Category Archives: News

President Joe Biden is a foreign policy disappointment. He entered the White House with more foreign affairs experience than almost any of his predecessors—23 years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during which time he met 150 heads of government.

 The world had hoped—no, expected—that the new president would inject an ordered wisdom into America’s conduct of world affairs after the chaos of the Trump years. Instead, it has been presented with an increasingly disjointed and incoherent foreign policy which has fallen dangerously short of expectations.

 The latest example is the visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi. The Speaker of the House of Representatives – who is second in line to the presidency– said her trip was meant to show strength of purpose. Instead it has exposed a confused, disjointed and divided policy towards the crucial issue of Taiwan which has repercussions on a wide range of world issues.

 It was obvious that the visit would infuriate Beijing. And it did. They have responded with a series of dangerous military exercises in the Taiwan Straits, ballistic missile firings, cyber attacks, Chinese fighter jet sorties into Taiwanese airspace and a ban on Taiwanese food imports. There is a fear that the Chinese reaction may drag on in the form of a de facto blockade of the island which Beijing claims as China’s 23^rd province.

Russia and Ukraine are locked in a battle for control of the strategic city of Kherson. It could be a turning point in the Ukraine War.

Kherson sits on the west bank of the Dnieper (also spelled Dnipro) River, 60 miles from the Black Sea. Russian forces have been in control of the city since 2 March, but now the troops are trapped by a Ukrainian counter offensive.

Using American High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), the Ukrainians have destroyed virtually all the bridges connecting the roughly 1,000 Russian troops in the city to their main force on the eastern bank of the river. The city is now surrounded on three sides and the troops retreat route is blocked by quarter mile wide river on their fourth. They have been told by Ukrainian generals to either surrender, leave or be annihilated.

Meanwhile, there are reports of Moscow rushing forces across the Crimean bridge linking Russia and the occupied Crimean Peninsula and increased road and rail traffic from Crimea to the eastern bank of the Dnieper. Forces are also being transported to Ukraine from as far away as Vladivostok on the Pacific coast.  Putin is clearly preparing for a major battle.

This is unsurprising. Kherson is important to both sides politically and strategically. For a start it sits near the mouth of the Dnieper River with both a sea and river port and a major shipbuilding industry. The Dnieper is the fourth longest river in Europe and flows through Russia, Belarus and Ukraine before emptying into the Black Sea near Kherson. The river is dotted with hydroelectricity plants and ship canals that enable major cargo vessels to travel 1,200 miles upriver to Kyiv and beyond. It is a vital part of the region’s history, culture and economy.