Christmas Wishes to the UK on Defense

Lessons on Defence Policy from America in 2012, Centre for Policy Studies, December 29, 2011. "My wish is that Britain will in 2012 learn a lesson from America on its defence policy. The lesson is not simply that Britain should spend more money on defence. It certainly should do that, but Britain’s limited and steadily shrinking defence budget is only a symptom of Britain’s underlying problem. Its real problem is that, while America regrettably takes defence less seriously than it used to, it is still far better off than Britain, which no longer treats defence as a centrally important political issue. The lesson Britain should learn from America, therefore, is that defence is a core duty of the state, and it is worthy of appropriately serious political care and attention. My policy wish to Britain thus takes the form of three Christmas wishes."

The Price of Big Government That We're Not Paying

Government Must Be Both Limited And Competent, Yorkshire Post, December 27, 2011. "In his 1978 essay on “The Power of the Powerless,” the late Vaclav Havel wrote eloquently about the importance of that sign. Under Communism, a greengrocer puts a “Workers of the world, unite!” sign up in his window. He doesn’t care what the sign says, he cares what it means. And what it means is that he’s willing to say the conventional thing, to be obedient. He knows he’s sacrificing tomorrow, but he’s gaining security today. Havel wanted elections, and it was the glory of his life that he got them, and won them. But in a democracy, an elected government exists to govern. And that is where we are failing. We are excellent at holding elections. What we do not do is govern. Our system is not like the Communist regimes that Havel detested. But we want what the greengrocer wanted. We want a quiet life. The cost of that today is the sacrifice of tomorrow."

State-Based Factors in the 2012 Elections, Part 2

The Varying Fortunes of Red and Blue States, Part 2, Centre for Policy Studies, December 22, 2011. "When Henry Ford put the buggy whip manufacturers out of business, that was a good thing. But you’d never know this by listening to the President. All the evidence goes to show that he and his followers believe what they are saying. And that in turn goes some distance to explaining why America’s red states are growing, and why the President’s path to re-election in 2012 is narrow. In other words, if the fundamental advantage of the left in America is the rise of administrative and bureaucratic government, the fundamental advantage of the right is, as Lady Thatcher put it, that sooner or later socialism runs out of other people’s money."

Whatever It Is, It's Not Strategy

Biden on the Taliban: They Call It ‘Strategery', Contentions, December 21, 2011. "The problem is not that Obama and Biden are uninterested in the evidence of our failed efforts to engage the Taliban. The problem is that – as Max notes in another context – they want to get out of Afghanistan, and they believe that they can facilitate this in the American political context by depicting the Taliban as irrelevant to our security interests. And sadly, the evidence of the steadily-declining popular support for the war over the past year suggests that, politically, this calculation is correct."

Arms Trade Treaty Will Promote, Not Limit, Arms Sales

The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty Is A “Bulletproof” License to Sell, The Commentator, December 21, 2011. "The broader question is simple: how can a “bulletproof” treaty on the one hand require arms sellers to discriminate between good and bad regimes when supplying arms, and on the other hand demand that the treaty’s criteria not be applied in a discriminatory way? The answer is simple: this is not a “bulletproof” treaty. It is not even a serious one. In practice, the world’s bad actors will cite the treaty to justify selling arms anywhere they see fit, while the West’s activists will use it to try to curtail arms sales to democracies like Israel that they dislike."

State-Based Factors in the 2012 Election

The Varying Fortunes of Red and Blue States, Centre for Policy Studies, December 19, 2011. "What is striking is the number of firmly Democratic states that are delivering – and in many cases have delivered for decades – mediocre economic performances, frequently with huge pension bills impending to boot. Under the circumstances, it’s not surprising that they’re losing population."

Fog In Channel, Commentators Cut Off

Britain's 'Isolation', Contentions, December 18, 2011. "To me, the funniest – and most revealing – part of the entire affair is the argument that Britain will suffer for its ‘isolation.’ The nicer version of the argument holds that the EU is about to make a lot of rules – or, to be more exact, about to make even more rules – that will be bad for Britain, and Britain needs to be at the table to mitigate the damage they’ll do. The less nice version of the argument is that the EU, long generous and forbearing towards an ever-wayward Britain, will now lose patience and wreak a mighty vengeance upon it. Given the EU’s current difficulties, this makes me chuckle. No matter which version of the argument is proffered, though, it comes down to the underlying assumption that the EU is akin to a hostage-taker who punishes disobedience by his captives. That may be so. But if it is so, why stick around at all?"

If It Happened Here, What Would They Say?

The German 'Kebab Murders', Heritage Foundation Foundry, December 16, 2011. "What if in America there was a gang of neo-Nazis who, over the course of 14 years, murdered 10 people, nine of them “foreigners” and one a policewoman? What if the gang had also carried out a nail-bomb attack in an immigrant neighborhood? What if immigrant (in this case, Turkish) households and apartments were attacked with Molotov cocktails and spray-painted with Nazi SS symbols?"

Arms Trade Treaty Truths Revealed

Hypocrisy Alerts on the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, December 16, 2011. "There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the arms trade. One is that lots of nations supply arms to terrorists and dictators as a matter of policy, or because they simply want the money. Another is that many of the world’s nations do not control their own borders, or their own territory, and so are in no position to control the arms trade. Neither of these problems will be addressed by a treaty that, according to its own draft text, is supposed to be “non-discriminatory.” In other words, the treaty is at once supposed to encourage nations to be more discriminatory in their arms exports to other nations, and to be applied without discriminating against anyone. The U.S. is not going to leave the Second Amendment issues aside, but even if it did, the treaty’s internal hypocrisy is an excellent reason to believe that it’s not worth backing."

On Cluster Munitions, Stay the Course

U.N. Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons: What the U.S. Should Do, with Steven Groves, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #3434, December 16, 2011. "On November 25, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), a U.N.-based process through which participating nations adopt protocols to regulate or limit the use of conventional weapons, failed to reach agreement on a new protocol to regulate cluster munitions after four years of intensive negotiations. The U.S. had backed the new protocol but was defeated by a group of nations that have joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). The U.S. should recognize that the time is not ripe for any further negotiation. It should not attempt to restart the CCW process, nor should it sign the CCM. Rather, it should stay the course on its existing policy of phasing out less reliable munitions."

The Second Amendment and the UN Arms Trade Treaty

Why the U.S. Should Be Concerned About the Domestic Effects of the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #3430, December 13, 2011. "Negotiations for a new U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) are supposed to be finalized in July 2012. Some of its supporters argue it would have no “impact on the ability of individuals within the United States to acquire and possess firearms.” Even if this is true, it is not the only reason to be concerned about the treaty. But if the treaty comes before the Senate, its domestic effects will be of central importance. While the treaty is not yet complete, analysis of the current draft demonstrates that there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about its potential domestic effects."

Demography Is Not (Political) Destiny

Can There Be An Enduring Systematic Advantage in American Politics?, Centre for Policy Studies, December 12, 2011. "The quest for an enduring systematic, demographic advantage in American politics is doomed to failure. The evidence of the past 200 years is that, while one party or another can enjoy a temporary advantage, the nation is too large, too diverse and too mobile for either side to win in an enduring way. In other words, in American politics, there are permanent battles, but no permanent victories through demography. If one side does have an enduring advantage, it lies not in demography, but in the steady expansion of the bureaucratic and administrative state, which inherently favors the left and which threatens to make the normal governing activity of Congress steadily more irrelevant."

The Euro Deal: Building A Better Titanic

Why the Euro is Fighting a Losing Battle, with Sally McNamara, Foxnews.com, December 10, 2011. "The entire Eurozone economy hardly grew at all in the third quarter. This is not just a symptom of the crisis: it is a fundamental cause. Even if Greece abandons its fiscal sovereignty, it will still be 30 percent less competitive than Germany. A new European treaty might buck up the markets for a bit, but it won’t resolve the underlying issue. The EU’s effort comes down to promising to build a better Titanic next time: it does nothing to help the current passengers."

American Geographic and Electoral Mobility

Americans Move, But Will the Result Change?, Centre for Policy Studies, December 8, 2011. "The political effects of this shift are equally stark: in 2012, the Republicans will gain a net total of six electoral votes, if the states vote as they did in 2008. Of course it is unlikely that the state votes will remain unchanged, but the fact remains that President Obama will have to run harder in 2012 just to stay in place. The long-run trends of American geographical mobility are telling, slowly, against him."

Deficit Hawks and Deficit Chickens

Obama Plays the Card of Financial Responsibility, Yorkshire Post, December 2, 2011. "Playing the responsible spender card is shrewd from another point of view. Americans naturally look on Congress with a degree of disdain, while according the President the respect that goes with his office. Right now, the American people have no particular affection for Obama, but their opinion of Congress could hardly be worse. By positioning himself as the adult in the room, Obama plays to the American tendency to view Congress as a collection of squabbling children."

Why Obama's Coalition Is Collapsing

Obama Goes Back to Base As Support Ebbs Away, Yorkshire Post, October 27, 2011. "It’s a good thing for the President that he has the power of incumbency, because he doesn’t have much else going for him. The coalition that won him the 2008 election has fragmented, and it cannot be pulled back together again. Many of the individuals in it will undoubtedly support Obama in 2012, but the broader sense of purpose is gone."

Who Gets the Job Done?

Force, Not Law, Got Qaddafi, Contentions, October 24, 2011. "Dan Pipes observes that Qaddafi is the sixth former tyrant to be tracked down like a common criminal in the past decade – Milosevic, Karadzic, and Mladic from Serbia, Hussein in Iraq, Bin Laden in Pakistan, and now Qaddafi. Very true, but what stands out to me about this list is that none of these successes had much to do with Nuremberg-like processes, the International Criminal Court, or the U.N., no matter how much responsibility is attributed to them."

The Ends of Dictators

Comparing Qaddafi and Mussolini, Contentions, October 24, 2011. "They were both centers of cults of personality, relentlessly occupied in trying to stir up trouble, bitterly hostile to democracy and to every manifestation of liberalism, with an overblown crackpot ideology that masqueraded as a self-sufficient cure for all ills, and a brutal regime that was treated far more seriously than its accomplishments or the skills of its leader merited."

Are the Conservatives Too Unpopular?

Do Britain’s Conservatives Need More ‘Decontamination’?, Contentions, October 13, 2011. "The virtues of competence, which the Economist dismisses as “quibbles,” have in fact been central to Tory victories since the 1870s. Telling the Tories that they will win by getting nicer isn’t just unsupported by the evidence of 2010, where Cameron’s decontaminating A-List candidates, selected for winnable seats, did relatively poorly. It’s not supported by the history of the modern Conservative Party. What it comes down to is the Economist’s dislike, in particular, of Conservative Euroskepticism."

Nation-Building in 2012

Major Foreign Policy Addresses in the U.S. Campaign, Centre for Policy Studies, October 13, 2011. "Until Friday, as I noted last month, foreign policy played a mostly indirect role in the 2012 election campaign. In a way, that is no surprise: U.S. elections are rarely won or lost on foreign policy. But considered another way, it is a surprise. There is less daylight than one might think between conservatives on domestic issues: no creditable Republican candidate campaigns for bigger government, more regulation, and higher taxes. Foreign policy offers all the candidates an opportunity to stake out distinctive ground in an area that belongs particularly to the Oval Office."

On Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, Uniquely American, Contentions, October 6, 2011. "Jobs may at times have denied that technology could genuinely change life, but as President Obama said in his statement yesterday, he “exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity” and “changed the way each of us sees the world.” On the subject of change, the last word belongs to Jobs. When he sought to recruit Pepsi’s John Sculley – an ill-fated hire – to become Apple’s president in 1983, Jobs’ legendary pitch to a reluctant Sculley was pure and true: “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”"

How Much Do European Move Around?

European Mobility and the Euro, Contentions, October 6, 2011. "One regular criticism of the Euro has long been that Euroland is made up of, as Milton Friedman put it, “different countries [with] different languages, limited mobility among them, and they’re affected differently by external events.” A recent column by Jay Cost brings home just how low that mobility actually is."

Competence Matters

Obama’s Leadership is Devaluing the West, and We Will All Pay the Penalty, Yorkshire Post, October 3, 2011. "If governments want to succeed on big matters, they need to get the small ones right. So much of the everyday work of governing is tiring and dull, but it is important. Managing programs, proposing bills, and dealing with the legislature is the price of winning last time, and the stuff of victory next time. President Barack Obama is failing on the small stuff, and it is dragging his administration down in a big way."

Taking Bentham Seriously

No, Utilitarians Are Not Nice, Contentions, September 27, 2011. "It is all very well to suggest that legislation should seek to do more good that harm. But the problem with applying utilitarianism to legislation, in Bentham’s day or ours, is that someone has to decide which ends serve the greater good, just as the Ivy League experiments require someone to decide who lives and who dies, and just as top-down legislation in the progressive tradition requires wisdom that no single person possesses. This vision presumes the goal of legislation is control and direction, not the promotion of freedom under law."

More Solipsism on Drones

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall . . . , Contentions, September 26, 2011. "But what comes through most clearly in Finn’s article is that the issues raising concern about military robotics are ethical and legal, not strategic. Unfortunately, the current emphasis on drones – both from enthusiasts and skeptics -- repeats the fallacy that Fred Kagan addressed half a decade ago: the way that the U.S. focus on military transformation in the 1990s tended to convert war into “killing people and blowing things up,” at the expense of defining and achieving political objectives that can be advanced with the use of force."

Not Money, But Democracy

The Soft Underbelly of Europe, Contentions, September 23, 2011. "The underlying problem in Europe is not financial, or even economic. It is that we are no longer in the historical era of nation-making, and the entire raison d’etre of the EU is, indeed, to oppose nationalism. As former Europhile Max Hastings has recently confessed, that itself is a kind of narrow-mindedness. But it is madness to try to build an economic and political super-state on a base of contempt for the popular will and regular condemnations of nationalism, which historically is the force that has created unified body politics. Europe is not paying the price for too much borrowing. It is paying the price for too little democracy."

Cohen is Wrong on Drones

Asking the Wrong Questions About Drones, Contentions, September 23, 2011. "The larger problem is not that using drones undermines the confidence of our allies in uniform. It is that drones vastly reduce our ability to fight a counterinsurgency campaign by protecting local populations and collecting intelligence that allows us to prosecute the war more effectively."

The 2012 Race Shapes Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy Enters the 2012 Race, Centre for Policy Studies, September 16, 2011. "What is more interesting, though, is the way that the Democratic defeat in NY-9, which the victorious Republican framed as a referendum on President Obama, shows how foreign policy is slipping into the 2012 race, at a time when all eyes seem to be focused on the economy."

On 9/11, A Decade On

9/11 Reflection: Ted Bromund, Yale Daily News, September 9, 2011. "I wasn’t scared by 9/11. What scared me after 9/11 was the reaction I saw at Yale."

Obama's Top Ten Errors on Libya

Obama’s Top Ten Errors on Libya, Centre for Policy Studies, September 1, 2011. "Instead of focusing on the unknown – for we do not know what will come next in Libya – and trying to judge the war by its aftermath, we should give thought to the known, and judge the war by the consequences it has already produced. Here, therefore, are the top ten errors of President Obama’s conduct of the Libyan War to date."

The Decline and Fall of Victorian Values

Riots Reveal to World How Britain Has Lost Its Values, Yorkshire Post, August 31, 2011. "As the liberal media are always eager to remind us – because it promotes moral relativism – Britain before the Victorians was a drunken and disorderly place. The Victorians couldn’t solve this problem completely, but they did enough to recast the British character, and to make it more than a stereotype. In modern Britain, this Victorian order has been broken down."

The Flaws of the Land Mines Ban

The Flaws of the Ottawa Convention, National Security Policy Proceedings, Spring 2011. "The Ottawa Convention looks likely to become another ABM Treaty or International Criminal Court: a commitment made by one administration that—because it poses dangers to our security and our sovereignty—will force a sensible future administration to spend a good deal of time, energy, and political capital setting it right. Indeed, if we are not careful now, it will become a commitment from which any future administration will find it very difficult to escape."

Government Of, By, and For Baldrick

Charge of the Light Brigade Shows How U.S. Gets It Wrong, Yorkshire Post, August 1, 2011. "Governments are far from cunning. In that, they are like most everyone, except moreso. The problem is not that people in government are particularly stupid, or more evil than normal. It is that they have more power than anyone else, and they think they know what to do with it. The light bulb we need most isn’t a fluorescent. It’s the one that goes on when people realize that government can’t do it all, and shouldn’t try to."

UK Defense Spending Increases Insufficient

U.K. Defense Spending Increases: Welcome, But Not Enough, Heritage Foundation Foundry, July 26, 2011. "American commentators are beginning to react to a British announcement of a modest increase in defense spending. Any increase is welcome, but there is unfortunately a good deal less to this increase than meets the eye."

Senatorial Letter on Arms Trade Treaty

Forty-Five Senators Express Concern on U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, July 26, 2011. "On July 15, the U.N. wrapped up its third and final Preparatory Committee meeting on its Arms Trade Treaty. After a last gathering devoted to procedural matters in early 2012, the U.N. will call a concluding conference in 2012 to adopt the treaty and open it for national ratification. Unfortunately, while the most recent committee improved the treaty, it could not remedy the treaty’s fundamental flaws."

ATT Preparatory Committee: The July 2011 Update

The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty: Still Seriously Flawed, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #3322, July 21, 2011. "Previous meetings of the Preparatory Committee have made it clear that the treaty as contemplated poses serious threats to American liberties and interests, and to effective and serious diplomacy. The latest Committee meeting has not alleviated most of those concerns. But statements by both the Permanent Members of the Security Council and the European Union have at least reduced the supranational danger to U.S. sovereignty."

What Could Have Been in Libya

US Leadership Melts Away Into Sands of Libya Over Obama’s Foolish Humanitarian Foray, Yorkshire Post, June 24, 2011. "It didn’t have to be this way. Across the Middle East, the perception is growing that the U.S., in its haste to find the exit, has forgotten the ironclad rule of the region: reward your friends and punish your enemies. Instead, the U.S. is trying to pacify quarrels by slapping its allies down and allowing the worst of the dictators to slide by. From Obama’s perpetual jabs at Israel to his reluctance to speak out against the Assad regime in Syria, he is feeding the belief that the U.S. wants to bug out. A decisive NATO intervention against the Gaddafi regime would have demonstrated that West is not quitting, that it retains the will and the ability to act."

Obama and Commentators Speak. Please, Make It Stop

Nothing but Nonsense and Headaches, Contentions, May 26, 2011. "President Obama’s address to Parliament in Westminster Hall yesterday was of a piece with all his other major public statements. In fact, it was all of his other major public statements. Except for the boilerplate on Britain, it was the same speech he has been giving since his inauguration: unobjectionable generalities coupled with sketchy history, a rejection of false choices, and an assertion that everything he wants to achieve is modest, reasonable, and entirely in tune with the generalities, and thus barely counts as a choice at all. Will he ever get bored with false reasonableness?"

On Failing to Rise to the Occasion

Obama’s UK Speech: Rhetoric Cannot Substitute for Achievement, Heritage Foundation Foundry, May 25, 2011. "President Obama’s address to Britain’s Parliament in historic Westminster Hall was of a piece with many of his speeches: a mixture of soaring generalities and devils in the details, with some dubious history thrown in."

Question Time for Obama

What We’d Gain If Obama Had to Perform During Question Time in the House of Commons?, Fox News, May 25, 2011. "President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron spent part of yesterday playing ping pong, a sport that was invented in Britain. Cameron would have done better to introduce Obama to another of Britain’s distinctive institutions: question time in the House of Commons."

Less Special, More Relations, Please

U.S. Relations Must be Rooted in Reality Rather Than Rhetoric, Yorkshire Post, May 23, 2011. "It is not particularly depressing that there is little personal sympathy evident between Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama. Undoubtedly, the pomp and circumstance for which official Britain is famous will be deployed to effect, but the very fact that Obama is making a state visit testifies to the fact that, for Cameron, its significance rests mostly in its visible symbolism."

Will Ireland Go Bankrupt?

President Obama Visits the Irish Financial Crisis, with J.D. Foster, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #3266, May 20, 2011. "When President Obama visits Ireland on May 23–24, he is expected to visit Moneygall, in County Offaly, the ancestral home of his mother’s family. While finding Irish ancestors is a favorite electoral sport of American leaders, the President would be better advised to spend his time studying the Irish financial crisis, which has important lessons for America. If this crisis continues to deepen, the U.S. may be compelled to consider the implications of an Irish default. If default becomes inevitable, then the U.S. should not simply take the side of European institutions if doing so would uselessly prolong the crisis."

Britain's Defense and Obama's State Visit

What President Obama Should Tell Prime Minister Cameron About Britain’s Defense Cuts, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #3265, May 20, 2011. "During his state visit to the United Kingdom on May 24–26, President Barack Obama should speak clearly to Prime Minister David Cameron about the serious damage that the latest round of British defense cuts is doing to Britain’s armed forces. The Special Relationship between the U.S. and Great Britain rests in part on the desire of each nation to play a leading role in the world. Without capable armed forces, Britain cannot play this role. Thus, Britain’s defense cuts are bad not only for its forces but for the Anglo–American alliance."

Action Items for Obama's State Visit to Britain

What President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron Should Do to Preserve the Anglo-American Special Relationship, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #3264, May 20, 2011. "During his state visit to the United Kingdom on May 24–26, President Barack Obama should reaffirm the vital importance of the Special Relationship. This affirmation should go beyond words and address the tensions in the Anglo–American alliance that have built up during the President’s first two years in office."

Again with the Marshall Plan Analogy

Back to the Future, Again: A Mini-Marshall Plan for Egypt?, Heritage Foundation Foundry, May 19, 2011. "Absolutely none of the conditions that conduced to the success of the Marshall Plan are present in Egypt, which is a poorly-governed, corrupt, ill-educated country with a backwards economy and a political system that is trending strongly towards an alliance of military authoritarians and radical Salafis. The Marshall Plan does indeed show that, given good domestic governance, certain kinds of U.S. assistance can work. But the Marshall Plan was not a hand-out: it was conditioned in many ways, it was predicated on a shared acceptance of democracy and economic freedom, and it rested on the competent administration of Europeans."

The Special Relationship: What Must Be Done

Preserving the Special Relationship: A Conservative Agenda for President Obama’s State Visit to Great Britain, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2258, May 19, 2011. "The summit meeting in May between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron comes at an important moment in the Special Relationship between the United States and Great Britain. The two powers lead NATO, which has again proved that it is the only European and Atlantic institution capable of creating consensus and responding in a crisis. However, the political tensions and military failings exposed by the Libyan intervention reflect broader weaknesses in the Anglo–American alliance and in NATO as a whole. The President and the Prime Minister need to address these weaknesses forthrightly and not allow rhetoric about the Special Relationship to substitute for serious action to preserve it now and strengthen it for the future."

Lessons from a Forgotten Churchill Speech

Why Churchill’s Lessons on War and Peace Still Ring True Today, Fox News, May 13, 2011. "One of Churchill’s greatest speeches during this struggle came in 1934. His subject was simple: “The Causes of War.” In this broadcast, he dismissed the idea that the way to prevent war was to focus on teaching Britons to hate violence, for the threat to peace did not stem from Britain. It stemmed from “a nation which with all its strength and virtues is in the grip of a group of ruthless men preaching a gospel of intolerance and racial pride, unrestrained by law.” It stemmed from the nature of the Nazi regime. Americans would do well to remember, when we wonder at the actions of foreign regimes, that they behave as they do not because of our failures, but because of their own."

After Bin Laden, Now What?

Obama Has Shown His Leadership, But Now We Must See His Common Sense, Yorkshire Post, May 12, 2011. "After his election in 2008, President Barack Obama was occasionally lauded as the Reagan of the left, an orator of genius who would reshape the landscape of American politics for a generation. Two years later, the landscape was indeed reshaped – by the conservative landslide of 2010. The very scale of that loss evoked enough pity to give Obama a brief post-election bounce. The wonderful success of the strike against Osama Bin Laden has given him another one. But will it endure?"

Results of the AV Referendum

British Vote May Doom the Liberal Democrats, Contentions, May 9, 2011. "The irony of the AV referendum is that the Lib Dems thought it would make them into Britain’s third party. Instead, it may end up destroying them, and in the process return Britain to a two-party system, which is ideally suited to the first past the post system for which the British people have shown such enthusiastic support."

Looking Ahead to the AV Referendum

Britain Votes on the Vote, Contentions, May 3, 2011. "In a party political sense, AV runs the risk of making the Liberal Democrats the permanent king-makers in British politics. More importantly, though, it risks cementing the dominance of establishment convictions: it is not so much a particular party that will benefit as a particular approach to politics."

The Voting System's Not the Problem

Are We Voting for a Better Democracy or Simply Ignoring the Real Problems?, Yorkshire Post, May 29, 2011. "The fault in Britain lies not in the system. It lies in the people who vote in it. The majority of the British people want more benefits than they are willing to pay for, so the state has run out of money. No one wants to be blown up by terrorists, but, for too many of the elite, Islamism is a natural response to the supposed prejudices of British society. Everyone pretends to want the virtues that stable family life brings, but the elite’s left-wing condemns anyone who defends family values as an intolerant bigot."

The Convention on Cluster Munitions

The United States Should Not Join the Convention on Cluster Munitions, with Steve Groves, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2550, April 28, 2011. "The Convention on Cluster Munitions is a misbegotten treaty that neither advances the laws of war nor enhances security. It is an unverifiable, unenforceable, all-or-nothing exercise in moral suasion, not a serious diplomatic instrument. It creates perverse incentives for insurgents to use civilian populations as human shields, undermines effective arms control efforts, inhibits nation-states’ ability to defend themselves, and denigrates the sovereignty of the United States and other democratic states. The U.S. should emphatically reject both the convention and the undemocratic Oslo Process that produced it and should instead continue to negotiate a realistic and enforceable protocol on cluster munitions that balances U.S. military requirements with the humanitarian concerns posed by unexploded ordnance."

So, About Those Harriers

You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone, Contentions, April 15, 2011. "William Hague, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, now says that “It would be useful to have a larger number of aircraft capable of striking ground targets.” Mr. Hague is right. What Britain needs now is an aircraft capable of taking off from an aircraft carrier conveniently parked off the coast of Libya, able to land on rough or improved airstrips, and able to engage both air and ground targets. Such an aircraft would allow Britain to respond more quickly to targets as they are identified, maintain a continual presence in the air and thus keep the heads of Gaddafi’s thugs down, and spend less time and aviation fuel flying its small force of Tornado GR4s back and forth across the Mediterranean. . . . But of course, Britain grounded its Harrier force as a result of its last defense review, conducted by Mr. Hague’s government."

Kosovo Redux

It's Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Kosovo, Contentions, April 15, 2011. "Does the Libyan affair remind anyone of Kosovo? It’s taking place on Europe’s borders, yet—as always when Europe’s hour strikes—no one from the EU is home. NATO has taken over, but most of its members are unenthusiastic. British leadership is a constant, while France has replaced Germany—even more riven by pacifism today than it was in the 1990s—as Britain’s comrade in arms. The U.S., militarily essential as always, gives the appearance of indecision when compared to Britain, although the sentiments of the British people are less clear."

The Case of the Missing Harriers

Libya Mission Demonstrates That British Defense Cuts Must Be Reversed, with Nile Gardiner, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #3231, April 19, 2011. "The prime minister cannot effectively wage a major military campaign in Libya without reversing the crippling defense cuts his Coalition government has introduced, as well as significantly increasing defense spending. The government should reconsider the review and reject its flawed foundations. The British armed forces should be funded at a level sufficient to allow them to successfully accomplish the missions given to them by the country’s political leaders."

The Long-Term Defense Problem

Britain’s Decline: Entitlements and the Armed Forces, BigPeace, April 13, 2011. "Byron York has a fine piece in the Examiner pointing out that, while Britain has taken a leading role in the Libyan intervention, there is almost nothing left militarily behind the curtain. The entire British stockpile of cruise missiles amounted to 64 when the war began, and Britain was careless enough to fire off 12 of them at the start of the conflict. That’s 20 percent of Britain’s entire arsenal, shot off in a single volley."

I Am Rubber, You Are Glue

What Bounces Off Me Sticks To You, Contentions, April 13, 2011. "To date, the Obama Administration’s strategy on internet freedom has been to talk a lot, but do absolutely nothing that would alienate China. Thanks to Senator Lugar, who led the charge on this issue, the Administration has been forced to step away just slightly from their strategy. The Chinese have told us very clearly what they are afraid of, and where they think they are vulnerable. We would be foolish not to take advantage of this."

Barack O'Cameron

Meet Barack O'Cameron, Contentions, April 11, 2011. "David Cameron has taken a leaf from the Book of Obama and launched a worldwide apology tour. On his recent visit to Pakistan, he rightly declined to get involved in Kashmir but for the wrong reasons. He said he does not 'want to try to insert Britain in some leading role where, as with so many of the world’s problems, we are responsible for the issue in the first place.' Figuring out where Cameron stands on international affairs is a full-time job."

Defending the U.S.-U.K. Extradition Treaty

Tensions Ahead Over U.S.-U.K. Extradition Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 11, 2011. "It’s a common-sense idea that criminals should not be able to escape justice in one country simply by fleeing to another. In this Internet age, it’s also common sense that citizens of one country should not be able commit crimes electronically in another without fear of punishment. This is the problem that extradition is intended to solve."

Obama's Doctrine

Last In, First Out, Contentions, March 30, 2011. "Commentators here and elsewhere have dissected the belated strengths and considerable weaknesses of the president’s speech on Libya. But no one has noted that the speech is yet another piece of evidence that this administration regards foreign policy as a problem to be overcome as rapidly as possible, not as an enduring challenge with serious consequences. Barack Obama remains eager to get to the serious business of domestic policy."

NGOs and Neutralism

Why There Is No Neutral, Contentions, March 28, 2011. "Nadia Schadlow has a fine essay at Foreign Policy which points out that many of the NGOs on which the U.S. and its allies are relying to contribute to the “Build” phase of the counterinsurgency strategy proclaim that they refuse to take sides in the conflict. It’s not just the Red Cross that believes it is “essential to provide neutral and impartial assistance to all populations.” Most of the others follow suit. Many NGOs go beyond simply providing aid to all civilians, and – in the words of the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office – argue that NGOs have “nothing to gain and much to lose” by interacting with ISAF, which in their view only wants to “[leverage] advantage from [NGO] activities.” This is not the neutralism of helping the poor, no matter who they be: it is political neutrality."

Wanted: Flexibility

Google, Wisconsin, and Distributional Coalitions, Big Government, March 25, 2011. "Over the past month, Google made waves with the announcement that it has tweaked its search algorithms to penalize ‘content farms.’ These are “low quality sites whose main goal is to attract search traffic by piling up (mostly) useless content.” The lesson from Google is simple: no system devised by the mind of man is immune to being gamed by other men. Google’s merit is that it can respond quickly to thwart the gaming. That will, in turn, breed more gaming, but Google will, if it is attentive, not fall too far behind. If it slacks off, it will quickly be overtaken by a more nimble rival. The same, unfortunately, is not true of society as a whole."

America the Exceptional

The Exceptional Battleground: A Controversy, The City, Spring 2011 edition, a publication of Houston Baptist University. "The United States is an exceptional nation. Most Americans would not regard that as a controversial statement. And there is a good reason for that: it is true."

The Arms Trade Treaty and Libya

On Arming Those Libyan Rebels, Contentions, March 10, 2011. "Max Boot has argued that arming the Libyan rebels may be the best way to ensure that a prolonged conflict in that country doesn’t flood the world’s black market with arms. I am agnostic on this point: the world’s black market is flooded with arms in any case, and if I believed it was necessary or desirable to arm the rebels — though certainly not with surface-to-air missiles, a possibility against which Max rightly cautions — I would not be dissuaded by the reality that at least some of the weapons would inevitably surface somewhere else."

Intervention to Enforce Non-Intervention

John Stuart Mill on Mercenaries in Libya, Contentions, March 9, 2011. "It’s not clear whether Muammar Qaddafi is importing mercenaries to help him (further) crush his own people. The Christian Science Monitor is inclined to credit the reports, while Human Rights Watch argues that the allegations are unconfirmed and arise from Qaddafi’s efforts to promote civil equality in Libya (no, really, that’s what they say)."

Press Freedom in Russia?

The Unrealism of the Russian Reset, Contentions, March 8, 2011. "Russia, I acknowledge, is not one of those places we can afford to dismiss diplomatically. Nuclear weapons and oil aside — and that is pretty much all Russia has going for it in the great power sweepstakes — Russia has a UN veto and an almost infinite capacity to make trouble, not least for our supply lines into Afghanistan. But it is one thing to recognize that, in the world as it is, we are sometimes going to have to work with places like Putin’s Russia, and quite another thing to kid ourselves about what they are."

A Policy of Binding Our Hands

Libyan Revolution Reveals Foolishness of Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, March 4, 2011. "The Obama Administration has declared its support for the U.N.’s efforts to negotiate an arms trade treaty (ATT) that would regulate the transfer of conventional arms. This is unwise for many reasons. The following stories show just how an ATT, far from saving civilians, would actually tie the hands of democracies in resisting dictatorships."

The Other Ones

The Dictators We Forgot, Contentions, March 4, 2011. "In the face of the Middle East’s revolutions, it’s easy to believe that the world’s dictators are comprised of autocrats we worked with (Mubarak), dictators we were trying to (Gaddafi), and dangerous regimes that won’t play ball (Iran). If only. The biggest category of all is the dictators we forgot."

Qaddafi's Academic Toads

London School of Economics’ Ties to Libya the Tip of the Iceberg for Academia, Contentions, March 4, 2011. "The Director of the London School of Economics, Sir Howard Davies, has resigned after fresh revelations of LSE ties to Libya emerged on Thursday morning. The LSE was already under intense fire for taking a donation of 1.5 million pounds from Qaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam, who studied at LSE and — it appears — may also have plagiarized his thesis."

How Must America Practice Diplomacy?

How Must America Practice Diplomacy?, Heritage Foundation, Understanding America Series, Essay Number Six, March 3, 2011. "The purpose of American diplomacy never changes: It is to secure the national interests of the United States. The fundamental American interest is to ensure that America remains independent and governed by the American people."

VIDEO: U.S. Landmine Policy: Status and Prospects

U.S. Landmine Policy: Status and Prospects, lecture given to Center for Security Policy's National Security Lunch, February 25, 2011.

A LOST Ancedote

Secretary Rumsfeld, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and the Law of the Sea Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, February 24, 2011. "Secretary Rumsfeld's memoir is a fascinating read, as reviewers both friendly and hostile have agreed. As the Secretary has been alive for one-third of the history of the United States—as he ruefully observed—it’s not surprising that his memoir is such a treasure trove. His remarks on Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and the Law of the Sea Treaty are a relevant example."

Special Interests At Work

The American Historical Association and Civics Education, Contentions, February 20, 2011. "The American Historical Association is propagandizing to save the Teaching American History (TAH) Grant Program and Civic Education funding from the 2011 axe of the House of Representatives. As their e-mail to members puts it: 'To help our nation’s schools meet their civic mission to help students understand their rights and responsibilities as citizens, Congress should retain the Teaching American History Grants program and maintain federal funding support for civic education, while making the civics grants competitive.' "

A Huge Missed Opportunity

Internet Freedom, Back Again, Contentions, February 17, 2011. "It’s too soon to accept that the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions were simply caused by Facebook, Twitter, and the Internet. Technology enthusiasts naturally say such things, but theirs is the faith of the true believer. Still, the fact that these regimes tried to control the Net, and clamped down even harder when the streets started to stir, is strong evidence that they viewed online freedom as their enemy. America — with Congress playing a constructive and serious part — was set to play a leading role in advancing that freedom. That would have been the right thing to do — it is still the right thing to do — even if it meant confronting the Chinese. Instead, we did nothing, and we are still doing nothing. That is an embarrassment — almost as embarrassing as Secretary Clinton’s trotting out a supposedly revolutionary policy after a year of doing nothing about it."

The Anglo-American Analogy on Defense Cuts

As in Britain, Discontent Portends Danger for Defense, Heritage Foundation Foundry, February 16, 2011. "A look at Britain’s experience reveals the problem with making decisions about freezing or cutting defense spending on the basis of allegations about inadequate financial controls. In 2009, British politics were rocked by a series of leaks and then an exhaustive report that made many of the same allegations of mismanagement, waste, and lack of control in Britain’s procurement budget."

Restraint and Containment

The Other Thing Containment Requires, Contentions, February 16, 2011. "Excessive taxation and borrowing hands over an ever-increasing portion of our economy to government control. This is incompatible with the strategy that won the Cold War, and completely incompatible with any future U.S. use of that strategy. We are not just borrowing the next generation into oblivion, as Pete points out. Our lack of restraint is reducing our ability to play future foreign-policy problems long: playing it long only makes sense if you’re gaining in relative economic strength."

Fantasies and Realities in International Relations

Fear Rules In The Nations Where Politics Is A Blood Sport Played Out In Real Blood, Yorkshire Post, February 15, 2011. "Yet the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, should remind us of one simple truth. The leaders of these countries, like autocrats around the world, were afraid. The autocrats are not just afraid of Western military power, though that does scare them. Nor are they simply afraid of freedom, though they know that if it triumphs, they will have lost. Nor are they worried about losing elections, for the simple reason that they never hold an honest one. They are afraid of their own people."

Iran, the USSR and the Containment Analogy

Containing a Nuclear Iran: Difficult, Costly, and Dangerous, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2157, with James Phillips, February 14, 2011. "Proponents of a containment policy toward Iran are ignoring the harsh realities inherent in seriously pursuing such a policy. First, the U.S. has been trying to contain Iran since the Iranian revolution in 1979, with little success. If Iran develops a nuclear weapon, it will become even more difficult to contain. A serious containment policy will require the U.S. to maintain a credible threat of force against Iran. This will be even more difficult if Iran goes nuclear because the U.S. will have lost credibility. A containment policy will also require the U.S. to support the undemocratic governments in the countries neighboring Iran, which will pose many political dilemmas. Instead of pursuing a policy of containment, which would be a policy in name only, the U.S. should keep the military option alive, defend itself and its allies, and seek both to weaken the regime’s economic base and to empower and encourage its domestic adversaries."

Journalism Schools and All That

Pretending to Teach a Trade: From the Progressive Era to Today, Contentions, February 10, 2011. "Journalism schools are useless, argues Michael Lewis, but they prosper because they appeal to our worship of professionalism. That’s a nut graph — a nutshell paragraph — one bit of journalism jargon that Michael Lewis doesn’t grasp in his wildly entertaining piece on the Columbia School of Journalism."

More State-Centered 'Solutions'

Two Cheers for David Cameron on Multiculturalism, BigPeace, February 10, 2011. "I am slightly less encouraged than some commentators by British Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech on “the doctrine of state multiculturalism.” The speech is certainly worth two cheers, and the fact that Cameron has said much of this before is no reason for him not to say it again, especially since he has never said it so clearly."

Questions Without Answers on New START

Is New START Compatible with the U.S.-U.K. Mutual Defence Agreement?, Heritage Foundation Foundry, February 9, 2011. "The Special Relationship between the U.S. and Britain has many facets, but at its core is close cooperation in the military and intelligence realms. And at the heart of our military cooperation is the U.S.-U.K. Mutual Defence Agreement. Signed in 1958, and renewed every ten years – most recently in 2004 – the Agreement provides for Anglo-American collaboration in nuclear technology. It provides the legal basis for the transfer to Britain of U.S.-made Trident II missiles, which are the launch platform for Britain’s nuclear deterrent, and for the much broader sharing of nuclear information between the two countries."

This Is Just What I Was Talking About

A ‘Marshall Plan’ Sighting in Egypt, Contentions, February 9, 2011. "A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned my list of inaccurate historical analogies that warn of further fallacies to come. The leading such analogy was “We need a Marshall Plan.” Sure enough, reliable as a broken watch, along comes Roger Cohen in the New York Times, demanding just such a plan, contradicting himself up and down, and posing a wonderful false dichotomy to boot."

Skybolt and New START

That Good Old 'Pattern of Cooperation'," Contentions, February 8, 2011. "Over the last few days, the conservative media and blogosphere in the U.S. and Britain have been roiled by WikiLeaks documents suggesting that, in order to secure Russia’s agreement to the New START Treaty, the U.S. agreed to disclose information about the Trident missiles it transfers to Britain. Media Matters predictably claims that there is nothing untoward involved, it’s all an invention of the “right-wing media.” And P.J. Crowley argued that New START simply “carried forward and updated this notification procedure” from the 1991 START Treaty. Yet a careful reading of the 1991 and 2011 treaties reveals significant differences between the U.S.’s obligations vis-à-vis Britain and Russia in these treaties."

Another New START Problem

New START and the Special Relationship: A Case to Answer, Heritage Foundation Foundry, February 8, 2011. "Last Friday, British newspapers reported that the U.S. had agreed to supply Russia with sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent in order to win Russian agreement to the New START Treaty. Over the weekend, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley described this claim as “bunk” and asserted that New START simply “carried forward and updated this notification procedure to the new treaty” from the 1991 START Treaty. The Wikileaks document on which the original story was based, and the treaties of 1991 and 2011, tell a different story."

On A Contradiction in US Cold War Grand Strategy

Reagan Kept Faith in America, BigPeace, February 6, 2011. "One of Reagan’s greatest contributions was to return to the commonsense faith that America worked, that the Soviet Union could not, and that we should, and could, win the Cold War by playing to our strengths and against their weaknesses. He was a remarkable orator, and one who was not afraid to speak simple truths plainly: his statement that the Soviet Union was an evil empire shocked an intelligentsia unused to hearing the obvious about an enemy that many no longer regarded as such. But he was more than an orator. Reagan believed that values could drive strategy, that if the U.S. and the West returned to freedom, if they abandoned the controls of the Nixon and Carter era, if they reduced taxes, if they put government back in its proper place, the U.S. would not only be doing the right thing. It would be fighting the Cold War to win."

OAS Shows Why We Don't Need CIFTA

CIFTA: Treaty Without a Purpose, Heritage Foundation Foundry, February 4, 2011. "CIFTA is a bad treaty: It poses serious risks to liberties guaranteed by the First and Second Amendments and would undermine U.S. sovereignty by legally binding it to fulfill obligations that some current signatories already disregard. The OAS’s latest statement on “Reducing the Threat of Arms and Munitions in the Americas” demonstrates that the treaty is pointless as well as bad."

Reagan's Writings

Reagan As Draftsman, Contentions, February 4, 2011. "Perhaps it’s not in keeping with Reagan’s legacy to lose hope. But I can’t help wondering if Reagan will be our last president who had the ability – even if none of them can be expected to have the time – to write his own speeches. If so, we will have lost something important. A president who cannot write clearly cannot be expected to think clearly either."

The Shah As Good Guy

Cold War Revisionism Run Wild, Contentions, February 3, 2011. "As J.E. Dyer pointed out a few days ago, the standard treatment of the Cold War in the academy of the 1970s and 1980s was that it was a bad idea. That argument had many facets, but among the most consistently presented of them was the theme that the artificial Cold War scare had been used to justify close American relations with anti-Communist dictators. This anti-Cold War bias has, to my mind, waned slightly, in part because of the work of historians like John Lewis Gaddis, and in part because it’s now history, and as such is safe for everyone to be in favor of. Indeed, it’s so safe that President Obama is free to call for Sputnik moments. Still, the argument about American foreign policy endures."

A Review of a Blair Review

On Kirchick on Blair, New Ledger, February 2, 2011. "Jamie Kirchick has a thoughtful review up for Policy Review of Tony Blair’s memoirs. It’s difficult to quarrel with Jamie’s conclusion, which is that the more Labour becomes a creature of the trade unions, the less likely it is to win an election. And I certainly endorse Jamie’s stout defense of Blair’s policies in Iraq and, more broadly, Blair’s support for close Anglo-American relations. But to my mind, the overall picture is less clear, and less favorable to Blair, than Jamie has it."

Kirkpatrick, Now More Than Ever

Go Read Kirkpatrick. Again, Contentions, February 1, 2011. "Now more than ever, Jeane Kirkpatrick’s “Dictatorships & Double Standards” essay deserves to be read and pondered. If this isn’t the greatest essay COMMENTARY has ever published, it’s certainly the most influential."

More On The "Sputnik Moment"

Re: Re: Oh, Man, Not Another Sputnik Moment . . ., Contentions, January 28, 2011. "J.E. Dyer’s reaction to my post on the “Sputnik moment” theme prompts this reflection: as a conservative, you can cite examples like the academy’s treatment of the Cold War all day long. If you’re a historian, you can point to the Arming America saga, which revealed that a few Second Amendment supporters and amateur historians had a better grasp of historical methodology and reality than the distinguished committee that awarded the Bancroft Prize to that faked book (and then was forced to take it back)."

The U.S. on Britain in Europe

A Policy That Pleases No One, Contentions, January 28, 2011. "In a private meeting with British MEPs on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to Britain Louis Susman is reported to have said: “Washington wants a clearer British commitment to remain in the EU. … [A]ll key issues must run through Europe.” He was not expressing a personal preference. He was reiterating the administration’s policy. After all, it was the vice president who last May described Brussels as “the capital of the free world.” But this is not a policy that is likely to achieve results satisfactory to anyone."

A Very Brave Aussie

Australian Courage in Afghanistan, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 27, 2011. "An Australian member of the Special Air Service Regiment, Corporal Ben, has received the Victoria Cross For Australia, the nation’s highest military honor."

The Pretension to Expertise

A Tiger Mother in a Legal World on Fire, Contentions, January 27, 2011. "I don’t know much about parenting, so I’m not going to comment on the merits of Amy Chua’s much-discussed book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. What strikes me about the uproar is entirely unrelated to her Stakhanovite views on how to raise children: she’s a tenured professor at Yale Law School."

Hitchens, Churchill, and The Monarchy

Churchill, Edward VIII, and ‘Arms and the Covenant’, Contentions, January 26, 2011. "Christopher Hitchens doesn’t like The King’s Speech. Not because of its cinematic qualities, which he appreciates, but because of its political ones. According to him, the movie is a “a gross falsification of history” because it shows Churchill as “generally in favor of a statesmanlike solution to the crisis of the abdication” and because it neglects to portray Edward VIII as “a firm admirer of the Third Reich” and George VI as an appeaser and anti-Churchill."

Obama Uses Another Bad Historical Analogy

Oh, Man, Not Another Sputnik Moment . . ., Contentions, January 26, 2011. "I keep a list of historical analogies — derived from years of grading papers — that tell me that the individual using them is (to be polite) more interested in rhetorical impact than historical accuracy. Before last night, the list began with “we need a Marshall Plan for X,” where X usually equals Africa or the Middle East, and ended with “the United States is a young country.” Both are fallacies: the Marshall Plan was a pump-priming program, not an effort to rebuild the infrastructure and remake the culture of half a continent; and while European settlement of North America is fairly recent, the U.S.’s political institutions have a longer continuous existence than those of any other country except, arguably, the United Kingdom. Now, thanks to President Obama, I’ve got a third analogy to add to the list: 'Sputnik moment.'"

Response to State of the Union

Reaction Roundup: Heritage Responds to the State of the Union, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 25, 2011. "In the opening section of his address, the President referred to the need to “sustain the leadership that has made America not just a place on a map, but a light to the world.” Those are certainly words that conservatives can endorse and respect, just as they will agree with his statement that America is “the first nation the be founded for the sake of an idea.” As Matthew Spalding has stated, the American creed 'is set forth most clearly in the Declaration of Independence, . .. a timeless statement of inherent rights, the proper purposes of government, and the limits on political authority.' Unfortunately, this was not the creed that the President proclaimed in his speech."

Reforming the Treaty Process

If We Care About American Exceptionalism, It’s Time to Reform Our Treaty Processes, Conservative Home USA, January 19, 2010. "As an exceptional nation that values its sovereignty, the United States has much to gain from the practice of responsible diplomacy. After all, diplomacy was invented to allow sovereign states to interact and negotiate. Unfortunately, responsible diplomacy is at risk."

Citizenship and Historians

Historians and Civic Responsibility, Contentions, January 18, 2011. "The American Historical Association is on a roll. Last month, I felt compelled to read not one but two articles in its monthly newsmagazine, Perspectives on History. This month, the count is two again. Next thing you know, they’ll be hiring British historians in the academy. Well, let’s not get carried away."

The Fiftieth Anniversary of Kennedy's Inaugural

Kennedy’s Myth May Not Be Reality, But It Shows Us What Obama Lacks, Yorkshire Post, January 19, 2011. "FIFTY years after his inauguration on January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy remains America's most popular president in the last half-century. A recent survey by Gallup finds that 85 per cent of Americans retrospectively approve of Kennedy. The next highest ranking president, Ronald Reagan, scores only 74 per cent. Kennedy not only leads: he laps the field."

Eisenhower and Washington

Like Washington, Eisenhower's Farewell Address Counseled Balance, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 17, 2011. "Fifty years ago, on January 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his famous Farewell Address. The speech ranks, as Eisenhower intended it to, with Washington’s Farewell Address as a masterpiece of American rhetoric, of balance, and of prudent, far-seeing counsel. It is the fate of such masterpieces to be much quoted but seldom read. On this anniversary, therefore, before you read further, we encourage you to read the speech."

The Lost Prudential Tradition

Eisenhower, Washington, Lincoln, and Prudence, Contentions, January 14, 2011. "As commentators are beginning to note, Monday marks the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, and the following Thursday marks the same anniversary for Kennedy’s inaugural, two classics of American rhetoric that could hardly be further apart and still remain in the same genre. It is a long way from Ike’s measured and noble praise of balance to Kennedy’s inspiring but unrestrained call to “pay any price.” It’s usual to say that the 1960s didn’t really began until Kennedy was assassinated, if not later, but the transition from Eisenhower’s restraint to Kennedy’s rhetorical lack of it may mark the transition more effectively than the murder in Dallas."

Decline and Fall?

The Links Between Economic Freedom and American Leadership in International Security, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 13, 2011. "Economic freedom is not just a pocketbook issue: it is fundamental to American security. For the sake of its leading role in the world, as well as the prosperity of its citizens, the U.S. must return to the ranks of the economically free."