Author: james chamberlin

World Economic Forum in Davos TRANSCRIPT: Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada Rebukes U.S. Primacy at Davos Jan. 20, 2026 The Canadian leader warned that middle powers need to stand together or they’ll find themselves “on the menu.”

The following is from Wikipedia, which you can read there, but it seems so pertinent to the United States today that I am repeating some of it here. Civic virtue is a concept that refers to the set of habits, values, and attitudes that promote the general welfare and the effective functioning of a society.…

In an interview in Lawfare, AFSA president describes the trials of the Foreign Service. John Dinkelman: The foreign service is a canary in the coal mine for other ranking person systems in the U.S. government, namely the U.S. military. And as we see the erosion in the confidence that we have…

According to the New York Times, the Trump administration has ordered nearly thirty ambassadors to leave their posts. The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) reported that such a mass recall has never happened before in the modern Foreign Service. Politico also reported on the recalls. While it is normal for…

An article in Foreign Affairs by Alexander Stubb, the President of Finland, stresses the importance of a country’s values to its role in international affairs. He says: Foreign policy is often based on three pillars: values, interests, and power. These three elements are key when the balance and dynamics of world order…

Ian Bremmer’s email regarding Trump’s new National Security Strategy echoes David Brooks’ article about the need for morality in America’s national life. Ian Bremmer writes: What’s most striking to me about this document isn’t any specific policies, but what it reveals about values. Increasingly, the United States and Europe don’t share them. This reflects…

David Brooks wrote in the Atlantic: So how can neoconservative thinking help us today? The first big lesson of neoconservatism is that character is destiny. That lesson applies whether you’re talking about the character of a leader, an organization, or a nation. If you disregard truth—as many Republicans plainly do these…

In an article in The Atlantic, Amb. Bill Burnes decries the damage done to the Foreign Service and other government institutions by the Trump administration. This is not about reform. It is about retribution. It is about breaking people and breaking institutions by sowing fear and mistrust throughout our government.…

The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) has issued a report, “At the Breaking Point” documenting the destructive measures taken against the Foreign Service and Foreign Service officers. Here is the executive summary of the report.

The Financial Times reports: What is unfold­ing now in Wash­ing­ton is more than a cor­rect­ive; it is a purge. The Trump admin­is­tra­tion’s con­tempt for the for­eign ser­vice is mani­fest in its lack­a­dais­ical approach to appoint­ments: ten months after it took office, a swath of senior posts remain unfilled, includ­ing assist­ant…