Clifford D. May

Mohammad bin Salman intends to be a liberalizer, but not a democratizer

Mohammad bin Salman is a young man in a hurry. When I visited Saudi Arabia back in February he was only the deputy crown prince. Nevertheless, it was he — not 81-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and not the crown prince, 58-year-old Muhammad bin Nayef — who was the talk of the town.

November 28, 2017

Territories taken from the Islamic State must not be surrendered to Islamic Republic

Soon after taking office, President Trump ordered his national security advisers to provide "a complete strategic review of our policy toward the rogue regime in Iran." Last month, based on that review, he announced a new strategy "to confront the Iranian regime's hostile actions," including its development of missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, its support for terrorists, and its neo-imperialist aggressions. This month that strategy is facing its first serious test.

November 21, 2017

Communism has become problematically and distressingly nostalgic

My political orientation has evolved slowly over decades. With one exception: I became anti-Soviet and anti-Communist overnight. More quickly than that, actually.

November 14, 2017

Osama bin Laden diary shows terror leader’s thoughts

On May 2, 2011, a Navy SEAL team made a brief stop in Abbottabad, Pakistan where they terminated Osama bin Laden's life and then moved on to their second mission: collecting as much information as possible from within the al Qaeda leader's compound.

November 7, 2017

Israel given birth thanks to international efforts

In theory, who doesn't believe in self-determination, the idea, developed in the 19th century, that all nations have a right to sovereignty? By the early 20th century, President Woodrow Wilson was insisting that "National aspirations must be respected; people may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent." In theory, self-determination is today a fundamental principle of international law.

October 31, 2017

Kurdish independence may depend on Trump’s moves

In a just world, the Kurds would have a state of their own. Their culture is ancient. They speak a distinctive language. They have a homeland, Kurdistan, ruled for centuries by Arabs, Turks and Persians -- foreigners and oppressors all.

October 24, 2017

Iran nuclear deal can be amended by Trump

President Trump made a tough call last week. European diplomats and an "echo chamber" in the mainstream media were insisting he "recertify" the nuclear weapons deal his predecessor concluded with Iran's rulers in 2015.

October 17, 2017

Europeans have self-destructive view of world

Europeans seem to have an increasingly bizarre and perhaps self-destructive view of the world, and their place in it. Last week's most creative illustration: The Irish postal service issued a stamp to "commemorate" the 50th anniversary of the death of "Argentinian Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara."

October 10, 2017

Racial hate in American can be overcome with American values

More than 35 years ago, I went to Africa for the first time, the junior member of a group of American writers. We were visiting The Gambia and, at a stop in the interior, I purchased a small wooden statue at a roadside kiosk. One of the group asked how much I had paid. I told her and, a bit condescendingly, she suggested that next time I ask for her help because, in this part of the world, one bargains.

October 3, 2017

Latin American instability requires aggressive action

At the U.N. last week, President Trump had harsh words for the "socialist dictatorship" that has impoverished Venezuela. He railed against "Islamist extremism" and "radical Islamic terrorism," the former a supremacist ideology, the latter a weapon being used to mass-murder Muslims, Christians Yazidis, Jews and Hindus. He took note, too, of the threat posed by "international criminal networks" that "traffic drugs, weapons, people."

September 26, 2017

Iran situation required careful U.S. involvement

Eleven years ago, Henry Kissinger famously said that Iran's rulers must "decide whether they are representing a cause or a nation." If the latter, Iranian and American interests would be "compatible." As for the former: "If Tehran insists on combining the Persian imperial tradition with contemporary Islamic fervor, then a collision with America is unavoidable."

September 19, 2017

United Nations needs to be fixed

The United Nations was created in the wake of World War II by the major Allied nations that had prevailed -- at an enormous cost in blood and treasure -- over the Axis powers. Its founders proclaimed ambitious goals: to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war," "reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights" and "promote social progress." That the U.N. hasn't come close to succeeding should, by now, be obvious.

September 12, 2017

9/11 anniversary shows some things remain the same

The approach of an anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 always concentrates my mind. It was, astonishingly, 16 Septembers ago that a team of foreign terrorists hijacked three American passenger planes and used them as weapons of mass destruction.

September 5, 2017

In search of a grand U.S. strategy

Richard Nixon's rapprochement with China, the end of the Cold War, President Obama's outreach to "the Muslim world," the growth of the (largely American-funded) United Nations — weren't such developments supposed to lead to a safer world, one in which the "international community" would embrace "universal values" and pursue common interests — peace and security key among them?

August 30, 2017

Afghanistan and the war against the West

The conflict in Afghanistan is often referred to as "the longest war in American history." From that, you might infer that wars are normally brief. Not so.

August 29, 2017

Tribalism in U.S. politics replaces patriotism

Just after last week's terrorist attack in Barcelona, a pro-Islamic State website posted video from the scene along with a message in Arabic saying, "Terror is filling the hearts of the Crusader in the Land of Andalusia."

August 22, 2017

Anti-extremism requires coherent strategy

Richard Nixon's rapprochement with China, the end of the Cold War, President Obama's outreach to "the Muslim world," the growth of the (largely American-funded) United Nations -- weren't such developments supposed to lead to a safer world, one in which the "international community" would embrace "universal values" and pursue common interests -- peace and security key among them?

August 15, 2017

America cannot take in everyone

This is a peculiar moment in history, one in which we have come to expect the unexpected. Even so, I was surprised to see this: a reporter and a White House official debating poetry.

August 8, 2017

Hate speech from California imam draws little notice

Imagine if a priest, minister or rabbi were to call for Muslims to be annihilated. It would be a scandal and it would spark a nation-wide controversy over Islamophobia, hate speech and incitement to violence. So why is that not the case when an imam calls for the annihilation of Jews?

August 1, 2017

Al Jazeera should be ended

The Gulf Cooperation Council comprises six nations, all of them Arab, Muslim, ruled by royals, and fabulously wealthy thanks to vast reserves of petroleum. With so much in common, you might expect they'd be best friends forever. In recent weeks, however, the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has been the odd monarch out.

July 25, 2017