#wartime-leadership

#wartime-leadership

I've always been interested in structure and teamwork. Growing up, I was very active in sport. I wrestled competitively and was ranked in the province. That taught me discipline and the importance of working together towards a common goal.

Four days into this situation in the skies over Tehran, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said, 'We're not at war right now.' This was, rather, a 'very specific, clear mission-an operation.' Operation does seem to be the preferred word in government talking points, even as it encompasses assassinating an ayatollah, torpedoing an Iranian naval ship, blowing up fuel depots and a desalination plant, and losing the lives of (so far) eight American service members along the way.

It's a very transactional presidency, and our job is to navigate this, to always remember that the friendship between the United States and the United Kingdom runs very deep. It's a good relationship. It's enduring, and I think it will outlast all the personalities involved.

WWII began with most naval powers still believing the battleship ruled the seas. Fleets were built around heavily armored ships with massive guns meant to destroy enemy navies in decisive surface battles. By the war's end, that thinking had changed dramatically. Aircraft carriers could strike targets hundreds of miles away, while submarines choked off supply lines across entire oceans.

Anthony Glees, Emeritus Professor at the University of Buckingham, called the US and Israeli decision to attack Iran a 'war of choice' and the first red flag which previously led to the last two world wars. He claimed that the conflict in the Middle East did not start out of necessity or self-defense, but as a deliberate decision by two leaders focused on gaining power and keeping it.

In 2003, Blair said there was no option but to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the U.S. Many in Europe agreed-in 2000, 82% of Britons and 62% of the French were "favorable" towards the US. The Western global agreement was strong, politically and economically. America had secured western Europe after the Second World War and there was much to be grateful for.

American diplomats are supposed to represent the nation, advocate for the interests and policies of the U.S. government, and stay on generally good terms with the country to which they're assigned. Even when they are sent to places that have an adversarial relationship with the United States, they are expected to maintain decorum while conveying messages these regimes may not want to hear.

The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, inspired a wave of enthusiastic nodding among the cosmopolitan crowd gathered in Davos last month when he took to the podium and proclaimed that the world order underwritten by the United States, which prevailed in the west throughout the postwar era, was over. The organizing principle that emerged from the ashes of the second world war, that interdependence would promote world peace by knitting nations' interests together in a drive for common security and prosperity, no longer works.

Host Ben McPartland is joined by The Local France's Emma Pearson, John Lichfield, and Emma Albright. We look at what's made the news in France this week - from Le Pen's appeal, a controversial price hike for museums for visitors from outside the EU, and the latest on those farmer protests. You can find the Talking France podcast on Spotify or Apple, download here or listen on the link below.

Though the 83-year-old (who will turn 84 in two weeks) is rarely spotted in the Capitol these days, his vocal opposition to President Donald Trump on a myriad of issues is louder and more present than ever when deemed useful for the motivated liberal press. For instance, McConnell was quoted far and wide last month after he criticized Trump's desire to acquire Greenland, a move the Kentuckian suggested would "incinerate" the threadbare alliance that remains between the United States and NATO.

From George Washington's first presidential "administration" to Donald Trump's promises to cut taxes "bigly," U.S. presidents have played a big role in shaping the direction of the country, including the words we use to talk about everything from national politics to everyday objects and actions.

There are more signs that the United States is disengaging from the global order established after World War II. President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to pull out of more than 60 agencies, half of them part of the United Nations. Trump argues that being a member of these organisations is contrary to his country's interests. The secretary of state went as far as saying they're useless or wasteful.

Until recently, the terms were relegated mostly to the pages of dusty history books. But President Trump is leaning heavily on his own understanding of these concepts to justify his attack on Venezuela, his bullying tactics aimed at acquiring Greenland and his latest threats to strike Iran. At a news conference this month, Trump said U.S. troops captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

Half the time he disagreed with it, but I felt good about that. I thought that was a really healthy thing.