Turkey's recent elections brought an unexpectedly strong win for President Recep Erdogan. Even so, opposition parties have a rare opportunity to influence policymaking, writes Middle East Fellow A.Kadir Yildirim in the Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/2txuhMm
President Donald Trump has announced that he will nominate CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. Fellow Joe Barnes analyzes the implications of this decision and assesses Tillerson's short tenure as head of the State Department in a new post for the Baker Institute Blog.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law a controversial "sanctuary cities" measure that allows police officers to ask people during routine stops if they are in the U.S. legally. Research analyst Pamela Cruz describes the legal fight to prevent the law's enforcement.
Aside from the massive cost of constructing a physical barrier along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, factors such as private and tribal land ownership and the impact on the environment must be taken into account.
In his first prime-time address to the nation, President Trump committed the United States to a sustained and, indeed, enhanced military presence in Afghanistan.
The fall of Mosul and the ongoing demise of the ISIS pseudo-state are good news, but they do not herald either an end to the jihadist terrorist threat nor promise an enduring solution to the ongoing conflicts that have afflicted Iraq and, especially, Syria, writes Bonner Means Baker Fellow Joe Barnes in this post for the Baker Institute Blog.
