author - oman observer

Last week I argued that the blows Israel inflicted on Iran and its most important proxy, Hezbollah, would have vast consequences for the military balance in the region. It has only taken a few days...

I don’t know why people say that president-elect Donald Trump is going to face difficult challenges in foreign policy. All he needs to do is get Vladimir Putin to compromise on Russia’s western...

There are many reasons I was deeply disappointed that The Washington Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, chose to kill his newspaper’s editorial endorsing Kamala Harris for president, but none more than the...

Let’s review the latest headlines: The US is sending an advanced antimissile system to Israel, along with troops to operate it. Iran’s foreign minister says there will be “no red lines”...

So what am I thinking about on this anniversary of the Hamas-Hezbollah-Iran-Israel war? Something my strategy teacher, Prof John Arquilla of the US Naval Postgraduate School, taught me: All wars come...

To understand why and how Israel’s devastating blow to Hezbollah is such a world-shaking threat to Iran, Russia, North Korea and even China, you have to put it in the context of the wider struggle...

Immediately after Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, I urged Israel to think about how to respond by asking itself one question: What does your worst enemy want you to do? Then do the opposite. Iran...

I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon, Portugal, hotel room, and it made me weep. I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime,...

It is time for the Biden administration to give Israel more than just gentle nudges about how it would be kind of, sort of nice if Israel could fight this war in the Gaza Strip without killing...

While visiting Kyiv this month, my first trip to Ukraine since Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February 2022, I tried to get my exercise every morning by walking the grounds of St Michael’s Golden...

While visiting Kyiv this month, my first trip to Ukraine since Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February 2022, I tried to get my exercise every morning by walking the grounds of St Michael’s Golden...

For the hundreds of thousands of Israeli democracy defenders who tried to block Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial coup on Monday, the stripping of the Israeli Supreme Court’s key powers...

What if Mitch McConnell, at the close of his scalding speech on the Senate floor blaming Donald Trump for the riot that occurred at the Capitol on January 6, had promised to use his every last breath...

Thank goodness that Israel’s civil society has forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pause, for now, his attempt to impose his control over Israel’s independent judiciary and gain a free...

I had a most remarkable but unsettling experience last week. Craig Mundie, the former chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft, was giving me a demonstration of GPT-4, the most advanced...

Israel today is a boiler with way, way too much steam building up inside, and the bolts are about to fly off in all directions.Lethal attacks by Palestinian youths against Israelis are coinciding with...

As we approach the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — and the ferocious Ukrainian response backed by a US-led Western coalition — the following question urgently needs...

You can hold off moving to Canada. You can forgo the call to the New Zealand Embassy on how to become a citizen there. Tuesday’s election really was the most important test since the Civil War of...

Imagine you woke up after the 2024 US presidential election and found that Donald Trump had been reelected and chose Rudy Giuliani for attorney general, Michael Flynn for defence secretary, Steve...

As the Russian army continues to falter in Ukraine, the world is worrying that Vladimir Putin could use a tactical nuclear weapon. Maybe — but for now, I think Putin is assembling a different...