ENDY ZEMENIDES

The Sinwar reset

“Although the Middle East remains beset with perennial challenges, the region is quieter than it has been for decades.”

For the better part of two years, every Greek interlocutor I encountered had a version of the same question: “In a country as big and dynamic as the United States, are Donald Trump and Joe Biden really the only two presidential candidates you can come up with?”

05.01.2024 / 21:46

Blinken should build back better when he meets Mitsotakis

As Antony Blinken visits Greece, it is fair to wonder whether this is his last trip as US Secretary of State.

11.12.2023 / 13:34

A genuine transformation?

One year ago, if an analyst predicted that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would have signed a document committing “to refrain from any statement, initiative or act likely to undermine [the Athens Declaration on Friendly Relations and Good-Neighborliness] or endanger the maintenance of peace and stability in [the] region” and to “resolve any dispute between [Greece and Turkey] in an amicable manner through direct consultations between them or through any other means as provided for in the United Nations Charter,” they would have been laughed out of the room.

06.08.2023 / 20:20

Beyond the hyperbolic headlines

Over the last several years, July has been a key month for advancing a pro-Hellenic legislative agenda in the United States Congress.

25.07.2023 / 21:37

Cutting through noisy diplomacy

“Is Turkey fundamentally reassessing its pro-Western foreign policy?” Fareed Zakaria’s question to Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on June 4 made me turn up the TV volume.

30.05.2023 / 21:46

The tragedy of US-Turkish relations

Recep Tayyip Erdogan will soon start his third term as Turkey’s president. There will be much hand-wringing over whether he regained power through “free and fair elections” (he didn’t), what this means for democracy in Turkey (not good) and whether his victory was really better for stability in the region and Greece’s security (it isn’t).

26.02.2023 / 14:13

Be Like Mike

The fourth round of the US-Greece Strategic Dialogue in Athens this week was by all accounts another positive step towards a deepening strategic relationship.

14.11.2022 / 08:00

US Election 2022: Winners, losers and what it means for the next two years

Post-election analyses almost always describe what just passed as “historic” elections. The 2022 midterms will instead be remembered as “history defying” elections. A “red wave” was predicted – and rightly so.

05.07.2022 / 23:51

Washington’s Stockholm syndrome

Over the past five years, US-Turkey relations have featured a consistent attempt at “hostage diplomacy” by Ankara.

21.06.2022 / 10:18

The immorality of neutrality

At the end of his presidency, Barack Obama eulogized Elie Wiesel as “one of the great moral voices of our time, and in many ways, the conscience of the world.”

21.02.2022 / 21:30

Dangerous double standards

Advocating for justice for Cyprus in Washington, DC requires levels of commitment and stamina that most people do not appreciate.

24.01.2022 / 18:07

It’s not the pipeline, stupid

In 1992, the Clinton campaign adopted the tagline “It’s the economy, stupid” to identify the candidate’s signature issue.

10.01.2022 / 11:14

How critical is Greece to the US?

The final quarter of 2021 was certainly a noteworthy one for the United States-Greece bilateral relationship.

12.04.2021 / 12:02

The Turkish dictator and President Biden

Nearing 20 years in power, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now dealing with his fourth United States president.