Richard N. Haass
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Richard N. Haass
Richard N. Haass
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Richard Nathan Haass is an American diplomat. He was president of the Council on Foreign Relations from July 2003 to June 2023, prior to which he was director of policy planning for the United States Department of State and a close advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell in the George W. Bush administration. In October 2022, Haass announced he would be departing from his position at CFR in June 2023. He was succeeded by former U.S. trade representative Michael Froman. .. more

Political science 75%
Economics 14%

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Unhappy Hanukkah (December 19, 2025)

Welcome to Home & Away. It has been a disquieting, unsettling week. Three awful things happened, any one of which would have been more than enough to make us uneasy.

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The Affordability Dilemma (December 12, 2025)

Welcome to Home & Away. The word “dilemma” tends to be misused, but it applies in what I am about to write. Poll after poll (and election after election) show that Americans are increasingly feeling the pain of the rising cost of living, specifically the costs of housing, electricity, health care, and food. “Affordability” is the word of the season. President Trump wants to show that he understands popular frustrations and will fix it. This explains everything from his copasetic

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Special Edition: America Adrift (December 8, 2025)

Welcome to this special edition of Home & Away. It is devoted to the just released National Security Strategy. Most such documents can be skimmed or safely ignored. Not this one. As I explain in the piece printed below from Project Syndicate, it constitutes the biggest redirection of U.S. foreign policy since the end of World War II and the dawn of the …

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The Fog of Peace (December 4, 2025)

Welcome to Home & Away. I hope it arrives to find you slowly shedding any pounds you gained during Thanksgiving, adapting to the cold weather in much of the country, and accepting the reality that the year is now 11/12 over.

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Peace in Our Time (November 23, 2025)

Welcome to this special edition of Home & Away. I am well aware I promised you and me that I would take the week off, but events (as increasingly seems to be the case nowadays) conspired to motivate me to produce what you will find below.

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Things Happen (November 21, 2025)

Welcome to Home & Away. I am just back from the nation’s capital, where I went to attend the memorial service for Dick Cheney at the National Cathedral. It was good to hear the tributes to an individual committed to public service, and the image of two former presidents (Bush and Biden) along with three former vice presidents (Gore, Pence, and Harris) sitting together comfortably made for a welcome reminder of another Washington. The absence of anyone from the Trump administration underscored that the principal divide in today’s Washington is less between Republicans and Democrats than it is between traditionalists prepared to work within the existing political system and radicals who favor breaking long-standing norms and policies.

Reposts 0 Nov 21

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Shutting Down the Shutdown (November 14, 2025)

Welcome to Home & Away. A lot has happened over the past week. The longest shutdown in the country’s history has been shut down. Why a handful of Democrats compromised when they did, though, is unclear given that a plurality of Americans placed most of the blame for airport slowdowns and the loss of food assistance on Republicans. And last I checked, Democratic candidates did pretty well in the recent elections.

Reposts 0 Nov 14

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Men of War, Rest in Peace (November 7, 2025)

Welcome to Home & Away. Here in New York City much of the conversation is about the new mayor. The vote was more decisive than many predicted, as Zohran Mamdani won an outright majority of the votes cast. He proved to be the best candidate. He ran on doing something about the high cost of living at a time many New Yorkers are finding it hard to make ends meet and worry that the future will only make it harder to do so.

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A Moment of Truce (October 30, 2025)

Welcome to Home & Away. President Trump spent much of the week in Asia. His meeting with Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, went as well as (or better than) anyone could have imagined given that a hallmark of this administration’s foreign policy has been to beat up on allies. Trump and Takaichi got off to an excellent start, which hopefully bodes well for America’s relationship with arguably its most important ally. It helped that she was an ally of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the foreign leader who had the closest relationship with Trump during his first term. Takaichi played up this connection, gifting Trump one of Abe’s putters.

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The Bulldozer (October 23, 2025)

Welcome to Home & Away. The title of this week’s newsletter – “The Bulldozer” – stems from President Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House or, to channel Prince, with the Wing formerly known as East. The East Wing, constructed over a century ago and modified several times since, housed the Office of the First Lady and the White House So…

Reposts 0 Oct 23