All posts tagged: Rubios

How Iran is exposing Vance and Rubio’s 2028 rivalry

How Iran is exposing Vance and Rubio’s 2028 rivalry

Published by Sam Flores

Presidents historically have at least paid lip service to the idea that they are supposed to consult Congress before launching a military action. While it’s usually obvious they will proceed anyway, they have nonetheless made the effort, if only to obtain the political cover they might need should things not go as planned. In the case of Donald Trump’s current misadventure in Iran, it’s becoming clear there was no plan — and since the president feels he is owed support for anything he does, he didn’t even bother with the niceties.  Since Vietnam at least, this dynamic has tended to put Democrats in a bind more often than Republicans. The reason for that is simple: The GOP has traditionally been unified in its zeal to go to war, while Democrats have been more divided. For a couple of decades, this caused Democratic presidential aspirants to twist themselves into pretzels trying to find a sweet spot between the party’s anti-war base and its more hawkish minority.  Now, as Trump’s war with Iran is intensifying and expanding, Republicans …

Marco Rubio’s Impressive Speech – The Atlantic

Marco Rubio’s Impressive Speech – The Atlantic

Published by José Betancourt

As Cabinet members snarl at representatives and senators, and social media fills with semiliterate trolling and insults by public officials, we need to remember that rhetoric—the art of persuasive speech—still matters. Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, gave an excellent demonstration of that fact at this year’s Munich Security Conference. Any contemporary speech carries the burden of multiple audiences. In this administration, the first and most important is the volatile and tempestuous president. But at Munich, there are other audiences as well: those in the room who represent not only a European but a global national-security elite; European and other politicians outside the room who care chiefly about domestic politics but are aware of international politics; real and potential enemies; and an American audience taking the measure of its country’s leaders. Delivering speeches at Munich is a perilous business. In 2018, Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster gave a podium-thumping address about nuclear proliferation and jihadists. A month later he was sacked; he’d received a tweeted dressing-down in midair on the way back for having …

Rubios Rede und Beweise im Mordfall Nawalny – POLITICO

Rubios Rede und Beweise im Mordfall Nawalny – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Rixa Fürsen und Gordon Repinski analysieren und bilanzieren den Samstag auf der Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz. Die Ansprache des US-Außenministers Marco Rubio war versöhnlicher als viele erwartet hatten. Wie schon bei JD Vance vor einem Jahr ging es um Sicherheit und Migration, zugleich betonte Rubio das gemeinsame Wertefundament zwischen Europa und den USA. Gordon und Rixa ordnen ein, was diese Rede für das transatlantische Verhältnis bedeutet, wie sie aufgenommen wurde und sie sprechen darüber, wie die Ukraine in Rubios Rede keine Rolle spielte. Parallel bestimmte eine weitere Nachricht den Konferenztag. Neue Untersuchungsergebnisse legen nahe, dass Alexei Nawalny eindeutig vergiftet wurde. Gordon hat im POLITICO Pub mit seiner Witwe Julia die Erkenntnisse gesprochen, über politische Verantwortung und über die Frage, ob es eine Opposition in Russland geben kann. Auch Wolodymyr Selenskyj äußert sich auf der Pressekonferenz zur Debatte um Nawalny und setzte dabei klare Prioritäten. Im Pub trafen US-Senatoren, NATO-Vertreter und europäische Spitzenpolitiker aufeinander. Die Diskussionen drehten sich um Verteidigungsfähigkeit, strategische Fehlannahmen in der Kriegsprognose und die Rolle Europas in einer sich verändernden Sicherheitsordnung. Und: Ein Blick hinter …

Marco Rubio’s Empty Victory in Venezuela

Marco Rubio’s Empty Victory in Venezuela

Published by José Betancourt

In early 2019, Marco Rubio pressed his way through a dense crowd near Colombia’s border with Venezuela, his aides holding back refugees clamoring for a handshake or a photo with the man heralding the imminent arrival, they all felt sure, of liberty for Venezuelans. With his polo shirt dotted with sweat and a Venezuela Libre cap shielding his face from the tropical sun, the then-senator made an urgent appeal to the country’s security forces: Do the right thing and defy Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian orders. “In every person’s life there sometimes comes a key moment,” Rubio said, “when they have to make a decision, a decision that will define the rest of their life.” This may be that defining moment for Rubio, Donald Trump’s secretary of state, national security adviser, and, now, unofficial Venezuelan viceroy. Maduro’s ouster begins to fulfill an objective central to Rubio’s political identity: ending the reign of Latin America’s leftist strongmen. But it leaves a tandem goal—replacing them with democratically elected governments—nowhere closer to reality. That latter objective is instead colliding with …