Beyond the Water's Edge

The Vandenberg Coalition brings you weekly roundups of news media pieces displaying honest candor in the foreign policy space. 

April 9, 2025

Since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 and Israel’s invasion of Gaza, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has frequently been mentioned as a good candidate to govern Gaza when the war ends.

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April 2, 2025

While China could grow its influence in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) over the course of the next four years, there are four principal reasons to cast doubt on this emerging narrative, at least in the short to medium term.

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March 26, 2025

Emboldened by its patron, Iran, Houthi drone and missile attacks have disrupted international shipping in the Red Sea since November 2023. In response, the Trump administration has launched a series of “decisive and powerful” airstrikes against the Houthis, with President Trump declaring that any future Houthi attack will be treated as an attack

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March 19, 2025

The independence of the Dalai Lama’s country has not survived, but his leadership has ensured that its people, culture, and religion have remained visible—crying out against oppression, demanding attention, and seeking only peaceful support

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March 12, 2025

The Arab plan adopted on a March 4 Summit in Cairo, which has no answer to the threat of Hamas, instead uses a hundred pages to take us back to pretty pictures of Arab architecture, nice charts and maps,

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March 5, 2025

To America’s detriment, policy makers have neglected the challenges facing the U.S. Department of Defense. From the military recruitment crisis to persistently inadequate defense budgets, the Pentagon finds itself without…

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February 26, 2025

On February 7-9 2025, the Vandenberg Coalition worked with award-winning polling company J.L. Partners to survey 1,017 registered voters on their views on the controversial Chinese app, TikTok. As Trump’s search for a deal continues, the American public’s views are clear:

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February 19, 2025

Trump has wonderfully challenged the Arab view of Gaza as central to the “steadfastness” needed against the Zionist enemy, and he has rightly called it inhuman. In fact, he has jettisoned the view that the most important thing about Gaza is its role in the “two-state solution” that will produce a new sovereign state of Palestine alongside Israel. It’s fanciful, and very, very unlikely.

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February 12, 2025

For two decades, what American policymakers have called “stability” has meant the preservation of the situation in which Gaza was entirely under Hamas control, Hezbollah dominated Lebanon,

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February 5, 2025

The Vandenberg Coalition has been an active voice in favor of preserving American security since our founding in 2021. There is no greater national security threat than the Chinese Communist Party

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January 29, 2025

The Vandenberg Coalition assembled a working group of Middle East experts to identify critical policy recommendations for the new administration to strengthen U.S. policy towards the Middle East and place that policy squarely in line with America’s interests.

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January 22, 2025

Despite the high-minded and noble ideas upon which they were founded, multilateral institutions like the United Nations have been hijacked by actors adversarial to the United States, such as China, Russia, Iran, and terrorist organizations.

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January 15, 2025

On Friday, January 10th, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for TikTok Inc. and ByteDance v. Merrick Garland. The Vandenberg Coalition is proud to have commissioned an amicus brief in support of the U.S. government’s effort against TikTok’s attempt to challenge

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January 8, 2025

The right path forward for the new Trump administration is not to give in to Iranian and Houthi attacks by removing our troops from Iraq and Syria, nor by removing the U.S. Navy from international waters in the Middle East — the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab.

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January 1, 2025

Jimmy Carter, who won the U.S. presidency in 1976 after serving one term as the governor of Georgia, brought an eclectic mix of experiences to office. He informed a foreign policy that fit no easy categorization.

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July 31, 2024

Last week, the Vandenberg Coalition convened leading experts to discuss the
relationship between anti-Americanism and antisemitism,

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July 24, 2024

The Vandenberg Coalition is pleased to release the latest episode of “How to
Win.” In this series, we speak with national security experts about the
threats to America’s national defense

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July 17, 2024

The International Criminal Court and the Justice vs. Democracy Problem | Only American Leadership Can Rally NATO to Fight the New Axis of Authoritarian Chaos

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July 10, 2024

The United States and the Venezuelan Election | Donald Trump Should Be the Least of Europe’s Concerns | The Jihadi-Leftist Convergence | The U.S. Must Secure Its Supremacy against China in AI and Cloud Computing | The Madness of Ceasefire

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June 26, 2024

Joe Biden’s Gaza Pier Plan Runs Aground | How the U.S. Can Beat the Kremlin in Moldova | America Must Not Alienate India and Japan as Conservative Democracies | The U.S. Counterweight in Mexico | All Eyes Should Be on Al Jazeera for Being Founded, Funded — and Directed — by Terrorists | Israel and the U.S. Need to Get Tough on Egypt

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June 19, 2024

Joe Biden Has Forgotten What Happened on Oct. 7 — but Israelis Can’t | NATO Must Bolster Front Lines: Summit Comes at Critical Time for Allies like Estonia | China’s War with Taiwan Is Already Underway | The G-7 Summit and Africa’s Infrastructure Gap | A Threat Like No Other: Russia-North Korea Military Cooperation | The Famine Has Been Canceled

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June 12, 2024

We Cannot Repeat the Mistakes of the 1930s | Biden’s Ukraine Mistakes Now Threaten to Punish Taiwan | D-day, 80 Years Later, Contains Lessons for Defending Taiwan | Biden’s Secret Support for Iran: America Is Far from Israel’s Best Friend | UN Secretary General Abuses His Authority | As Hezbollah Escalates Attacks at Iran’s Behest, Israel Must Stop an ‘Unsustainable’ Assault

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June 5, 2024

Putin’s Shadow War against Europe Is Intensifying | Europe Stumbles Toward Escalation With Russia Over Ukraine — Without a Strategy for Victory | Will the United States Boost Maduro in Venezuela’s Election? | Haiti Falls Deeper into Crisis | How Oct. 7 Enabled Iran to Advance Its Nuclear Program | Biden Tries to Take Victory off the Table | Without Africa, Biden’s Energy Policies Are a Win for China

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May 29, 2024

What the Death of Iran’s President Really Means | Unleash the Space Force | Biden Needs to Put Hamas’s American Hostages before Politics | How to Save Universities from Chaos | The Politics of Joe Biden’s Fear | A Theory of Victory for Ukraine

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May 22, 2024

Enough Mediating. America Should Deploy Its Might against Hamas | What a ‘Free Palestine’ Means in Practice | How Hamas Saved Egypt | How the Georgian Government, Once a U.S. Ally, Became an Adversary, against the Wishes of Its Protesting Citizens | The New Rules of Geopolitics in Africa

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Beyond the Water’s Edge May 15, 2024

The U.N.’s ‘Palestine’ Vote: Tinker Bell at Turtle Bay | Clash of Perceptions in Gaza | Biden’s Escalation Fears Have Dangerous Consequences | Unless Ukraine and Its Allies Agree on a Strategy, Peace in Europe Could Be Brokered by the Chinese | Next U.S.-China Chip Battle Will Require More than Export Control | On Israel, Biden Is No Reagan

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Beyond the Water’s Edge May 8, 2024

China Has Crossed Biden’s Red Line on Ukraine | Mexico and the United States Need to Talk About China Now | Crack Down on Anti-Semitic K–12 Curricula | The Next Six Months Will Be Critical for Moldova | The War in Gaza Hasn’t Stopped Israeli-Arab Normalization | With Chinese Warships Anchoring in Cambodia, the U.S. Needs to Respond

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Beyond the Water’s Edge May 1, 2024

Columbia’s War Is about America | The Axis of Upheaval | Economic Security is National Security | Young Adults’ Dependence on TikTok Shows Why They Need Civic Education | Support for Ukraine’s Freedom Strengthens Asia’s Security

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Beyond the Water’s Edge April 24, 2024

As Congress Debates Aid, Russia Is ‘Kidnapping’ Ukrainian Kids | Why You Can’t Be an Iran Hawk and a Russia Dove | The Importance of U.S. Leadership | Trade? What’s That? | How Washington Can Save its Semiconductor Controls on China

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Beyond the Water’s Edge April 17, 2024

A Troubling Milestone Indeed | Iran Attacks on Israel Spur Escalation Concerns | Strategic Rulemaking for Economic Security and Statecraft | The Widening Willpower Gap | Denying Russia’s Only Strategy for Success | China’s Cartographic Antics Signal the Logic of an Expanded Alliance with India

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Beyond the Water’s Edge April 10, 2024

No Substitute for Victory | Hamas’s Casualty Numbers Games | Affirm NATO’s High Performers | NATO’s Future is Churchillian, Not Wilsonian | Biden Is Dreaming It’s like 1918, but Israel Is Fighting Like It’s 1945 | Biden Loses the Plot on Israel | Red Alert in the Sahel | Russians Are Persecuting Ukrainian Baptists, Church Leaders Tell Speaker Johnson

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Beyond the Water’s Edge April 3, 2024

Whatever Happened to Biden’s Iran Policy? | Will Congress Abandon Ukraine? Here’s What’s at Stake in the War against Russia. | The UN Dithers, While Israel Stands Alone | China’s Defense Budget Has Only One Trajectory: Up | A World Full of Missiles | Test Run: Russia and China

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Beyond the Water’s Edge March 27, 2024

Joe Biden Should Not Abandon Maria Corina Machado | America’s Strategic Posture Is Slouching | 5 Highlights of Biden’s Most Recent Military Budget | TikTok’s Threat to America Is in a Category by Itself, It Must Be Heavily Regulated | Khamenei’s Strategy to Dominate the Middle East Will Outlive Him | Israeli-Palestinian Peace Must Reflect Reality | A Transition to War for the Arsenals of Democracies

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Beyond the Water’s Edge March 20, 2024

Dilemmas of Deterrence: The United States’ Smart New Strategy Has Six Daunting Trade-Offs | It’s Not Just a Theory. TikTok’s Ties to Chinese Government Are Dangerous. | The Russian Military Has Bigger Problems In Ukraine Than Lost Tanks | France’s Macron Turns Hawkish on Ukraine After What Amounts to a Brush With Reality | Beijing’s Motivation in China-Taliban Relations | Baltics to Fight Russia From the First Mile

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Beyond the Water’s Edge March 13, 2024

Congress Must Hold Biden Accountable for His Disastrous Haiti Policy | Rebuilding the Arsenal of Democracy | Will China Drive Its Electric Cars in from Mexico? | Hunting Jews: Europe OKs Banning the Practice of Judaism | China, Philippines at a Sea Fight Breaking Point

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