International News
Coverage of international events and global policy shifts. The Daily Signal offers news reporting with opinion and commentary on world affairs.
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news
Panama Papers and Political Turmoil Deal Ukraine a Reality Check
KYIV, Ukraine—The sniper’s bullet went into the head of the man standing in front of Valentyn Onyshchenko. Blood and brain matter sprayed into Onyshchenko’s face with enough force to break the then-21-year-old’s eyeglasses. “Like a robot” he weaved through the thousands of protesters gathered in central Kyiv for the February 2014 revolution. He went to… -
opinion
Failed Obama ‘Reset’ Has Encouraged Russian Aggression
People seem a bit surprised—even perplexed—by the breathless news reports and video of Russian warplanes “buzzing” an American warship operating in international waters in the Baltic Sea this week. The reality is that they shouldn’t be. That, of course, isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be deeply troubled for the safety of our sailors on… -
opinion
Russia and China Increase Defense Spending While US Continues Cutting
Every year at this time, we see the same kind of headlines: “U.S. biggest military spender in the world.” They’re all based on the release of the global military spending database, an annual report compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). What the headlines usually miss is that U.S. defense spending is going… -
opinion
The Absurd Demands of Harvard Students Who Feel Guilty About Their ‘Privilege’
Where direct regulation does not change hearts and minds, America’s universities have long used indoctrination. At Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, for example, student orientation now includes instruction in “privilege.” If you aren’t already aware, “privilege” is a term employed in conversation as a way to encourage the listener to recognize that his or her… -
news
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Calls It Quits, Pressure Mounts to Form New Coalition
KYIV, Ukraine—In a televised address Sunday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced he would step down Tuesday, marking the end of a two-month-long political crisis. “We cannot allow destabilization of the executive branch during a war,” Yatsenyuk said. Ukrainian forces are still battling combined Russian-separatist forces in a 2-year-old war that has killed more than… -
news
US Needs NATO Now as Much as Ever, Student of the Alliance Says
Policy leaders are reflecting on the legacy and future of NATO this week, the anniversary of the alliance’s creation 67 years ago. One of them is Luke Coffey, director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. “[U.S.] involvement in NATO means that Europe stays relatively secure and calm. And we’re… -
news
Kyiv, Washington Agree: Russian Threat Isn’t Going Away
KYIV, Ukraine—The Ukraine war is going into its third year, and leaders in Washington and Kyiv are bracing for the possibility that Russian military brinkmanship may be the new status quo in Eastern Europe. In Ukraine, some worry the time soon may be ripe for an uptick in the Russian-backed war in the eastern part… -
opinion
You’d Better Believe NATO Still Matters Today
Recently there have been some who have questioned NATO’s importance in the 21st century. Europe is currently experiencing a belligerent and aggressive Russia with old-school 18th-century imperial ambitions. The answer is—very important. Europe is currently experiencing a belligerent and aggressive Russia with old-school 18th-century imperial ambitions. While Russia’s actions in Ukraine may seem unimportant to… -
opinion
We Need a President Who Will Lead in Asia
Whoever occupies the Oval Office in 2017 will face security threats around the world—including in Asia. Stability in Asia is currently being threatened by North Korea’s growing military capabilities, China’s increasingly aggressive behavior, historical animosities, and rising nationalism. Withdrawing from the world and raising the isolationist drawbridge didn’t work in the 1930s and wouldn’t work… -
opinion
State Department Loses Another Round in the Clinton Email Fiasco
In a second loss in less than two weeks, a federal court has once again ruled against the Obama administration, this time in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) tussle with Judicial Watch over the Clinton email fiasco. Previously, on March 22, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Justice Department and the IRS… -
opinion
US Law Should Now Prohibit Funding to UN Climate Change Convention
On Dec. 18, 2015, the Palestinian Authority deposited its instrument of accession to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In accordance with Article 23(2) of the treaty, the Palestinians officially became the 197th party to the UNFCCC on March 17, 2016—ninety days after depositing their instrument of accession. As was the case when… -
news
Has Europe Blinked on Defeating ISIS in the Middle East?
KYIV, Ukraine—The terrorist attacks in Brussels so far have produced an internal evaluation of Belgium’s intelligence and law enforcement missteps, rather than the escalated airstrikes on Islamist targets in Syria that quickly followed the deadly attacks in Paris. Two days after the Nov. 13, 2015, terrorist attacks in Paris, French warplanes hammered the Islamic State,… -
opinion
The Bizarre Reality of Venezuela’s Energy Crisis
Venezuela is facing an electricity shortage so severe that President Nicolas Maduro extended the national Easter holiday by decree to decrease demand for it. The government is effectively shutting down the country for five days with the hopes of staving off an impending infrastructural collapse. That’s right: The country with the largest proven oil reserves in… -
opinion
Europe’s Breeding Ground for Terror
Belgians and all Europeans are looking around themselves today with renewed apprehension, having been reminded once more by the attacks in Brussels about their vulnerability to terrorism that arises from within their midst. They’ve allowed parallel societies to emerge, and now they fear that the problem can only grow. It was only fitting, for example,… -
opinion
After Brussels Attacks, US Must Not Repeat Europe’s Mistakes
The first question security professionals around the world ask after a horrific terrorist attack is: What’s next? The second question is: How to stop it? Today, Americans woke up to news that Europe had been hit again, with reports of two bombs in Brussels that killed and injured scores. The attacks come only days after… -
news
‘Is This Real Life?’: Inside the Ukraine War’s Gray Zone
LOBACHEVE, Ukraine—War is absurd sometimes. The SUV clambered along the pothole-speckled dirt road, which was now more mud than dirt in the wake of melting snow and spring rains. The driver, a 30-year-old Ukrainian soldier named Andriy, held a pistol in his steering hand as he navigated through no man’s land near the separatist-controlled city… -
opinion
Obama’s Executive Order Against North Korea Won’t Mean Much If It’s Not Implemented
On March 16, President Barack Obama issued a new executive order imposing additional sanctions on North Korea for its repeated violations of U.S. law and U.N. resolutions. The order is a strong step forward for combating prohibited North Korean behavior since it provides additional authorities to U.S. agencies. The new executive order was required in… -
opinion
What You Should Know About the Ukraine War From a Journalist on the Front Lines
The war in Ukraine is “a real war,” says a journalist who has spent months on the front lines and embedded with the Ukrainian army. And yet, notes The Daily Signal’s foreign correspondent, Nolan Peterson, most other American news outlets don’t cover the intensity of the 2-year-old conflict. “The media tends to downplay the seriousness of… -
opinion
KT McFarland on the ‘Powder Keg’ That’s About to Explode in Europe
KT McFarland decided to re-enter the national security arena after 9/11. She had stepped down as the highest-ranking woman at the Pentagon in the Reagan administration to raise a family. So why did McFarland, national security contributor for Fox News Channel, come back? In an on-camera interview with The Daily Signal, she tells me America’s… -
opinion
State Department Finds ISIS Guilty of Genocide. What’s Next.
Secretary of State John Kerry declared that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) committed genocide against Yazidis, Christians, and Shiite Muslims. Genocide, as defined by the U.S., constitutes “[w]hoever, whether in time of peace or in time of war and with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in substantial part, a national,…