Interest in sober, fact-based and detailed analysis is waning in the USA, while supposed quick fixes are in growing demand. Daniel Drezner is a professor of international politics at Tufts University in Massachusetts. His new book “The ideas industry” assesses how public discourse on foreign policy has been changing in his country. The trends are worrisome.

Since July last year, more people have fled from warring South Sudan than from Syria in the whole year 2016. Most of them crossed the border to Uganda – almost a million South Sudanese have found shelter there. Uganda has an open-door policy towards refugees and shelters more than any other African country.

This week, the top leaders of the G20 will meet in Hamburg. For the first time, US President Donald Trump will represent his country in this setting. The big question is whether this summit will have better results than the G7 summit in Sicily in late May.

On Sunday, the US military shot down a Syrian aircraft. As a response, Russia has threatened to consider a target any plane that belongs to the US-led coalition fighting ISIS. Moreover, Russia has stopped the exchange of information with the US that served to prevent an escalation of the conflict. There now is a real risk of US forces clashing with Russian ones. The greater risk, however, is that the US may get involved in combat with Iranian forces and, ultimately, dragged into war in that country.