Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- October 26, 2017

US and South Korean destroyer ships travel in the western Pacific Ocean in May of 2017. (Reuters / Courtesy of the US Navy)

Tim Shorrock, The Nation: The United States and North Korea Are Edging Into Increasingly Dangerous Territory

But there is still a way to avoid war, and it begins with talks between the two sides, not escalating threats.

“There’s battle lines being drawn,” Stephen Stills sang in the 1960s about the war in Vietnam. Today those same words can be applied to the escalating confrontation between the United States and North Korea over the latter’s nuclear-weapons and missile programs.

That conflict will be front and center when President Donald Trump pays his first state visits to Japan and South Korea in November. In Japan, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe—Trump’s closest friend in the region—just won a smashing reelection victory, Trump will be honored with an audience with the country’s aging emperor and his usual golf game with the hawkish Abe.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- October 26, 2017

Is America Losing Its Credibility with the Middle East? -- Amitai Etzioni, National Interest

It’s Too Early to Pop Champagne in Baghdad: The Micro-Politics of Territorial Control in Iraq -- Erica Gaston and Andras Derzsi-Horvath, War On The Rocks

Inside China’s secret ‘magic weapon’ for worldwide influence -- James Kynge in London, Lucy Hornby in Beijing and Jamil Anderlini in Hong Kong, Financial Times

Xi’s former associates, classmates dominate Politburo -- Jeff Pao, Asia Times

In Partnering With Nigeria’s Abusive Military, the U.S. Is Giving Boko Haram a Lifeline -- Hilary Matfess, WPR

Post-War Syria: The Next Big Crisis Between Russia and America? -- Nikolas K. Gvosdev, National Interest

‘The Disruption of Fact’: How the Kremlin Leverages Disorder -- Steven L. Hall, Cipher Brief

Don't Give up on Moldova -- Andrew Foxall, National Interest

In Sunni North Africa, fears of Iran’s Shi’ite shadow -- Jonathan Laurence, Reuters

The Niger Ambush Signals Next Likely ISIS Fight -- John McLaughlin, OZY

Time to Step Back From the War on Terror -- Erik Goepner & Trevor Thrall, War on the Rocks

The world’s most powerful passport is no longer European -- Thu-Huong Ha, Quartz

Don't Be Distracted by the Trump Dossier Fuss -- Timothy L. O'Brien, Bloomberg

Why Clinton Camp's Funding of the Trump Dossier Matters -- Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg

Why Clinton Camp's Funding of the Trump Dossier Matters -- Leonid Bershidsky , Bloomberg