectives - WestExec Advisors

Dan Shapiro quoted in Vox article, “Mysterious Explosions Keep Happening in Iran. Israel Is Likely Behind It.”

"Such assessments are important, former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro told me. Israeli officials believe that if those advanced centrifuges were ever installed and operated at full capacity, it 'might allow Iran to break out not with just one bomb, but with an arsenal' of nuclear weapons, he said. Delaying that possibility, then, is certainly a clear and vital Israeli goal... "As Shapiro, the former American ambassador to Israel, explained it to me, the concept 'reflects the Israeli philosophical approach [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-08-01T08:55:54-04:00July 17, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Danny Russel quoted in the Wall Street Journal article, “Outrage Over China’s Treatment of Hong Kong Galvanizes the West”

"'Hong Kong for Westerners is not obscure and exotic like Xinjiang. It’s not an abstraction like the South China Sea,' said Daniel Russel, a former U.S. diplomat. 'It’s a very familiar place.' "He said the David and Goliath-like storyline of Hong Kong residents protesting publicly to defend democracy struck nerves everywhere..." Read the full article here: Full Article

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-07-21T20:44:32-04:00July 15, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Rachel Ellehuus testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy and the Environment

“The Importance of Transatlantic Cooperation During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Full Written Testimony July 14, 2020 Chairman Keating, Ranking Member Kinzinger, and distinguished members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. These are difficult times for our country, but I have no doubt that we are stronger when we work together as a nation and with our Allies and partners. Our European Allies and partners are vital to the United States' economic welfare and national security. [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-07-17T17:00:16-04:00July 14, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Danny Russel quoted in The New York Times article, “U.S. Says Most of China’s Claims in South China Sea Are Illegal”

"Daniel Russel, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific in the second Obama term, said that the Obama administration had accepted the tribunal’s 2016 ruling as 'final and binding,' and that Mr. Pompeo’s statement was more 'chest-pounding and angry invective about China' than a change in policy..." Read the full article here: Full Article

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-07-21T20:50:25-04:00July 13, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Colin Thomas-Jensen quoted in Bloomberg article, “Another Trump Foreign Policy Foray Goes Awry”

"Colin Thomas-Jensen, a senior adviser with WestExec Advisors and former Africa policy adviser to one-time U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, said the U.S. handling of the dispute had been 'clumsy' but added it was unfair to blame the Trump administration for how bogged down the issue has become. "'The crisis over the GERD has been building for nearly a decade, and yet there’s been negligible international effort to construct a mediation process with multilateral support from countries with [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-07-10T10:43:37-04:00July 10, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Danny Russel quoted in Bloomberg article, “U.S. Sanctions Top Chinese Officials Over Xinjiang Abuses”

"'We’re in uncharted territory right now,' said Daniel Russel, former assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, who’s now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. 'There’s never been an administration that thought the pursuit of top-level party officials would end well for either side...'" Read the full article here: Full Article

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-08-01T12:50:33-04:00July 9, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Danny Russel quoted in The New York Times article, “‘Strategic Empathy’: How Biden’s Informal Diplomacy Shaped Foreign Relations”

"Beginning in early 2011 and over the next 18 months, the two men convened at least eight times, in the United States and in China, according to former U.S. officials. They met formally, took walks, shot baskets at a rural Chinese school and spent more than 25 hours dining privately, joined only by interpreters. Mr. Biden made a quick 'personal connection' with the Chinese leader, even if he sometimes confounded his Mandarin interpreter by quoting hard-to-translate Irish verse, said Daniel Russel, [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-07-10T09:54:38-04:00July 5, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Danny Russel interviewed in Nikkei article, “U.S. Response on Hong Kong Was Too Little, Too Late: Ex-Official”

"'One ounce of prevention is worth one pound of cure.' That was the analogy former senior U.S. official Daniel Russel gave when talking to Nikkei about the American response to China's new national security law for Hong Kong... "He blamed the failure to nip China's move in the bud on the lack of a united international front stemming from the current White House's inclination to put America first. The lack of bite in the international response, and President Donald Trump's concerns [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-07-10T09:41:49-04:00July 3, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Ely Ratner writes with Richard Fontaine in The Washington Post: “The U.S.-China Confrontation Is Not Another Cold War. It’s Something New.”

"With U.S.-China relations in free fall, the Trump administration’s chief arms control negotiator recently proclaimed that 'we know how to win these races and we know how to spend the adversary into oblivion.' This obvious allusion to America’s triumph in the Cold War was only the latest sign that the decades-long rivalry with the Soviet Union has recaptured the attention of Washington’s foreign policy elite. "One prominent camp of experts and former dignitaries is arguing that a new Cold War with [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-07-10T09:21:41-04:00July 2, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Dennis Ross writes with David Makovsky in The Hill: “Israelis and Palestinians Must Realize That Each Needs to Give, Not Just Take”

"The White House reportedly held a key meeting this week to decide on how to deal with Israeli annexation of territories allotted to it in the Trump Peace Plan. "We have been critics of the plan, believing that by calling for the absorption of all 130 settlements — including the 78 outside the blocs — it makes separation of Israelis and Palestinians and a viable two state outcome nearly impossible. The Trump administration view is different, believing a Palestinian state neither [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-07-10T09:20:55-04:00July 1, 2020|Geopolitical Perspectives|