Corporatism's Not Free Trade

Barack Obama is Right to Want Free Trade, But He Has the Wrong Reasons, Newsday, June 26, 2015. "No thanks to his fellow Democrats, President Barack Obama won a victory in Congress last week when Republicans voted to give him the authority to negotiate trade agreements in Asia and Europe. Too bad so much of the president's case for the agreements is based on his belief that the United States is in decline."

The Social Vision of the Magna Carta

Magna Carta: It’s Not Just About Rights, National Review Online, June 15, 2015. "The characteristic argument of liberalism today is, first, that every institution — family, church, business, art, education, travel, leisure, entertainment — is fundamentally political, and so not really separate from the political realm at all. It’s all politics all the way down, a claim that would (and did) horrify British conservative philosopher Michael Oakeshott. And that claim opens the door to a second one, which is that, as everything is political, all the peaks need to do the same job as the government — and if they do not, they will be forced to do so."

Inaction This Day

Should Obama Pester, Nag, and Bite? Yes, Newsday, June 14, 2015. "During a news conference Monday at the G-7 meeting in Germany, President Barack Obama acknowledged that his administration does not have a "complete strategy" to defeat the Islamic State group. That much is obvious. What's as troubling as his strategic failure is the president's explanation of why he has failed."

At the UN, the US Fires Back

At a U.N. Meeting on Guns, the U.S. Stands Up Under Fire, National Review, June 5, 2015. "This week, Turtle Bay is hosting the second Meeting of Governmental Experts for the U.N.’s Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects – mercifully abbreviated to MGE2 and PoA, respectively. The PoA is a strange entity. It’s a political agreement, not a treaty, so it’s never come before the Senate and it has no binding legal force. But that doesn’t make it harmless. It’s one of the many international institutions engaged in creating so-called “norms” that will constrain the U.S., though not the U.N.’s many dictatorships. But despite its painful name and dubious intentions, it’s more amusing than most such institutions."

What's Good, and Bad, in the Draft PoA Chairman's Summary

Challenges, and Successes, for United States at UN Small Arms Meeting, Daily Signal, June 5, 2015. "Today, the second meeting of government experts for the U.N. “Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons” wraps up in New York. In theory, the PoA, as it is known, is about controlling international arms smuggling. In practice, a lot of nations want to make it about gun control. So far, the U.S. has fought a good fight. But the rough draft of the chairman’s report, which I’ve just seen, makes it clear there’s more to do."

Liberalism and the Fate of the Special Relationship

The US-UK-EU Triangle, The American Interest, June 2, 2015. "The Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is a political creation that reflects underlying realities. To assess the future of that relationship, and how the EU will affect it, we need to know how it began. For the relationship to come into being, the UK and the U.S. had to meet two necessary but not sufficient conditions. The fate of the relationship rests on whether or not those two underlying conditions endure."