What Caught My Eye (no. 9)

Some interesting articles and podcasts that caught my eye this week

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Here’s this week’s edition of articles that I thought worth reading and sharing. Don’t hesitate to recommend your own reads; I may include some as well.

• Monica Mark, “Samkelo depended on USAID-backed drugs to stay alive. Then came Trump’s order,” Financial Times, February 26, 2025. An incisive look on the personal cost of Trump’s decision to end USAID funding for AIDS drugs in South Africa.

• Jonathan V. Last, “‘America First’ is a Lie,” The Bulwark, March 3, 2025. A necessary reminder that American presidents pursued foreign policies that always put America first. Trump puts himself first.

• “How Trump is driving US towards Russia – a timeline of the president’s moves,” The Guardian, March 9, 2025. A useful recounting of all the moves Trump has made since his first call with Putin on February 12 that played into the Russian president’s hands.

• Matina Stevis-Gridneff, “How Trump’s ‘51st State’ Canada Talk Came to Be Seen as Deadly Serious,” New York Times, March 7, 2025. The Times Canada Bureau Chief has a blockbuster scoop detailing how Trump and his administration are very serious about making Canada the 51st State and how Canadian leaders came to understand this wasn’t a joke.

• John Burns-Murdoch, “Why the MAGA Mindset is Different,” Financial Times, March 6, 2025. The FT’s chief data reporter goes behind the numbers of the latest World Values Survey to demonstrate the values of the US right are closer to that of Russia, China, and Turkey, than the values of even the Far-Right in Europe. This graph says it all:

  

• Catherine Belton and Robyn Dixon, “Document prepared for Kremlin outlines hard-line negotiating stance,” Washington Post, March 12, 2025. Trump’s hope for peace lies in Putin deciding he wants to end the war, but this Post report shows that the pressure is in the opposite direction. What Putin really wants is to drive a wedge between the US and Europe, weakening Ukraine. He’s succeeding.

• Choe Sang-Hun and Pablo Robles, “How South Korea’s President Planned a Military Takeover, Then Blew It,” New York Times, March 10, 2025. A must-read Times visual investigation of how President Yoon tried to launch a coup and failed.

• Robert Kagan, “Trump Is Offering Putin Another Munich,” The Atlantic, March 7, 2025. One of America’s premier historians and commentator’s compares Trump’s efforts to get peace in Ukraine with Chamberlain’s disasters effort to stop Hitler. “Neville Chamberlain believed that Hitler wouldn’t violate the Munich deal because Hitler respected him. Trump shares that delusion about Putin. We may all pay the price.”

• Lawrence Freedman, “Putin’s Dilemma,” Comment is Freed, March 11, 2025. Britain’s longtime student of war describes how Putin may be cornered by Ukraine and Trump and what he might do to get out of it.

Finally, in case you missed it here are links to articles I wrote, interviews I did, and a synopsis of my weekly podcast on world news.

• “What Trump Doesn’t Understand About NATO,” America Abroad, March 7, 2025.

• “It’s Time for a New Trans-Atlantic Bargain,” Foreign Policy, March 7, 2025.

• “World Review: Putin Stalls Ceasefire & Europeans See Trump as a Threat,” America Abroad, March 14, 2025.

• “Ivo Daalder: The Future of NATO,” Bright Minds Podcast, March 11, 2025.

• “Ivo Daalder on Trump, Putin, and Ukraine,” CNN With Brianna Keller, March 13, 2025.

Happy reading and listening!