National Security Council

Trump and Ukraine: Former Advisers Revisit What Happened

Trump’s ignorance of world affairs would have been a liability under any circumstance. But it put him at a pronounced disadvantage when it came to dealing with those strongmen for whom he felt a natural affinity, like President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. Once, while Trump was discussing Syria with Erdogan, Hill recalled: “Erdogan goes […]

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U.S. Makes Contingency Plans in Case Russia Uses Its Most Powerful Weapons

BRUSSELS — The White House has quietly assembled a team of national security officials to sketch out scenarios of how the United States and its allies should respond if President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — frustrated by his lack of progress in Ukraine or determined to warn Western nations against intervening in the war […]

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Biden Rehires National Security Staff Member Pushed Out Under Trump

A career National Security Council staff member under President Donald J. Trump, who was pushed out of her position after she refused to go along with an effort to use the powers of the federal government to silence one of Mr. Trump’s chief critics, has been rehired for the post by President Biden, two people […]

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Explaining Putin’s Decades-Long Obsession With Ukraine

I think they’re handling it as well as they can be, given the circumstances. Writ large, what the administration is doing right now is certainly what I would recommend doing. But I don’t know whether we can say if it’s going to work or not. The real test is going to be over a long […]

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Taliban and 9/11 Families Fight for Billions in Frozen Afghan Funds

WASHINGTON — Nearly 20 years ago, about 150 family members of Sept. 11 victims sought a measure of justice for their losses by suing a list of targets like Al Qaeda and the Taliban. A decade later, a court found the defendants liable by default and ordered them to pay damages now worth about $7 […]

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