What Caught My Eye (no. 40)

Some interesting articles and podcasts that caught my eye this week

Here’s this week’s edition of articles I thought worth reading and sharing. Don’t hesitate to recommend your own reads; I may include some as well.

• James Mackintosh, “Is America Heading for a Debt Crisis? Look Abroad for Answers,” The Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2025. The Journal’s Investment Editor argues the U.S. risks a bond-market shock similar to the U.K.’s “Truss moment,” with politics unable to reconcile the trilemma of taxes, spending, and borrowing. The United States is protected for now only by the dollar’s reserve-currency status. He flags four overlapping threats to that shield, the surging supply of Treasuries, China’s incremental de-dollarization, concerns over reserve safety, and alienation of allies. The “easy” fix is fiscal: the U.S. has the G-7’s lowest tax take and comparatively low public spending, so modest, growth-friendly revenue increases would stabilize debt more safely than politically fraught cuts.

• Martin Sandbu, “Europe needs a plan for decoupling from America,” Financial Times, November 30, 2025. The FT’s economics commentator, argues that Trump’s repeated attempts to force Ukraine into an unfavorable peace with Russia show Europe can no longer rely on the U.S. as a stable partner. He calls for an EU strategy of “managed decoupling” from the U.S. across trade, finance, and defense. Europe’s reliance on America, he concludes, is a learned habit and Europe must start unlearning it now.

• Ben Rhodes, “This Is the Story of How the Democrats Blew It on Gaza,” The New York Times, December 6, 2025. Rhodes, a former Deputy National Security Advisor during the Obama Administration, argues that Democrats undermined their own values and political coalition by giving Netanyahu’s government near-unconditional support after October 7th. The “hug Bibi” strategy ignored Israeli abuses while failing to secure restraint or progress toward peace. He says this posture made Democrats appear hypocritical on human rights and democracy, alienated younger and progressive voters, and ultimately strengthened both Netanyahu and Trump. Rhodes contends that reorienting the party around clear moral principles is both the right thing to do and the key to rebuilding a credible, future-focused Democratic coalition.

• “Why Iran is making surprising overtures to America,” The Economist, November 27, 2025. Despite being battered by a joint U.S.–Israeli bombing campaign just months earlier, Iran’s leadership is unexpectedly signaling openness to a new deal with Washington. Iran is seeking talks from a position of weakness: its proxy networks have been gutted, its nuclear program set back, and its domestic situation is deteriorating under economic crisis, drought, mismanagement, and widespread public discontent. The Iranian leadership appears willing to bend long-standing positions to secure regime survival—though whether this signals real strategic change or merely tactical adaptation remains uncertain.

• Andrew Green, “The End of Ending AIDS,” Foreign Policy, December 1, 2025.
  Green reports that the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to PEPFAR, long the backbone of global HIV progress, are unraveling years of gains. The cuts have reversed decades of progress towards the global “95-95-95” goal of having 95% of people with HIV know their HIV status, 95% of HIV-positive people on retrovirals, and 95% of people diagnosed with HIV having their virus suppressed. The consequences are already visible: rising new infections, lost access to care, and vulnerable patients contracting HIV after support programs vanished.

• “Europe is going on a huge military spending spree,” The Economist, December 1, 2025. Europe is rapidly rearming as it faces a resurgent Russia and an increasingly unreliable United States. EU initiatives like the €150 billion SAFE fund and the National Escape Clause have been pillars of the effort, while NATO members have pledged to raise military budgets to 3.5% of GDP for core defense by 2035. While it will be difficult to replace key U.S. capabilities, the resources exist. What remains uncertain is whether European governments can muster the political will to prioritize defense over domestic pressures and resist far-right parties sympathetic to Moscow.

• The National Security Strategy, November 2025. The Trump administration’s long-awaited NSS makes some shocking, yet unsurprising, changes to U.S. strategy. Particularly it focuses on “civilizational erasure” in Europe and now opposes “activities of the European Union.”

• “Why Russia Won’t Agree to Peace Without Ukraine’s ‘Fortress Belt,’” The Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2025. A video from The WSJ on the series of fortified cities in Donetsk Oblast at the center of current fighting and one of the obstacles in peace negotiations. The cities of Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, and Kostyantynivka, currently held by Ukraine, are geographically situated as a key defensive line, one Russia wants either through force or diplomacy.

• Lawrence Freedman and Ryan Evans, “The Last Stand Dilemma in Ukraine,” War on the Rocks Podcast, November 20, 2025.
  Distinguished strategist Lawrence Freedman joins host Ryan Evans to discuss Ukraine’s most painful strategic question: when to commit scarce forces to hold a collapsing defensive position, and when to withdraw to preserve combat power for future lines. They discuss the battle for Pokrovsk while analyzing how each side’s “theory of victory” shapes these decisions.

Finally, in case you missed it here are links to some of the things I did and wrote this week.

• I explained how the chaotic effort to end the war in Ukraine by the Trump administration is mainly due to the absence of a formal policy process in my latest Politico Europe column.

• I assessed Trump’s new National Security Strategy on America Abroad, arguing that it was profoundly unserious document, reflecting a deeply unserious president, but no less the dangerous for that.

• Finally, this week’s World Review covered the latest on Ukraine, the boat strikes in the Caribbean, and Trump’s berating of Europe.

Happy reading, watching, and listening!