John Metzler

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John J. Metzler is a longtime U.N. correspondent who has reported from fifty-five countries and regularly visits Europe and the Far East to observe national elections, conflicts, and economic development.

He is the author of Divided Dynamism; The Diplomacy of Separated Nations Germany, Korea and China (University Press of America, 1996). Mr. Metzler writes weekly for Free Press International.

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China’s pandemic casts U.S. ally Taiwan in a whole new light

FPI / August 20, 2020 By John J. Metzler A visit by an American Secretary of Health to an East Asian ally would seemingly not register much media attention, especially during the Summer. But in the age of global Corona and the deadly spread of the Covid-19 virus, health certainly matters. So, when U.S. Secretary […]

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‘Independent inquiry’ demanded as blast shakes Beirut to its core

FPI / August 16, 2020 By John J. Metzler The massive double blast which rocked Beirut harbor brought near cataclysmic damage to the Lebanese capital. Yet as the dust settled on this tragedy, with 200 dead and 5,000 injured, the political and economic reverberations of the explosion have shaken Lebanon to the core and threatened […]

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CCP hackers take aim at Vatican diplomatic intel

FPI / August 9, 2020 By John J. Metzler The story comes right out of a Dan Brown mystery thriller in which Vatican secrets are targeted by State sponsored computer hackers. Yet according to cyber security sources, the intrusion into sensitive Vatican diplomatic traffic is not fiction, but a cold hard fact of modern espionage. […]

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Turkey’s Erdogan sparks controversy with Hagia Sophia conversion

FPI / July 30, 2020 By John J. Metzler Its very name Hagia Sophia evokes the ancient mysteries of Byzantium. Its setting along the Golden Horn on the majestic Bosphorus joining Europe and Asia in itself serves as a beacon for uniting world religions. Yet this magnificent church which has weathered the march of time […]

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Barr’s indictment of CCP did not spare Hollywood, Silicon Valley

FPI / July 23, 2020 By John J. Metzler In a sweeping, scathing and searingly poignant speech, U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr swept back the curtain on China’s communist regime in a tour de force rarely seen. His focus centered not only on China’s rulers menacing their own people and those of East Asia, but […]

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Russia and China veto humanitarian aid for starving Syria twice in a week, with the click of a mouse

FPI / July 17, 2020 By John J. Metzler A devastating decade old war, a deteriorating humanitarian situation, and a deplorable inability of the international community to stop the conflict, underscores Syria’s tragic fate. The failure of the UN Security Council to ease the suffering, callously blocked by Russia and China, tragically highlights the shared […]

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Hong Kong now ‘just just another communist-run city’

FPI / July 10, 2020 By John J. Metzler Beijing’s tightening noose on Hong Kong foretells many things both in the successful city state as much as throughout the opaque vastness of China itself. Clearly, the widening communist political crackdown on Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms was expected given the successful city-state’s thriving democracy. Despite […]

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FDR overlooked Korea; Solving ‘forgotten war’ key to Asian peace

FPI / July 3, 2020 By John J. Metzler Seventy years ago, on June 25, 1950, North Korean troops attacked South Korea launching an unexpected military blitz. Kim Il-Sung’s communists had as their aim the forcible reunification of the divided Korean peninsula, itself a recent legacy of Japan’s defeat in WWII. The South was stunned […]

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Musical chairs at the UN with a little help from Celine and Bono

FPI / June 25, 2020 By John J. Metzler It’s one of those rites of late Spring when members of the UN’s General Assembly come together to choose five new non-permanent members of the fifteen-member Security Council. But what’s usually a spirited but pro-forma election of candidates, this year was carried out in the shadow […]

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President at West Point: ‘We are ending the era of endless wars’

FPI / June 18, 2020 By John J. Metzler In a surprisingly understated but inspirational address to the cadets on the historic Parade Field, President Donald Trump spoke to the graduating class of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. But the remarks to 1,100 newly minted second lieutenants in the U.S. Army was not […]

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‘Experts’ wrong again: America’s stunning jobs surge

FPI / June 11, 2020 By John J. Metzler Defying all expectations, the U.S. job numbers surged back in early June in a surprise and stunning rebound. While the usual gaggle of “experts” were somberly predicting an additional eight or nine million job losses, the actual numbers showed 2.5 million jobs gained! Despite massive job […]

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After prevailing at WHO, will China kill the ‘golden goose’?

FPI / May 28, 2020 By John J. Metzler The World Health Organization (WHO) held its annual Assembly with barely a mention of the member state which brought this UN agency so much political grief — China. But this year’s Assembly convened not in the alpine splendor of its Geneva headquarters, but in virtual reality […]

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Shaken global economy looking for West to turn the tide

FPI / May 22, 2020 By John J. Metzler After years of consistent economic expansion and growth throughout much of the world, the global economy is facing tectonic shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic. For developed states such as the United States and Western Europe, the “unseen enemy” of the virus has shattered economic forecasts and […]

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Powerful U.S. economy neutralized by ‘invisible enemy’

FPI / May 14, 2020 By John J. Metzler Can we economically sustain a prolonged lockdown? Well the stunningly high unemployment numbers for April, just over 20 million lost jobs, should answer that question and serve as yet another jolting wake-up call that while we are wisely protecting ourselves from wider exposure to the deadly […]

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No lockdown in Syria as conflict that killed 500,000 continues

FPI / May 8, 2020 By John J. Metzler Syria’s devastating conflict continues despite the spread of coronavirus and calls by the international community for a ceasefire to stop the fighting which has continued for over nine years and killed more than 500,000 people. Now, an uneasy calm seems to be setting in as the […]

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