Danielle Pletka
Foreign Policy
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Past articles by Danielle:
How a GOP-Led House Can Strengthen Biden's
Republicans in Congress can help sharpen the Biden administration’s cautious internationalism and work to restore decisive U.S. global leadership. → Read More
Russian Propaganda Finds a Home in Italian Media
Since the Ukraine invasion, Italy has become a haven for pro-Kremlin disinformation and propaganda. → Read More
Why Does Israel Keep Assassinating Iranian Officials? Because It Works.
Targeting senior leaders critical to an enemy program makes strategic sense from Israel’s perspective. → Read More
The Qatarization of the Middle East
Gulf Arab countries are copying Qatar in hedging against U.S. power. Iran is thrilled. → Read More
China’s Olympics are at the center of a new axis of evil
Some years ago, when the 21st century was still young, the president of the United States used a State of the Union address to familiarize the American people with an “axis of evil,” a group of countries aligned with one another, bent on terrorizing those of us who believed in freedom and democracy. The charter members of that … → Read More
The Case for Defending the Little Guy
Sticking up for smaller powers and Westphalian principles is worth it. → Read More
Biden Is Midwife of the Next Iraq
America’s Iraq War era is over and a new era may dawn—if the United States doesn’t turn its back again. → Read More
Good Twitter: Smart takes on the riots in Iran
As anti-government protests in Iran escalate, AEI’s Danielle Pletka took to Twitter to ask colleagues and close observers whether the regime is at risk. Experts provided their feedback, detailing events on the ground, the nature of Iran’s police state, the risks a collapsing economy pose to the system of the Islamic Republic, and the stakes … → Read More
WTH is going on in Iran? Is the US headed for war?
What the hell is going on in Iran? Fred Kagan joined the podcast to discuss current US-Iran tensions and recent attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. → Read More
The anti-Trump hysteria isn’t helping
There’s plenty to say about Trump’s Helsinki performance, none of it good. The man was made a catspaw by Putin, and that’s the least of it. Working together in Syria? Moral equivalence between Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Putin? It was dreadful, even disgraceful—but it wasn’t treason. And the immediate reaction from many establishment figures was too much. → Read More
How Trump should define success in Syria
There is a way forward in Syria, and Donald Trump has more than once had the courage to stand up to those inside and outside his administration who have urged retreat. Russia will not go to war over Syria. Iran is much more invested in Assad than Russia, and likely to put up a determined resistance if we are not serious and committed. But with a strategy which consolidates and strengthens… → Read More
Rex, we hardly knew ye. And that was enough.
Tillerson's stewardship of the State Department was a fiasco. Here's what Mike Pompeo should do to restore its lost credibility. → Read More
Game of Thobes: Saudi Arabia
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has a lot of ideas, and many of them are good. But he is also naïve and young. → Read More
Tehran Stands Atop the Syria-Iran Alliance
If Assad is ever again to sit atop his nation, whole and entirely under his heel as it once was, it will be only because of outside forces. Russia’s role in controlling Syria’s leadership going forward may be at least partly in question. Iran’s role, however, is clear. Assad, or indeed any Alawite ruler that succeeds him, will serve solely at the pleasure of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). → Read More
President Trump’s Failing Leadership on Iran
If rolling back and diminishing Iranian power is the priority Mr. Trump insists it is, simply dumping the nuclear agreement in Congress’s lap may be the worst possible option. That would be politically easy, but it won’t get the job done. → Read More
Saudi Arabia: Out with MBN, in with MBS
Saudi King Salman today ousted his nephew and Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Nayef in favor of his son, the erstwhile Deputy Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. At the end of the day, however, nothing – not a new face in the palace in Riyadh, nor even a transformation of the Saudi approach to the world — will substitute for an American-led strategy in the region. → Read More
Donald Trump's new deal for the Middle East
Trump has enormous opportunities in the Middle East, and while there is little that can happen in Saudi Arabia (or Jerusalem or Rome) that will transform the man himself, there is much that can happen to transform a region that has bedeviled presidents for decades. → Read More
On foreign policy, Trump has become — gasp — a normal president
All we know now is what we see and don’t see. What we have seen from Trump in his early days as president is a man who is owning his burdens, one who wants to rebuild the deterrent power of the United States, one who is shocked by the horrors of war and one who is game to push back on enemies. All to the good. → Read More
Donald Trump's big test
What will Trump do? Will he stick with the tactical moves he embraced decisively in early April? Or will he move towards a clear strategy? Sooner or later, preferably sooner, the world will know. Until then, ISIS will keep fighting, Assad will keep using barrel bombs and chemical weapons, and Syrians will die. → Read More
What to do: Policy recommendations on the Middle East by AEI Scholars
AEI's Foreign and Defense Policy scholars weigh in on President Trump's decision to strike the Shayrat Airfield in Homs province, Syria. → Read More