foreignpolicy--2020-11-17--Trump Plans Executive Order on Afghan Troop Withdrawal

Here is today ’ s Foreign Policy brief : U.S. planning large troop withdrawal from Afghanistan , Iraq , and Somalia , Yemen ’ s Houthis to be labeled terrorists by the United States , and Armenia ’ s foreign minister resigns .
We welcome your feedback at morningbrief @ foreignpolicy.com .
U.S. President Donald Trump is set to order a dramatic and rapid cut in the number of U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan , Iraq , and Somalia as he seeks action from loyalists newly installed at the U.S. Department of Defense .
A perception that Mark Esper , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would not agree to further troop reductions on so quick a schedule , was seen as one of the reasons for his removal from the post shortly after the U.S. presidential election .
Although the numbers are not yet public , several media reports signal a halving of current troop levels in Afghanistan from the 4,500 troops currently stationed there .
A reduction in Iraq would be less severe , but almost all of the 700 U.S. troops stationed in Somalia are expected to return to the United States .
The move is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diverges from Republican Party orthodoxy : In his 2016 campaign , he shocked fellow Republican candidates on the debate stage by calling the Iraq war “ a big fat mistake.
” In office , he has criticized Pentagon leaders for wanting to “ do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.
” So it ’ s not yet clear whether this is Trump merely reverting to type , or notching a quick win to burnish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ run .
A popular move ?
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned against a hasty “ humiliating ” withdrawal of troops , while Rep. Mark McCaul has said a “ residual force ” is necessary in Afghanistan to help secure peace .
Although Republican leaders are wary , a troop withdrawal appears to be popular among the American public .
According to a YouGov poll commissioned by the libertarian Charles Koch Institute in August , 76 percent Americans supported withdrawing troops from Afghanistan , with almost half of respondents strongly supporting withdrawal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Iraq was 74 percent .
The desire to end America ’ s wars in the Middle East and South Asia is felt similarly among U.S. military veterans .
An April poll by another Koch-backed group found 73 percent of veterans surveyed supported a full withdrawal from Afghanistan , an almost 13 percent increase from the previous year .
An NBC News 2020 election exit poll showed a 9 percent slide in the proportion of veterans supporting Trump : 51 percent versus 60 percent in 2016 .
On the ground .
Writing in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Afghanistan on the Khost Protection Force—a group established and trained by the CIA—that residents have learned to fear as they have been repeatedly implicated in atrocities in the region .
As the United States prepares to remove its own troops , Feroz writes , “ the KPF and other CIA-backed paramilitary groups are stepping up their attacks to assert themselves across the country.
” U.S. to designate Houthis as terrorists .
The Trump administration is set to designate Yemen ’ s Iran-backed Houthi insurgents as a terrorist organization , complicating United Nations-brokered peace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Biden administration , according to a Foreign Policy exclusive report .
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy , an outspoken critic of the Saudi-led war in Yemen , has decried the move .
“ There is no doubt that the Houthis have led a brutal military campaign that has starved , imprisoned and killed many civilians , ” Murphy said .
“ But if the U.S. government is going to designate international actors for intentionally harming civilians in Yemen , the Saudi-led coalition should also be at the top of that list.
” Ethiopia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ air force began bombing the Tigray region ’ s capital , Mekelle , on Monday in another escalation of the country ’ s civil war , now entering its third week .
In a tweet he later deleted , Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni called for the two sides to negotiate and halt the conflict “ lest it leads to unnecessary loss of lives and cripples the economy.
” Redwan Hussein , a government spokesman , said the war would be a “ short-lived operation , ” and that mediation offers from Uganda or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Third time lucky ?
Francisco Sagasti has become Peru ’ s third president in the space of a week , after he was chosen by the country ’ s Congress to act as interim leader until elections in April .
Sagasti ’ s party was one of the few that opposed the impeachment of former President Martín Vizcarra .
Sagasti takes over at a time when Peru ’ s economy is projected to contract this year by a higher percentage than any country in Latin America .
Armenia seethes over peace deal .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ after signing a cease-fire agreement with Azerbaijan in a Russian-backed deal a week ago .
On Monday , Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan resigned after a public disagreement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over the direction of peace talks .
Pressure on Pashinyan has shown no sign of easing in recent days : 17 opposition parties have called for his resignation as street protests against his leadership continue .
Brazil ’ s electoral swings .
Candidates backed by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro were widely rejected in the country ’ s municipal elections on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hailed the country ’ s left as “ rejuvenated.
” While Bolsonaro ’ s cousin Marcos and ex-wife Rogéria failed in their election bids , his son Carlos was reelected as a councilor in Rio de Janeiro .
Despite the election results and a raging coronavirus epidemic , Bolsonaro himself is riding high in opinion polls , recently recording his highest approval rating since taking office .
Russia beefs up in Africa .
Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a proposal to set up a naval base in Sudan , Russia ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has ordered his defense ministry to finalize a deal .
The base , planned as logistical support for the Russian navy , can host four warships at any one time and accommodate up to 300 personnel .
The Russian TASS news agency forecast that the base could eventually house Russian air defense systems , allowing it to create a far-reaching no-fly zone if necessary .
Gulf tensions .
Qatar ’ s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani has criticized recent moves by the United Arab Emirates , Bahrain , and Sudan to normalize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of ties makes the possibility of Palestinian statehood more distant .
Speaking at a security conference , al-Thani called for a united Arab front as the best way to support Palestinian interests .
Qatar is still something of a pariah among Arab states as it remains under a blockade imposed by other Gulf leaders in 2017 .
Queen Elizabeth II was erroneously pronounced dead yesterday when her obituary was published prematurely on the website of Radio France Internationale ( RFI ) .
The Queen was one of a slew of notable living figures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soccer player Pelé , actors Brigitte Bardot and Clint Eastwood , Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei , and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter were all featured after a “ technical problem ” led to their early publication .
RFI said about 100 pre-written obituaries were published in all due to an error while migrating its website to a new service ; it is conducting an internal investigation .
For more from FP , visit foreignpolicy.com , subscribe here , or sign up for our other newsletters .
Send your tips , comments , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ foreignpolicy.com .

Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: U.S. planning large troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia , Yemen’s Houthis to be labeled terrorists by the United States, and Armenia’s foreign minister resigns.
Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: U.S. planning large troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia, Yemen’s Houthis to be labeled terrorists by the United States, and Armenia’s foreign minister resigns.
If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday, please sign up here.
Trump Expected to Order Troop Withdrawal In Lame Duck Rush
U.S. President Donald Trump is set to order a dramatic and rapid cut in the number of U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia as he seeks action from loyalists newly installed at the U.S. Department of Defense.
A perception that Mark Esper, the previous U.S. Secretary of Defense, would not agree to further troop reductions on so quick a schedule, was seen as one of the reasons for his removal from the post shortly after the U.S. presidential election.
Although the numbers are not yet public, several media reports signal a halving of current troop levels in Afghanistan from the 4,500 troops currently stationed there. A reduction in Iraq would be less severe, but almost all of the 700 U.S. troops stationed in Somalia are expected to return to the United States.
The move is one of the rare instances where Trump diverges from Republican Party orthodoxy: In his 2016 campaign, he shocked fellow Republican candidates on the debate stage by calling the Iraq war “a big fat mistake.” In office, he has criticized Pentagon leaders for wanting to “do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.” So it’s not yet clear whether this is Trump merely reverting to type, or notching a quick win to burnish his credentials ahead of a possible 2024 run.
A popular move? Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned against a hasty “humiliating” withdrawal of troops, while Rep. Mark McCaul has said a “residual force” is necessary in Afghanistan to help secure peace.
Although Republican leaders are wary, a troop withdrawal appears to be popular among the American public. According to a YouGov poll commissioned by the libertarian Charles Koch Institute in August, 76 percent Americans supported withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, with almost half of respondents strongly supporting withdrawal. The number supporting U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq was 74 percent.
The desire to end America’s wars in the Middle East and South Asia is felt similarly among U.S. military veterans. An April poll by another Koch-backed group found 73 percent of veterans surveyed supported a full withdrawal from Afghanistan, an almost 13 percent increase from the previous year. An NBC News 2020 election exit poll showed a 9 percent slide in the proportion of veterans supporting Trump: 51 percent versus 60 percent in 2016.
On the ground. Writing in Foreign Policy, Emran Feroz reports from Afghanistan on the Khost Protection Force—a group established and trained by the CIA—that residents have learned to fear as they have been repeatedly implicated in atrocities in the region. As the United States prepares to remove its own troops, Feroz writes, “the KPF and other CIA-backed paramilitary groups are stepping up their attacks to assert themselves across the country.”
What We’re Following Today
U.S. to designate Houthis as terrorists. The Trump administration is set to designate Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi insurgents as a terrorist organization, complicating United Nations-brokered peace efforts and leaving a potential landmine for the Biden administration, according to a Foreign Policy exclusive report. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, an outspoken critic of the Saudi-led war in Yemen, has decried the move. “There is no doubt that the Houthis have led a brutal military campaign that has starved, imprisoned and killed many civilians,” Murphy said. “But if the U.S. government is going to designate international actors for intentionally harming civilians in Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition should also be at the top of that list.”
Ethiopia bombs Tigray capital. Ethiopia’s air force began bombing the Tigray region’s capital, Mekelle, on Monday in another escalation of the country’s civil war, now entering its third week. In a tweet he later deleted, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni called for the two sides to negotiate and halt the conflict “lest it leads to unnecessary loss of lives and cripples the economy.” Redwan Hussein, a government spokesman, said the war would be a “short-lived operation,” and that mediation offers from Uganda or another country were not being considered.
Third time lucky? Francisco Sagasti has become Peru’s third president in the space of a week, after he was chosen by the country’s Congress to act as interim leader until elections in April. Sagasti’s party was one of the few that opposed the impeachment of former President Martín Vizcarra. Sagasti takes over at a time when Peru’s economy is projected to contract this year by a higher percentage than any country in Latin America.
Armenia seethes over peace deal. Armenia’s government is under strain after signing a cease-fire agreement with Azerbaijan in a Russian-backed deal a week ago. On Monday, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan resigned after a public disagreement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over the direction of peace talks. Pressure on Pashinyan has shown no sign of easing in recent days: 17 opposition parties have called for his resignation as street protests against his leadership continue.
Keep an Eye On
Brazil’s electoral swings. Candidates backed by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro were widely rejected in the country’s municipal elections on Sunday as Brazil’s Globo newspaper hailed the country’s left as “rejuvenated.” While Bolsonaro’s cousin Marcos and ex-wife Rogéria failed in their election bids, his son Carlos was reelected as a councilor in Rio de Janeiro. Despite the election results and a raging coronavirus epidemic, Bolsonaro himself is riding high in opinion polls, recently recording his highest approval rating since taking office.
Russia beefs up in Africa. Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a proposal to set up a naval base in Sudan, Russia’s first on the African continent, and has ordered his defense ministry to finalize a deal. The base, planned as logistical support for the Russian navy, can host four warships at any one time and accommodate up to 300 personnel. The Russian TASS news agency forecast that the base could eventually house Russian air defense systems, allowing it to create a far-reaching no-fly zone if necessary.
Gulf tensions. Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani has criticized recent moves by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan to normalize relations with Israel, saying the warming of ties makes the possibility of Palestinian statehood more distant. Speaking at a security conference, al-Thani called for a united Arab front as the best way to support Palestinian interests. Qatar is still something of a pariah among Arab states as it remains under a blockade imposed by other Gulf leaders in 2017.
Odds and Ends
Queen Elizabeth II was erroneously pronounced dead yesterday when her obituary was published prematurely on the website of Radio France Internationale (RFI). The Queen was one of a slew of notable living figures that RFI ran obituaries on: Brazilian soccer player Pelé, actors Brigitte Bardot and Clint Eastwood, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter were all featured after a “technical problem” led to their early publication. RFI said about 100 pre-written obituaries were published in all due to an error while migrating its website to a new service; it is conducting an internal investigation.
That’s it for today.
For more from FP, visit foreignpolicy.com, subscribe here, or sign up for our other newsletters. Send your tips, comments, questions, or corrections to morningbrief@foreignpolicy.com.


foreignpolicy--2020-11-17--The Coronavirus Is Killing Westerners. Immigrants Are Saving Them.

The Coronavirus Is Killing Westerners .
Immigrants Are Saving Them .
Early results suggest that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer is more than 90 percent effective .
If it also proves safe and regulators approve it soon , it could save many lives , allow people to resume a normal life , and give struggling economies a shot in the arm .
It is hard to think of any other invention that could provide such a huge immediate boost—and the world has Turkish immigrants to Germany to thank for it .
Ugur Sahin , the co-founder and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ biotech start-up , arrived in Germany as a child .
He is the son of an auto worker who came to Germany as part of its postwar guest worker program .
BioNTech ’ s chief medical officer , Ozlem Tureci , who is Sahin ’ s wife , is the daughter of a Turkish doctor who also moved to Germany .
Both went on to become scientists .
Their start-up , which had previously focused on developing innovative cancer treatments , is now set to be the first to use the novel messenger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Moreover , Moderna , the U.S. biotech company whose vaccine also looks promising , was co-founded by a group that includes two immigrants—Canadian biologist Derrick Rossi and Lebanese-born scientist and investor Noubar Afeyan—and its CEO is French .
The achievements of Sahin and Tureci—which were celebrated even by outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump , who rarely has anything good to say about immigrants , let alone Muslim ones—have exposed the fallacy of anti-immigrant discourse in Europe and North America .
While many anti-immigration figures do look more favorably on highly skilled migrants than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been selected by the skills-based immigration policies that many governments in rich countries increasingly favor .
Indeed , if he hadn ’ t moved to Germany as a child , the world might never have realized what it had missed out on .
For all Sahin ’ s individual brilliance , he is unlikely to have achieved as much had he not moved to Germany , benefited from an excellent scientific education , and seized the greater research and business opportunities available there .
In the midst of a coronavirus pandemic in which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health reasons and many locals are unable to work , there is a growing chorus of those who argue that immigration is no longer needed .
Trump , in particular , has slashed the number of work visas that the United States offers , ostensibly on economic grounds .
But the huge contribution of Sahin and Tureci is just one powerful example of why such policies are misconceived and harmful , as I explain in my new book , Them and Us .
What might the people being denied entry now go on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The businesses started by immigrant entrepreneurs have played a key role in sustaining economies and societies this year , at a time when many people are working from home and many more are often confined to it .
Zoom , the videoconferencing platform that has taken the world by storm , was founded by Eric Yuan , a Chinese immigrant to the United States .
DoorDash , America ’ s most popular meal delivery app , was also started by a Chinese American immigrant , Tony Xu .
A British equivalent , Deliveroo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Taiwanese American entrepreneur .
Babylon Health , a British start-up that enables doctors to provide patients with online consultations , was started by Ali Parsa , who was born in Iran .
More broadly , the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by both businesses and households .
Often the companies that supply those technological solutions have foreign-born founders .
Nearly half of the tech start-ups in Silicon Valley—including Google and Tesla—were co-founded by immigrants .
So , too , were nine of Britain ’ s 14 unicorns—as start-ups valued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ known—including Babylon Health .
And across the tech sector , foreign workers also make a huge contribution .
Remarkably , 58 percent of U.S. residents with a doctoral degree in computer science were born abroad , and 6 in 10 highly skilled technology workers in Silicon Valley are immigrants .
Toronto ’ s tech hub and London ’ s financial technology cluster are likewise fueled by foreign talent .
Immigrants also disproportionately provide medical care .
More than half of Australia ’ s doctors are foreign-born , as are 38 percent of doctors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of physicians in the United States .
Many nurses are immigrants , too .
Those foreign-born nurses include “ Jenny from New Zealand ” and “ Luis from Portugal , ” whom British Prime Minister Boris Johnson thanked for helping to save his life when he was hospitalized with the coronavirus in April .
And senior citizens in care homes are increasingly looked after by foreign care workers .
In Italy , immigrants account for more than half of the social care workforce .
It ’ s not just immigrant entrepreneurs and skilled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the coronavirus crisis .
So , too , are the often low-paid immigrant workers who perform essential physical tasks that many previously dismissed as “ unskilled ” —the so-called key workers who pick and pack food , stack supermarket shelves , provide home deliveries , and toil long hours in Amazon warehouses .
They are the people who clean hospitals and public transport systems .
After decades in which ever more people have been on the move around the world , this year immigration has ground to a halt , while many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the help of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and others , economies are likely to bounce back in 2021 and with them the demand for migration .
The big question is whether and when governments will allow people to move—and , if so , whom .
Curbs are often easier to impose than to lift .
Many governments may drag their feet in scrapping restrictions imposed on public health grounds even after the pandemic has passed .
But within the European Union , where people can circulate freely across all 27 member states , migration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ once local lockdowns are lifted .
Having left the EU in January , the United Kingdom is ending the free movement rights of EU citizens at the end of this year and thereby also denying British citizens the much greater freedom to move to anywhere in the EU .
Shamefully and ironically , Britain ’ s new skills-biased immigration policy will deny entry to many foreign nurses , care workers , and other low-paid key workers for whom U.K. government ministers took to the streets to clap their appreciation each week during the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shortage of medical staff and care workers , harming Britons ’ health and well-being .
In recent years , Trump has set a terrible example for the entire world with his anti-immigrant vitriol—such as slandering Mexicans as “ murderers ” and “ rapists ” —and cruel policies , including banning travel from several mostly Muslim countries , slashing refugee numbers , and separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexican border and holding them like animals in cages .
But beyond the moral outrages of these policies , his curbs on temporary work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when the U.S. tech sector is desperately short of talent , are doing immediate economic harm .
Canada is already capitalizing by laying out the red carpet for foreign tech workers .
Fortunately , U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is promising to repair the damage .
While comprehensive immigration reform is unlikely to be possible if Republicans retain control of the Senate , Biden has pledged to rescind Trump ’ s many executive orders on immigration , thereby ending child detention , lifting the Muslim ban , restoring the refugee quota , and allowing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the first time in four years , the U.S. government will soon be setting a positive example on immigration—and reaping the economic benefits .
In contrast , if countries such as the U.K. keep foreigners out , they will stunt their post-coronavirus recovery .

Early results suggest that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer is more than 90 percent effective. If it also proves safe and regulators approve it soon, it could save many lives, allow people to resume a normal life, and give struggling economies a shot in the arm. It is hard to think of any other invention that could provide such a huge immediate boost—and the world has Turkish immigrants to Germany to thank for it.
Early results suggest that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer is more than 90 percent effective. If it also proves safe and regulators approve it soon, it could save many lives, allow people to resume a normal life, and give struggling economies a shot in the arm. It is hard to think of any other invention that could provide such a huge immediate boost—and the world has Turkish immigrants to Germany to thank for it.
Ugur Sahin, the co-founder and chief executive of BioNTech, a German biotech start-up, arrived in Germany as a child. He is the son of an auto worker who came to Germany as part of its postwar guest worker program. BioNTech’s chief medical officer, Ozlem Tureci, who is Sahin’s wife, is the daughter of a Turkish doctor who also moved to Germany. Both went on to become scientists. Their start-up, which had previously focused on developing innovative cancer treatments, is now set to be the first to use the novel messenger RNA technology to develop a vaccine. Moreover, Moderna, the U.S. biotech company whose vaccine also looks promising, was co-founded by a group that includes two immigrants—Canadian biologist Derrick Rossi and Lebanese-born scientist and investor Noubar Afeyan—and its CEO is French.
The achievements of Sahin and Tureci—which were celebrated even by outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump, who rarely has anything good to say about immigrants, let alone Muslim ones—have exposed the fallacy of anti-immigrant discourse in Europe and North America. While many anti-immigration figures do look more favorably on highly skilled migrants than other foreigners, Sahin could hardly have been selected by the skills-based immigration policies that many governments in rich countries increasingly favor. Indeed, if he hadn’t moved to Germany as a child, the world might never have realized what it had missed out on.
For all Sahin’s individual brilliance, he is unlikely to have achieved as much had he not moved to Germany, benefited from an excellent scientific education, and seized the greater research and business opportunities available there.
In the midst of a coronavirus pandemic in which international mobility has been restricted for public health reasons and many locals are unable to work, there is a growing chorus of those who argue that immigration is no longer needed. Trump, in particular, has slashed the number of work visas that the United States offers, ostensibly on economic grounds. But the huge contribution of Sahin and Tureci is just one powerful example of why such policies are misconceived and harmful, as I explain in my new book, Them and Us. What might the people being denied entry now go on to achieve if they were admitted?
The businesses started by immigrant entrepreneurs have played a key role in sustaining economies and societies this year, at a time when many people are working from home and many more are often confined to it. Zoom, the videoconferencing platform that has taken the world by storm, was founded by Eric Yuan, a Chinese immigrant to the United States. DoorDash, America’s most popular meal delivery app, was also started by a Chinese American immigrant, Tony Xu. A British equivalent, Deliveroo, was co-founded by William Shu, a Taiwanese American entrepreneur. Babylon Health, a British start-up that enables doctors to provide patients with online consultations, was started by Ali Parsa, who was born in Iran.
More broadly, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by both businesses and households. Often the companies that supply those technological solutions have foreign-born founders. Nearly half of the tech start-ups in Silicon Valley—including Google and Tesla—were co-founded by immigrants. So, too, were nine of Britain’s 14 unicorns—as start-ups valued at $1 billion or more are known—including Babylon Health. And across the tech sector, foreign workers also make a huge contribution. Remarkably, 58 percent of U.S. residents with a doctoral degree in computer science were born abroad, and 6 in 10 highly skilled technology workers in Silicon Valley are immigrants. Toronto’s tech hub and London’s financial technology cluster are likewise fueled by foreign talent.
Immigrants also disproportionately provide medical care. More than half of Australia’s doctors are foreign-born, as are 38 percent of doctors in U.K. hospitals and nearly 30 percent of physicians in the United States. Many nurses are immigrants, too. Those foreign-born nurses include “Jenny from New Zealand” and “Luis from Portugal,” whom British Prime Minister Boris Johnson thanked for helping to save his life when he was hospitalized with the coronavirus in April. And senior citizens in care homes are increasingly looked after by foreign care workers. In Italy, immigrants account for more than half of the social care workforce.
It’s not just immigrant entrepreneurs and skilled migrants who are helping societies to cope with the coronavirus crisis. So, too, are the often low-paid immigrant workers who perform essential physical tasks that many previously dismissed as “unskilled”—the so-called key workers who pick and pack food, stack supermarket shelves, provide home deliveries, and toil long hours in Amazon warehouses. They are the people who clean hospitals and public transport systems.
After decades in which ever more people have been on the move around the world, this year immigration has ground to a halt, while many migrants have gone home. But with the help of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and others, economies are likely to bounce back in 2021 and with them the demand for migration. The big question is whether and when governments will allow people to move—and, if so, whom.
Curbs are often easier to impose than to lift. Many governments may drag their feet in scrapping restrictions imposed on public health grounds even after the pandemic has passed. But within the European Union, where people can circulate freely across all 27 member states, migration flows are likely to bounce back quickly once local lockdowns are lifted.
Having left the EU in January, the United Kingdom is ending the free movement rights of EU citizens at the end of this year and thereby also denying British citizens the much greater freedom to move to anywhere in the EU. Shamefully and ironically, Britain’s new skills-biased immigration policy will deny entry to many foreign nurses, care workers, and other low-paid key workers for whom U.K. government ministers took to the streets to clap their appreciation each week during the first lockdown. That will exacerbate the shortage of medical staff and care workers, harming Britons’ health and well-being.
In recent years, Trump has set a terrible example for the entire world with his anti-immigrant vitriol—such as slandering Mexicans as “murderers” and “rapists”—and cruel policies, including banning travel from several mostly Muslim countries, slashing refugee numbers, and separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexican border and holding them like animals in cages. But beyond the moral outrages of these policies, his curbs on temporary work visas this year, at a time when the U.S. tech sector is desperately short of talent, are doing immediate economic harm. Canada is already capitalizing by laying out the red carpet for foreign tech workers.
Fortunately, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is promising to repair the damage. While comprehensive immigration reform is unlikely to be possible if Republicans retain control of the Senate, Biden has pledged to rescind Trump’s many executive orders on immigration, thereby ending child detention, lifting the Muslim ban, restoring the refugee quota, and allowing in more skilled temporary workers.
For the first time in four years, the U.S. government will soon be setting a positive example on immigration—and reaping the economic benefits. In contrast, if countries such as the U.K. keep foreigners out, they will stunt their post-coronavirus recovery.


foreignpolicy--2020-11-17--Biden Can’t Avoid Erdogan, but He Can Keep the U.S.-Turkish Relationship on Track

Biden Can ’ t Avoid Erdogan , but He Can Keep the U.S.-Turkish Relationship on Track When Joe Biden assumes office as U.S. president in late January , one of the thorniest foreign-policy challenges he will inherit is not one of his predecessor ’ s creation .
Indeed , the problem of U.S. relations with Turkey has wrong-footed U.S. administrations from both parties in the past two decades .
From Ankara ’ s refusal to permit U.S. troops to cross the Turkish-Iraqi border in 2003 , to sharp bilateral disagreements over Syria policy during the Obama administration , to Turkey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ air defense systems despite its NATO membership , the U.S.-Turkish relationship has given headaches to a long series of American presidents .
Yet lingering threats in the region and rising risks globally underscore the continuing value of U.S.-Turkish cooperation to both countries , and they highlight the importance that a Biden administration seek to rescue the relationship from its sharp deterioration , which under President Donald Trump deepened further due to disagreements over Turkey ’ s incursion into northeast Syria and its opposition to Arab normalization agreements with Israel .
Turkey , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ itself straddling the fault line of a seismic shift in U.S. foreign policy .
U.S. strategy is consciously moving away from an emphasis on fighting terrorism and nonstate actors to a focus on great-power competition , particularly with Russia and China .
Washington and Ankara have clashed on both fronts under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump , disagreeing over how to fight terrorism in Syria , for example , as well as how to manage relations with Moscow .
In any reformulation of U.S. policy in the Middle East , the role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ better or for worse .
The coronavirus pandemic may not usher in a new world , but it has accelerated a transition in the global order .
The crisis has exacerbated U.S.-China tensions and has highlighted for many states the risks of supply chains heavily dependent on Beijing .
While the resulting shift in U.S. foreign policy in East Asia is plain to see , its implications for U.S. strategy elsewhere have not been clear .
In the Middle East , which has been the prime focus of U.S. foreign policy for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is unclear whether Washington intends to execute the same strategy—defending a broad array of U.S. interests , especially counterterrorism , through direct intervention and heavy support for allies—with fewer resources , or forge a new regional strategy .
This new strategy would consciously seek to look at Middle East issues through a great-power competition lens—preserving close relations with the region ’ s medium-sized powers and preventing inroads by Moscow and Beijing even at the expense of other concerns such as terrorism , as the Trump administration ’ s National Defense Strategy foreshadowed .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ both .
Facing a need to shift resources toward Asia , the U.S. government will increasingly look to outsource to its regional partners the safeguarding of mutual interests .
Yet it will also seek to recruit those partners in a broader effort to buttress global order and norms against increasingly bold challenges from great-power competitors .
In any such reformulation of U.S. policy in the Middle East , the role Turkey chooses to play will be important—for better or for worse .
It is the region ’ s largest economy , with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has demonstrated—often to Washington ’ s dismay , these days—a willingness to use hard power to influence regional dynamics .
It shares frontiers with Iran , Iraq , and Syria , and neighbors Russia across the Black Sea .
Turkey is therefore a logical stop on China ’ s Belt and Road network .
Turkey is positioned—both physically and politically—to influence the projection of Russian power southward or Chinese might westward .
Yet what has long made Turkey an important partner to the United States has also attracted the attention of Russia and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actor , Ankara ’ s cooperation would significantly improve its ability to fulfill policy objectives in the Middle East .
For Moscow and Beijing , the opportunity to exploit the present differences between Ankara and Washington to deepen the gap growing inside NATO offers an additional allure .
The latest example of this is the showdown over fossil fuels in the Eastern Mediterranean between Turkey and Greece , which has divided NATO members and even hobbled the European Union ’ s effort to reach consensus on unrelated issues like Belarus .
Of late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ After nearly consummating a deal for a Chinese radar system , Turkey took delivery of Russia ’ s S-400 air defense system and proceeded to test it over Washington ’ s objections , prompting sharp concerns throughout the NATO alliance and the real threat of sanctions from Washington .
And faced with the prospect of an economic downturn and increasing difficulties in external financing , Ankara is interested in getting more Chinese investment and finance .
This has so far proved to be an elusive goal : Beijing ’ s share of foreign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meager 1 percent , and only 960 of the 61,449 companies with foreign capital registered in Turkey in 2018 were Chinese .
However , Ankara has remained hopeful that China ’ s Belt and Road Initiative will bring further capital—especially as Turkey faces a growing economic and tourism crisis as a result of the pandemic—and has displayed no willingness to heed Washington ’ s warnings against adopting 5G technology from Huawei , for example .
Yet Ankara should be cognizant that any relationship between Turkey and China or Russia has its limits .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ s oppressive policy toward its minority Uighur population—who share cultural and linguistic links with other Turkic ethnic groups .
Turkey and Russia , meanwhile , remain at odds over regional issues such as Syria , Libya , and Armenia , and are divided by a centuries-long mistrust over Russian efforts to expand its security envelope southward .
Even in the recent Russian-brokered peace deal over Nagorno-Karabakh , Moscow and Ankara disagreed over the question of Turkish peacekeepers .
And neither Russia nor China can offer Turkey the security or economic advantages that Ankara @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has delivered over the decades—an imbalance that Chinese efforts to parlay public health assistance into diplomatic favors in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic are only likely to highlight .
This does not mean , however , that a return to the status quo ante of U.S.-Turkish partnership is possible .
Turkish policies such as the testing of the S-400 and strident statements from Turkey ’ s leaders on matters such as normalization with Israel have led to serious questioning in Washington of the future of relations with Ankara .
These moves have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. partners in the Middle East , especially the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia , which are sharply at odds with Ankara both rhetorically and on the ground in various regional disputes .
Adding to this dynamic , the reformulation of U.S. policy in the Middle East has changed the calculus of its partners in the region ; rather than continuing to wait for the U.S. government to articulate a new regional strategy , the strongest of these partners are increasingly acting on their own initiative , often at odds with one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are supporting opposite sides in Libya ’ s civil war in the face of a diffident United States and divided Europe .
More active U.S. engagement could help to moderate Arab-Turkish tension and open channels of communication , but the basic pattern is unlikely to change .
For all the problems bedeviling their ties , the United States ’ and Turkey ’ s interests will still be better served by cooperation than antagonism .
While nostalgia for the U.S.-Turkey alliance of the past would be misguided , so too would be assuming that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all of the serious disputes dividing them , Americans and Turks share an interest in limiting Russian influence in the region , countering Iranian adventurism , and preventing nuclear and missile proliferation , among other goals .
Yet the reality is that for the foreseeable future , even if the U.S.-Turkey relationship can be stabilized , it will be more transactional than in the past .
This will require a greater willingness than exists at present to prioritize , to work out compromises quietly , to consult early to prevent disputes from arising @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turning into an existential threat to the relationship .
Biden , in his years as a senator and vice president , acquired a reputation for working out behind-the-scenes compromises .
Quiet consultation may not be Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ’ s usual approach to the West , but the election of a new Democratic U.S. president may give him enough pause to seek the more amicable , workmanlike relationship with Washington that would serve both the United States ’ and Turkey ’ s interests .

When Joe Biden assumes office as U.S. president in late January, one of the thorniest foreign-policy challenges he will inherit is not one of his predecessor’s creation. Indeed, the problem of U.S. relations with Turkey has wrong-footed U.S. administrations from both parties in the past two decades.
When Joe Biden assumes office as U.S. president in late January, one of the thorniest foreign-policy challenges he will inherit is not one of his predecessor’s creation. Indeed, the problem of U.S. relations with Turkey has wrong-footed U.S. administrations from both parties in the past two decades.
From Ankara’s refusal to permit U.S. troops to cross the Turkish-Iraqi border in 2003, to sharp bilateral disagreements over Syria policy during the Obama administration, to Turkey’s more recent acquisition of Russian air defense systems despite its NATO membership, the U.S.-Turkish relationship has given headaches to a long series of American presidents.
Yet lingering threats in the region and rising risks globally underscore the continuing value of U.S.-Turkish cooperation to both countries, and they highlight the importance that a Biden administration seek to rescue the relationship from its sharp deterioration, which under President Donald Trump deepened further due to disagreements over Turkey’s incursion into northeast Syria and its opposition to Arab normalization agreements with Israel.
Turkey, which bridges Europe and Asia, also finds itself straddling the fault line of a seismic shift in U.S. foreign policy. U.S. strategy is consciously moving away from an emphasis on fighting terrorism and nonstate actors to a focus on great-power competition, particularly with Russia and China. Washington and Ankara have clashed on both fronts under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, disagreeing over how to fight terrorism in Syria, for example, as well as how to manage relations with Moscow.
In any reformulation of U.S. policy in the Middle East, the role Turkey chooses to play will be important—for better or for worse.
The coronavirus pandemic may not usher in a new world, but it has accelerated a transition in the global order. The crisis has exacerbated U.S.-China tensions and has highlighted for many states the risks of supply chains heavily dependent on Beijing. While the resulting shift in U.S. foreign policy in East Asia is plain to see, its implications for U.S. strategy elsewhere have not been clear.
In the Middle East, which has been the prime focus of U.S. foreign policy for the first decades of this century, it is unclear whether Washington intends to execute the same strategy—defending a broad array of U.S. interests, especially counterterrorism, through direct intervention and heavy support for allies—with fewer resources, or forge a new regional strategy.
This new strategy would consciously seek to look at Middle East issues through a great-power competition lens—preserving close relations with the region’s medium-sized powers and preventing inroads by Moscow and Beijing even at the expense of other concerns such as terrorism, as the Trump administration’s National Defense Strategy foreshadowed.
The likely answer is a bit of both. Facing a need to shift resources toward Asia, the U.S. government will increasingly look to outsource to its regional partners the safeguarding of mutual interests. Yet it will also seek to recruit those partners in a broader effort to buttress global order and norms against increasingly bold challenges from great-power competitors.
In any such reformulation of U.S. policy in the Middle East, the role Turkey chooses to play will be important—for better or for worse. It is the region’s largest economy, with a GDP reaching $750 billion.
It has demonstrated—often to Washington’s dismay, these days—a willingness to use hard power to influence regional dynamics. It shares frontiers with Iran, Iraq, and Syria, and neighbors Russia across the Black Sea. Turkey is therefore a logical stop on China’s Belt and Road network. Turkey is positioned—both physically and politically—to influence the projection of Russian power southward or Chinese might westward.
Yet what has long made Turkey an important partner to the United States has also attracted the attention of Russia and China. Indeed, for any external actor, Ankara’s cooperation would significantly improve its ability to fulfill policy objectives in the Middle East. For Moscow and Beijing, the opportunity to exploit the present differences between Ankara and Washington to deepen the gap growing inside NATO offers an additional allure. The latest example of this is the showdown over fossil fuels in the Eastern Mediterranean between Turkey and Greece, which has divided NATO members and even hobbled the European Union’s effort to reach consensus on unrelated issues like Belarus.
Of late, the attraction has been mutual. After nearly consummating a deal for a Chinese radar system, Turkey took delivery of Russia’s S-400 air defense system and proceeded to test it over Washington’s objections, prompting sharp concerns throughout the NATO alliance and the real threat of sanctions from Washington. And faced with the prospect of an economic downturn and increasing difficulties in external financing, Ankara is interested in getting more Chinese investment and finance.
This has so far proved to be an elusive goal: Beijing’s share of foreign direct investment in Turkey stands at a meager 1 percent, and only 960 of the 61,449 companies with foreign capital registered in Turkey in 2018 were Chinese. However, Ankara has remained hopeful that China’s Belt and Road Initiative will bring further capital—especially as Turkey faces a growing economic and tourism crisis as a result of the pandemic—and has displayed no willingness to heed Washington’s warnings against adopting 5G technology from Huawei, for example.
Yet Ankara should be cognizant that any relationship between Turkey and China or Russia has its limits. Turkey-China ties remain handicapped by China’s oppressive policy toward its minority Uighur population—who share cultural and linguistic links with other Turkic ethnic groups. Turkey and Russia, meanwhile, remain at odds over regional issues such as Syria, Libya, and Armenia, and are divided by a centuries-long mistrust over Russian efforts to expand its security envelope southward.
Even in the recent Russian-brokered peace deal over Nagorno-Karabakh, Moscow and Ankara disagreed over the question of Turkish peacekeepers. And neither Russia nor China can offer Turkey the security or economic advantages that Ankara’s deep engagement with the West has delivered over the decades—an imbalance that Chinese efforts to parlay public health assistance into diplomatic favors in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic are only likely to highlight.
This does not mean, however, that a return to the status quo ante of U.S.-Turkish partnership is possible. Turkish policies such as the testing of the S-400 and strident statements from Turkey’s leaders on matters such as normalization with Israel have led to serious questioning in Washington of the future of relations with Ankara.
These moves have also increased tensions between Turkey and other U.S. partners in the Middle East, especially the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which are sharply at odds with Ankara both rhetorically and on the ground in various regional disputes.
Adding to this dynamic, the reformulation of U.S. policy in the Middle East has changed the calculus of its partners in the region; rather than continuing to wait for the U.S. government to articulate a new regional strategy, the strongest of these partners are increasingly acting on their own initiative, often at odds with one another—for example, Turkey and the UAE are supporting opposite sides in Libya’s civil war in the face of a diffident United States and divided Europe. More active U.S. engagement could help to moderate Arab-Turkish tension and open channels of communication, but the basic pattern is unlikely to change.
For all the problems bedeviling their ties, the United States’ and Turkey’s interests will still be better served by cooperation than antagonism. While nostalgia for the U.S.-Turkey alliance of the past would be misguided, so too would be assuming that the only alternative is enmity.
For all of the serious disputes dividing them, Americans and Turks share an interest in limiting Russian influence in the region, countering Iranian adventurism, and preventing nuclear and missile proliferation, among other goals.
Yet the reality is that for the foreseeable future, even if the U.S.-Turkey relationship can be stabilized, it will be more transactional than in the past. This will require a greater willingness than exists at present to prioritize, to work out compromises quietly, to consult early to prevent disputes from arising, and to prevent every disagreement from turning into an existential threat to the relationship.
Biden, in his years as a senator and vice president, acquired a reputation for working out behind-the-scenes compromises. Quiet consultation may not be Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s usual approach to the West, but the election of a new Democratic U.S. president may give him enough pause to seek the more amicable, workmanlike relationship with Washington that would serve both the United States’ and Turkey’s interests.


foreignpolicy--2020-11-17--South Korea Struggles to Confront Its Own Racial Prejudices

South Korea Struggles to Confront Its Own Racial Prejudices As people from across the planet poured into the streets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement over the summer , I expected my fellow South Koreans to rally in solidarity with them .
After all , it was only three years ago when they toppled their president with massive protests .
South Korea gave the world BTS , a K-pop boy band , whose legions of fans have matched the band ’ s $ 1 million donation to the Black Lives Matter campaign and famously pranked a Trump rally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sign-ups .
South Koreans also remember the painful history of police brutality in the 1970s and 1980s , when pro-democracy protesters and riot police violently clashed and a 21-year-old protester died while being tortured .
But when it came to the most important civil rights movement of this generation , South Koreans largely stayed glued to their handhelds and sat out the events .
Only about 100 people marched quietly in Seoul with Black Lives Matter signs .
The news barely covered the protests .
That is a shame .
But it arose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to South Korea ’ s own problems with racism .
Overt racism has not been a big concern in South Korea .
There is anti-Japanese sentiment that children are taught in school , largely attributed to the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945 .
It flares up every now and then , with temporary boycotts of Japanese brands such as Uniqlo and vacations in Japan .
There is not much interethnic tension within South Korea to speak of .
Riot police have abandoned tear gases and carry plastic shields instead .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black man can be murdered at the hands of white police officers in broad daylight .
But it ’ s befuddling to them that such police violence could exist in the United States , because , for South Koreans , police brutality is a symptom of dictatorship , not democracy .
Equally incomprehensible is the opportunistic looting and escalating violence that took place on the margins of the peaceful Black Lives Matter protests .
They remind many South Koreans of the 1992 Los Angeles riots , when the tension between Black Americans and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shop owners suffered extensive property damage from the riots .
The sight of people ransacking stores brings up generational prejudices against Black Americans , which the South Korean media played no small role in amplifying through lopsided coverage 28 years ago .
Many Koreans , for whom former U.S. President Barack Obama ’ s election was a sure sign that the United States had overcome racism , are oblivious to the systemic racism Black Americans face .
The inability to comprehend why anyone would loot anything other than a police station at a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prejudice .
And yet , inconvenient as it may be for many to acknowledge , the fact is that South Korea faces a social reckoning that takes a page from the Black Lives Matter movement .
There is a widening gap between the country ’ s cultural exports and soft power , on one hand , and its age-old ethnocentric prejudices on the other .
This gap is visible , for example , in how the country treats its 1.5 million migrant workers from poorer countries .
On temporary visas , they live @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no opportunity to integrate into society .
Undocumented workers are sometimes killed or injured during police raids .
Another example : When nearly 500 Yemenis arrived seeking asylum in 2018 , half a million Koreans petitioned the government to expel them , accusing them of being terrorists .
In the end , only two received refugee status .
Integration is a concept that has little place in this ethnically homogeneous country of 51 million people , whose cultural guiding principle is conformity .
For decades , Korean authorities have promoted interracial marriages between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in rural areas , so the men can have children .
In rural areas women flock to cities for opportunities and men stay put to look after the family farm .
The family line is carried on by men , not women , so people are less sensitive to Korean men marrying foreign women than Korean women marrying foreign men , because in the latter marriage , a non-Korean lineage would be introduced : a deeply Confucian , and therefore sexist , notion in which men are considered seeds and women fields .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ migrant brides , predominantly from Southeast Asia , report being abused at the hands of their husbands , who often threaten to withdraw spousal visa sponsorship .
It ’ s no secret that racial discrimination is still legal in the country .
A comprehensive anti-discrimination bill that would protect racial and sexual minorities was stuck at the National Assembly—along with a slew of other similar bills— from 2006 to 2020 due to opposition from conservative evangelicals set on denying gay people equal rights and keeping Muslims out .
Confucian values still rule the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is no state religion , evangelical Protestant churches wield outsize power , with their ranks filling corporate boardrooms and the National Assembly .
Of course , racism is common across the region .
For decades , ethnic minorities in Hong Kong have faced police violence , which pro-democracy protesters only recently came to experience .
China is running a campaign of mass detention and forced sterilization against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities , amounting to ethnic cleansing of its Muslim population .
Japan arbitrarily detains illegal immigrants in facilities where last year almost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , one of whom starved to death .
When the news of the coronavirus spread in February , restaurants in South Korea , Japan , Hong Kong , and Vietnam promptly shut their doors to Chinese customers .
For South Koreans , it was a repeat of the Ebola scare in 2014 , when they suspended flights to Kenya , canceled conference invitations for Nigerian students , and put up signs banning Africans from restaurants .
With a rapidly aging population and one of the world ’ s lowest birth rates , South @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2060 to sustain its economy .
But the nation needs outsiders not only for economic reasons .
It needs them in order for it to become more inclusive , more tolerant , and more diverse—the hallmarks of a healthy democracy .
But there are also signs of change .
K-pop artists didn ’ t start out as guerrilla activists .
They owe it to their massive U.S. fan base .
When MTV excluded K-pop artists from its main award categories last year , the fans—many of whom are Black and are responsible for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media , accusing MTV of racism and xenophobia and boycotting the award ceremony .
This year , BTS walked away with multiple MTV awards .
BTS ’ producer said rightly that Black music is the base of the boy band ’ s musical identity .
K-pop is rooted in hip-hop and R & B , even though the industry has been slow to acknowledge this and hasn ’ t always given proper attribution to Black artists .
But broader change should start with the education system , which fosters an unhealthy level of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feeding into regionwide racism and mixed with historical grievances and cultural ignorance caused by too much homogeneity .
The issue is not just hostilities against migrant workers or asylum seekers , but also against women , against the LGBTQ community , against people with disabilities , and against poor people—the list goes on .
The Korean media should be aware of their own bias and raise the public ’ s awareness .
K-pop artists should help their fans at home to learn that diversity is a strength , not a weakness .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a recognition among young Koreans that the Black Lives Matter movement is about broader inclusion that transcends race .
They might come to understand that globalization is more than ramping up trade or building a global brand .
And maybe they ’ ll use social media to articulate visions of equality , instead of just posting their pets ’ new outfits .

As people from across the planet poured into the streets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement over the summer, I expected my fellow South Koreans to rally in solidarity with them.
As people from across the planet poured into the streets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement over the summer, I expected my fellow South Koreans to rally in solidarity with them.
After all, it was only three years ago when they toppled their president with massive protests. South Korea gave the world BTS, a K-pop boy band, whose legions of fans have matched the band’s $1 million donation to the Black Lives Matter campaign and famously pranked a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with fake sign-ups. South Koreans also remember the painful history of police brutality in the 1970s and 1980s, when pro-democracy protesters and riot police violently clashed and a 21-year-old protester died while being tortured.
But when it came to the most important civil rights movement of this generation, South Koreans largely stayed glued to their handhelds and sat out the events. Only about 100 people marched quietly in Seoul with Black Lives Matter signs. The news barely covered the protests.
That is a shame. But it arose mostly out of ignorance—combined with a blindness to South Korea’s own problems with racism.
Overt racism has not been a big concern in South Korea. There is anti-Japanese sentiment that children are taught in school, largely attributed to the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. It flares up every now and then, with temporary boycotts of Japanese brands such as Uniqlo and vacations in Japan. There is not much interethnic tension within South Korea to speak of. Riot police have abandoned tear gases and carry plastic shields instead.
Many South Koreans are outraged that a Black man can be murdered at the hands of white police officers in broad daylight. But it’s befuddling to them that such police violence could exist in the United States, because, for South Koreans, police brutality is a symptom of dictatorship, not democracy.
Equally incomprehensible is the opportunistic looting and escalating violence that took place on the margins of the peaceful Black Lives Matter protests. They remind many South Koreans of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when the tension between Black Americans and Korean Americans ran high, and Korean shop owners suffered extensive property damage from the riots. The sight of people ransacking stores brings up generational prejudices against Black Americans, which the South Korean media played no small role in amplifying through lopsided coverage 28 years ago. Many Koreans, for whom former U.S. President Barack Obama’s election was a sure sign that the United States had overcome racism, are oblivious to the systemic racism Black Americans face. The inability to comprehend why anyone would loot anything other than a police station at a George Floyd protest can easily turn to prejudice.
And yet, inconvenient as it may be for many to acknowledge, the fact is that South Korea faces a social reckoning that takes a page from the Black Lives Matter movement. There is a widening gap between the country’s cultural exports and soft power, on one hand, and its age-old ethnocentric prejudices on the other. This gap is visible, for example, in how the country treats its 1.5 million migrant workers from poorer countries. On temporary visas, they live and work in harsh conditions and have no opportunity to integrate into society. Undocumented workers are sometimes killed or injured during police raids. Another example: When nearly 500 Yemenis arrived seeking asylum in 2018, half a million Koreans petitioned the government to expel them, accusing them of being terrorists. In the end, only two received refugee status.
Integration is a concept that has little place in this ethnically homogeneous country of 51 million people, whose cultural guiding principle is conformity. For decades, Korean authorities have promoted interracial marriages between Korean men and foreign brides, especially in rural areas, so the men can have children. In rural areas women flock to cities for opportunities and men stay put to look after the family farm. The family line is carried on by men, not women, so people are less sensitive to Korean men marrying foreign women than Korean women marrying foreign men, because in the latter marriage, a non-Korean lineage would be introduced: a deeply Confucian, and therefore sexist, notion in which men are considered seeds and women fields. Almost half of South Korea’s migrant brides, predominantly from Southeast Asia, report being abused at the hands of their husbands, who often threaten to withdraw spousal visa sponsorship.
It’s no secret that racial discrimination is still legal in the country. A comprehensive anti-discrimination bill that would protect racial and sexual minorities was stuck at the National Assembly—along with a slew of other similar bills— from 2006 to 2020 due to opposition from conservative evangelicals set on denying gay people equal rights and keeping Muslims out. Confucian values still rule the day there, and even though there is no state religion, evangelical Protestant churches wield outsize power, with their ranks filling corporate boardrooms and the National Assembly.
Of course, racism is common across the region. For decades, ethnic minorities in Hong Kong have faced police violence, which pro-democracy protesters only recently came to experience. China is running a campaign of mass detention and forced sterilization against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities, amounting to ethnic cleansing of its Muslim population. Japan arbitrarily detains illegal immigrants in facilities where last year almost 200 detainees went on a hunger strike, one of whom starved to death.
When the news of the coronavirus spread in February, restaurants in South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam promptly shut their doors to Chinese customers. For South Koreans, it was a repeat of the Ebola scare in 2014, when they suspended flights to Kenya, canceled conference invitations for Nigerian students, and put up signs banning Africans from restaurants.
With a rapidly aging population and one of the world’s lowest birth rates, South Korea will need 15 million immigrants by 2060 to sustain its economy. But the nation needs outsiders not only for economic reasons. It needs them in order for it to become more inclusive, more tolerant, and more diverse—the hallmarks of a healthy democracy.
But there are also signs of change. K-pop artists didn’t start out as guerrilla activists. They owe it to their massive U.S. fan base. When MTV excluded K-pop artists from its main award categories last year, the fans—many of whom are Black and are responsible for K-pop’s global ascent—took to social media, accusing MTV of racism and xenophobia and boycotting the award ceremony. This year, BTS walked away with multiple MTV awards. BTS’ producer said rightly that Black music is the base of the boy band’s musical identity. K-pop is rooted in hip-hop and R&B, even though the industry has been slow to acknowledge this and hasn’t always given proper attribution to Black artists.
But broader change should start with the education system, which fosters an unhealthy level of nationalism in children and young people, feeding into regionwide racism and mixed with historical grievances and cultural ignorance caused by too much homogeneity. The issue is not just hostilities against migrant workers or asylum seekers, but also against women, against the LGBTQ community, against people with disabilities, and against poor people—the list goes on. The Korean media should be aware of their own bias and raise the public’s awareness. K-pop artists should help their fans at home to learn that diversity is a strength, not a weakness.
It’s rare, but there is a recognition among young Koreans that the Black Lives Matter movement is about broader inclusion that transcends race. They might come to understand that globalization is more than ramping up trade or building a global brand. And maybe they’ll use social media to articulate visions of equality, instead of just posting their pets’ new outfits.


foreignpolicy--2020-11-17--Hollywood Likes Feminists When They’re Imperialists

The big cat-attack action/slasher film Rogue , which was released in the United States in August , is a rote B-movie genre exercise with a large helping of girl-power lion-roaring thrown in .
It ’ s not a subtle or particularly thoughtful narrative , but for just that reason it ’ s unusually frank about how Hollywood sees feminist empowerment .
The actress Megan Fox plays a mercenary badass , who is presented to viewers as a strong female character because she goes overseas and shoots a bunch of Black and brown people , just like a man would .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ are ideologically intertwined .
To be the woman protagonist of an action narrative is to be a white savior , a Tarzan-like mighty whitey , or , ideally , both .
Fox is cast as Sam , the leader of a group of mercenaries tasked with rescuing Asilia ( Jessica Sutton ) .
Asilia has been kidnapped by a group of human traffickers who hope to use her to exert leverage on her father , who is the governor of the territory .
After the plan goes awry in part because Sam decides @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the team takes refuge in an abandoned lion farm .
Sam has to battle the terrorist traffickers and a rogue female lioness , fending off challenges to her authority all while establishing that “ females are the true killers.
” Fox , like many women in Hollywood , has talked in recent years about sexism and misogyny in the industry .
As a 15-year-old extra in Bad Boys II , she was told to wear a bikini and six-inch heels .
Later , on the set of the Transformers films , director Michael @ @ @ @ @ @ @ acting direction except , “ Just be sexy.
” Rogue , helmed by a female director , M.J. Bassett , seems intended in part as a response the way male directors have denigrated and objectified Fox in the past .
She spends the entire film in full combat gear and has not even the hint of a romantic subplot .
In contrast to Bay ’ s vision , she ’ s not just some vacuous ornament ; she ’ s competent , cool , self-reliant , and the undisputed hero of the movie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hero because she ’ s a taciturn loner , though .
She ’ s also a hero because she rescues white women from dangerous African people who threaten them with torture and with unclear but unmistakable sexual violence .
In short , the movie unsubtly plays into cultural stereotypes about white female innocence and Black and brown male threat .
These narratives were infamously used to justify lynching and racist violence against Black people like 14-year-old Emmett Till , falsely accused of whistling at a white woman , or the Central Park Five @ @ @ @ @ @ @ woman in 1989 .
Hollywood still uses images of Black and brown male traffickers and rapists to justify hyper-violence , as in Taken ( 2008 ) or the execrable recent entry in the Rambo series , Last Blood ( 2019 ) .
In that tradition , much of the run time of Rogue is given over to images of Sam committing extrajudicial murders of men of color who are menacing white girls .
At the movie ’ s end , other characters compare Sam to a lion protecting her cubs ; the final @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the evils of poaching and lion farming .
Sam ’ s bloody triumph over African men has effectively given her a power and a fierceness historically associated with Africa , which the film underlines by presenting its frankly exploitive narrative as an animal rights intervention .
Sam even has a scene where she rescues a Black African man and then assures him that he has become a man .
She is the arbiter of Black cultural traditions and the savior of African wildlife , which selfish and shortsighted Africans , in this framing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Allan Quatermain , the Phantom , or other colonial heroes , Sam ’ s whiteness allows her to channel and embody African power , stewardship , and authenticity more fully and more virtuously than Black Africans themselves .
Sam ’ s empowerment via imperial appropriation is unusually direct , but it ’ s not unique .
Many critics have pointed out that two recent high-profile woman-led superhero films—Wonder Woman ( 2017 ) and Captain Marvel ( 2019 ) —also use militarist and imperialist coding in the interest of feminist empowerment .
Wonder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and blue , righteously wins World War I along with her U.S. fighter pilot boyfriend , saving a group of multiracial Europeans .
Captain Marvel , formerly a fighter pilot herself , prevents the genocide of the shape-shifting , reptilian Skrulls—who look uncomfortably like anti-Semitic stereotypes—by a fiercely militaristic race .
White women in these movies are coded as heroic by associating them with U.S. military intervention .
They are strong , independent , cool , and good because they rescue other weaker people over there .
Narratives that use racism and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ woman may seem especially stark and crass because we ’ re not used to seeing women empowered in Hollywood action movies in that way .
But they empower their heroines simply by giving them the usual plot of white male heroes .
The James Bond franchise sends its hero to distant locales in film after film so that he can murder glowering often nonwhite men and sleep with exotic often nonwhite women .
( Male empowerment in action movies notably involves more sexual profligacy than does female empowerment . )
War profiteer Tony @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) in Iron Man ( 2008 ) demonstrates his heroic bona fides by flying to Afghanistan , where he uses his super suit to save good Afghans and kill bad ones .
He ’ s effectively a one-man , morally righteous drone strike .
And in this year ’ s Extraction , Chris Hemsworth ’ s character murders his way through Bangladesh , his superiority underlined , and buoyed , by streetfulls , and screenfulls , of corpses .
There are some films that don ’ t define female empowerment through racist colonial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ films of the 1970s , Ang Lee ’ s 2000 Crouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon , and 2015 ’ s Mad Max : Fury Road all manage to avoid the Hollywood default by engaging more explicitly with feminism and/or by featuring nonwhite protagonists .
Pam Grier ’ s and Charlize Theron ’ s characters fighting to overthrow the patriarchal power structures that oppress them and their sisters feels quite different than Sam going into Africa and shooting lots of the people she finds there in the name of protecting the power of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the fact remains that Hollywood often has trouble imagining empowerment that does not involve dominion over marginalized or colonized people .
The easiest way to show that a ( white ) hero is strong and deadly and awesome is to put them in some foreign locale and have them start murdering .
Just as global geopolitical power comes from expropriating someone else ’ s resources , so iconographic empowerment comes from establishing life-and-death authority over those same someone elses .
Rogue presents itself as a dangerous and exciting departure , but unfortunately @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all .
If it ’ s valuable , it ’ s as a particularly blunt reiteration of the familiar links between whiteness and the iconography of power , for action heroes of every gender .

The big cat-attack action/slasher film Rogue, which was released in the United States in August, is a rote B-movie genre exercise with a large helping of girl-power lion-roaring thrown in. It’s not a subtle or particularly thoughtful narrative, but for just that reason it’s unusually frank about how Hollywood sees feminist empowerment. The actress Megan Fox plays a mercenary badass, who is presented to viewers as a strong female character because she goes overseas and shoots a bunch of Black and brown people, just like a man would. Feminism and colonialism in the action movie are ideologically intertwined. To be the woman protagonist of an action narrative is to be a white savior, a Tarzan-like mighty whitey , or, ideally, both.
The big cat-attack action/slasher film Rogue, which was released in the United States in August, is a rote B-movie genre exercise with a large helping of girl-power lion-roaring thrown in. It’s not a subtle or particularly thoughtful narrative, but for just that reason it’s unusually frank about how Hollywood sees feminist empowerment. The actress Megan Fox plays a mercenary badass, who is presented to viewers as a strong female character because she goes overseas and shoots a bunch of Black and brown people, just like a man would. Feminism and colonialism in the action movie are ideologically intertwined. To be the woman protagonist of an action narrative is to be a white savior, a Tarzan-like mighty whitey, or, ideally, both.
Fox is cast as Sam, the leader of a group of mercenaries tasked with rescuing Asilia (Jessica Sutton). Asilia has been kidnapped by a group of human traffickers who hope to use her to exert leverage on her father, who is the governor of the territory. After the plan goes awry in part because Sam decides to rescue two other trafficked girls, the team takes refuge in an abandoned lion farm. Sam has to battle the terrorist traffickers and a rogue female lioness, fending off challenges to her authority all while establishing that “females are the true killers.”
Fox, like many women in Hollywood, has talked in recent years about sexism and misogyny in the industry. As a 15-year-old extra in Bad Boys II, she was told to wear a bikini and six-inch heels. Later, on the set of the Transformers films, director Michael Bay would refuse to give her any acting direction except, “Just be sexy.” Rogue, helmed by a female director, M.J. Bassett, seems intended in part as a response the way male directors have denigrated and objectified Fox in the past. She spends the entire film in full combat gear and has not even the hint of a romantic subplot. In contrast to Bay’s vision, she’s not just some vacuous ornament; she’s competent, cool, self-reliant, and the undisputed hero of the movie.
Sam isn’t just a hero because she’s a taciturn loner, though. She’s also a hero because she rescues white women from dangerous African people who threaten them with torture and with unclear but unmistakable sexual violence.
In short, the movie unsubtly plays into cultural stereotypes about white female innocence and Black and brown male threat. These narratives were infamously used to justify lynching and racist violence against Black people like 14-year-old Emmett Till, falsely accused of whistling at a white woman, or the Central Park Five, falsely convicted of raping a white woman in 1989. Hollywood still uses images of Black and brown male traffickers and rapists to justify hyper-violence, as in Taken (2008) or the execrable recent entry in the Rambo series, Last Blood (2019). In that tradition, much of the run time of Rogue is given over to images of Sam committing extrajudicial murders of men of color who are menacing white girls.
At the movie’s end, other characters compare Sam to a lion protecting her cubs; the final screen is a public service text about the evils of poaching and lion farming. Sam’s bloody triumph over African men has effectively given her a power and a fierceness historically associated with Africa, which the film underlines by presenting its frankly exploitive narrative as an animal rights intervention. Sam even has a scene where she rescues a Black African man and then assures him that he has become a man. She is the arbiter of Black cultural traditions and the savior of African wildlife, which selfish and shortsighted Africans, in this framing, fail to appreciate. Like Tarzan, Allan Quatermain, the Phantom, or other colonial heroes, Sam’s whiteness allows her to channel and embody African power, stewardship, and authenticity more fully and more virtuously than Black Africans themselves.
Sam’s empowerment via imperial appropriation is unusually direct, but it’s not unique. Many critics have pointed out that two recent high-profile woman-led superhero films—Wonder Woman (2017) and Captain Marvel (2019)—also use militarist and imperialist coding in the interest of feminist empowerment. Wonder Woman, clad in red, white, and blue, righteously wins World War I along with her U.S. fighter pilot boyfriend, saving a group of multiracial Europeans. Captain Marvel, formerly a fighter pilot herself, prevents the genocide of the shape-shifting, reptilian Skrulls—who look uncomfortably like anti-Semitic stereotypes—by a fiercely militaristic race. White women in these movies are coded as heroic by associating them with U.S. military intervention. They are strong, independent, cool, and good because they rescue other weaker people over there.
Narratives that use racism and colonialism to pump up some heroic white woman may seem especially stark and crass because we’re not used to seeing women empowered in Hollywood action movies in that way. But they empower their heroines simply by giving them the usual plot of white male heroes.
The James Bond franchise sends its hero to distant locales in film after film so that he can murder glowering often nonwhite men and sleep with exotic often nonwhite women. (Male empowerment in action movies notably involves more sexual profligacy than does female empowerment.) War profiteer Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) in Iron Man (2008) demonstrates his heroic bona fides by flying to Afghanistan, where he uses his super suit to save good Afghans and kill bad ones. He’s effectively a one-man, morally righteous drone strike. And in this year’s Extraction, Chris Hemsworth’s character murders his way through Bangladesh, his superiority underlined, and buoyed, by streetfulls, and screenfulls, of corpses.
There are some films that don’t define female empowerment through racist colonial tropes. Pam Grier’s Blaxploitation films of the 1970s, Ang Lee’s 2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road all manage to avoid the Hollywood default by engaging more explicitly with feminism and/or by featuring nonwhite protagonists. Pam Grier’s and Charlize Theron’s characters fighting to overthrow the patriarchal power structures that oppress them and their sisters feels quite different than Sam going into Africa and shooting lots of the people she finds there in the name of protecting the power of a corrupt governor.
But despite some exceptions, the fact remains that Hollywood often has trouble imagining empowerment that does not involve dominion over marginalized or colonized people. The easiest way to show that a (white) hero is strong and deadly and awesome is to put them in some foreign locale and have them start murdering. Just as global geopolitical power comes from expropriating someone else’s resources, so iconographic empowerment comes from establishing life-and-death authority over those same someone elses. Rogue presents itself as a dangerous and exciting departure, but unfortunately it doesn’t go rogue at all. If it’s valuable, it’s as a particularly blunt reiteration of the familiar links between whiteness and the iconography of power, for action heroes of every gender.


foreignpolicy--2020-11-17--Trump’s New Defense Secretary Announces Afghan Withdrawal

The Trump administration will draw down U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq to 2,500 troops in each country before President-elect Joe Biden ’ s inauguration in January , acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller confirmed in a statement Tuesday , a move that will put the outgoing president at odds with Republicans in Congress and the incoming Biden team .
Miller—who has not taken questions from reporters in his eight-day tenure on the job—did not provide any rationale for the decision , identify which units would move out of the country and on what timetable , or clarify what the mission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be .
Speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity before the announcement , senior defense officials said that top military leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan supported the decision and that it was merited by conditions on the ground , but they did not provide further details .
But the move reportedly went against the advice of fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and U.S. Central Command chief Kenneth McKenzie , who warned the conditions weren ’ t met for a withdrawal in a memo that may have helped prompt Esper ’ s ouster .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ s 2016 campaign pledge to end U.S. involvement in perceived “ forever wars ” in Iraq and Afghanistan , the move would leave significant numbers of residual forces in both countries , as the Americans engage in ongoing peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar .
Though Miller insisted the decision was not a change in policy , the United States had initially sought to tie troop withdrawals to further Taliban reductions in violence , and the Trump administration is pulling out despite a heavy uptick of insurgent offensives in the embattled Helmand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ months .
The new acting Pentagon chief spent the morning briefing members of Congress on Capitol Hill about the decision , many of whom opposed the decision .
In a rare statement criticizing Trump administration policy , Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , a Kentucky Republican , said on Monday that the rapid drawdown “ would hurt our allies and delight the people who wish us harm.
” Acting Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Marco Rubio , a Florida Republican , openly compared the prospect of a withdrawal to “ a Saigon type of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vietnam ’ s largest city at the end of the U.S. involvement in the war .
The reaction was similar on the Democratic side in Congress , where many hope to see a withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq but worry about the decision being made too quickly , as Iraq ’ s intelligence service reported four rockets fired on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad just moments after the announcement .
“ There was no doubt the final days of this administration would be tumultuous , but the haphazard nature of President Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and jeopardize countless American , Afghan , and Iraqi lives , ” said Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine , a member of the Armed Services Committee .
But House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith , a fellow Democrat , called the move “ the right policy decision.
” U.S. allies also expressed public reservations about the withdrawal .
In a statement on Tuesday , NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg , while acknowledging that “ no NATO ally wants to stay any longer than necessary , ” warned that “ the price for leaving too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be very high.
” “ Afghanistan risks becoming once again a platform for international terrorists to plan and organize attacks on our homelands , ” Stoltenberg said , warning that the Islamic State could use the country to restore its lost self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria .
Brett McGurk , Trump ’ s former presidential envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition and now a critic of the administration , called the move “ diplomatic malpractice.
” But a smattering of Republicans applauded the Trump administration for the withdrawal .
Writing to Miller @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hawley said the 19-year U.S. war in Afghanistan had devolved into a nation-building exercise that was a drain on taxpayers and working Americans .
“ In the aftermath of 9/11 , it was imperative that we destroyed al Qaeda and punished the Taliban , ” Hawley wrote .
“ But those objectives have long since given way to a broader nation-building mission in the region .
This is a mistake.
” Meanwhile , Biden has promised to leave a residual counterterrorism force in Afghanistan when he takes office , making some experts wary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disrupt fragile peace talks with an overly bellicose approach .
“ I think there might be some folks in a future Biden administration who feel that the best way to extract a political settlement is to pressure the Taliban on the battlefield instead of giving political concessions , ” said Adam Weinstein , a research fellow at the Quincy Institute who deployed to Afghanistan as a Marine in 2012 .
“ But this failed in the past .
”

The Trump administration will draw down U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq to 2,500 troops in each country before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in January, acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller confirmed in a statement Tuesday, a move that will put the outgoing president at odds with Republicans in Congress and the incoming Biden team.
The Trump administration will draw down U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq to 2,500 troops in each country before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in January, acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller confirmed in a statement Tuesday, a move that will put the outgoing president at odds with Republicans in Congress and the incoming Biden team.
Miller—who has not taken questions from reporters in his eight-day tenure on the job—did not provide any rationale for the decision, identify which units would move out of the country and on what timetable, or clarify what the mission for the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops would be.
Speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity before the announcement, senior defense officials said that top military leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan supported the decision and that it was merited by conditions on the ground, but they did not provide further details.
But the move reportedly went against the advice of fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and U.S. Central Command chief Kenneth McKenzie, who warned the conditions weren’t met for a withdrawal in a memo that may have helped prompt Esper’s ouster.
While a step toward fulfilling Trump’s 2016 campaign pledge to end U.S. involvement in perceived “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan, the move would leave significant numbers of residual forces in both countries, as the Americans engage in ongoing peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar. Though Miller insisted the decision was not a change in policy, the United States had initially sought to tie troop withdrawals to further Taliban reductions in violence, and the Trump administration is pulling out despite a heavy uptick of insurgent offensives in the embattled Helmand and Kandahar provinces in the last three months.
The new acting Pentagon chief spent the morning briefing members of Congress on Capitol Hill about the decision, many of whom opposed the decision. In a rare statement criticizing Trump administration policy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on Monday that the rapid drawdown “would hurt our allies and delight the people who wish us harm.” Acting Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, openly compared the prospect of a withdrawal to “a Saigon type of situation,” referencing the fall of Vietnam’s largest city at the end of the U.S. involvement in the war.
The reaction was similar on the Democratic side in Congress, where many hope to see a withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq but worry about the decision being made too quickly, as Iraq’s intelligence service reported four rockets fired on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad just moments after the announcement.
“There was no doubt the final days of this administration would be tumultuous, but the haphazard nature of President Trump’s decision will harm our national security and jeopardize countless American, Afghan, and Iraqi lives,” said Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Armed Services Committee. But House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, a fellow Democrat, called the move “the right policy decision.”
U.S. allies also expressed public reservations about the withdrawal. In a statement on Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, while acknowledging that “no NATO ally wants to stay any longer than necessary,” warned that “the price for leaving too soon or in an uncoordinated way could be very high.”
“Afghanistan risks becoming once again a platform for international terrorists to plan and organize attacks on our homelands,” Stoltenberg said, warning that the Islamic State could use the country to restore its lost self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Brett McGurk, Trump’s former presidential envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition and now a critic of the administration, called the move “diplomatic malpractice.”
But a smattering of Republicans applauded the Trump administration for the withdrawal. Writing to Miller on Tuesday, Trump ally Sen. Josh Hawley said the 19-year U.S. war in Afghanistan had devolved into a nation-building exercise that was a drain on taxpayers and working Americans. “In the aftermath of 9/11, it was imperative that we destroyed al Qaeda and punished the Taliban,” Hawley wrote. “But those objectives have long since given way to a broader nation-building mission in the region. This is a mistake.”
Meanwhile, Biden has promised to leave a residual counterterrorism force in Afghanistan when he takes office, making some experts wary that the incoming commander in chief could disrupt fragile peace talks with an overly bellicose approach.
“I think there might be some folks in a future Biden administration who feel that the best way to extract a political settlement is to pressure the Taliban on the battlefield instead of giving political concessions,” said Adam Weinstein, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute who deployed to Afghanistan as a Marine in 2012. “But this failed in the past.”