Saturday, July 25, 2015

Riding It All The Way Down

All the Way with LJB and Obama, Newsday, July 25, 2015. "Count on it: When it comes to foreign policy, two-term presidents -- and even most one-term presidents -- will change course along the way. Since 1933, only two have not: Lyndon Johnson, who rode the Vietnam War all the way down, and Barack Obama. That's not a good sign."

Thursday, July 23, 2015

The Other Cost of Shredding Sanctions

The Iran Deal Will Have Disastrous Non-Nuclear Consequences, Too, National Review Online, July 23, 2015. "So far, the most intense criticism of the Obama administration’s deal with Iran has focused on its wildly imbalanced nuclear provisions, under which, in exchange for limited inspections, Iran gets to keep many of its centrifuges, its entire nuclear infrastructure, its research and development programs, and its ballistic-missile program, among many other things. This criticism is certainly warranted, but the deal will have consequences beyond the realm of nuclear weapons: The fate of the regime of Western sanctions on Iran matters just as much, because those sanctions have wide-ranging global implications."

Monday, July 20, 2015

Another UN PoA Failure

The Failings and Structural Irrelevance of the U.N.’s Small-Arms Process, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4435, July 20, 2015. "On June 1–5, 2015, the Second Meeting of Governmental Experts (MGE2) under the PoA was held in New York City. The purpose of MGE2 was to allow nationally nominated experts to address technical issues raised at the Fifth Biennial Meeting of States (BMS5), which was held June 16–20, 2014, and to prepare for the Sixth Biennial Meeting of States (BMS6), to be held in 2016. The “Chair’s Summary” of MGE2, released on June 17, 2015, demonstrates again that the PoA is accomplishing nothing and that it continues to be a forum for demands for increased U.S. aid and the promotion of government controls on private individuals. Moreover, as a U.N. mechanism, the PoA makes it harder to address the genuine challenges stemming from the illicit arms trade."

Friday, July 17, 2015

The Need for a British World Role

Without a Sense of Purpose, What is Britain Defending?, Yorkshire Post, July 17, 2015. "Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s pledge to meet Nato’s spending target of two per cent of national income on defence through 2020-21 is welcome, but it’s not enough. This isn’t, simply, a problem of money. It’s a problem of Britain’s belief in its world role."

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Against an International Investment Court

The Proposed Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Mechanism: U.S. Should Oppose EU Demand to Abandon It, with James Roberts and Riddhi Dasgupta, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4432, July 14, 2015. "One of the most important components of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union is the establishment of a mechanism for investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). An appropriately structured ISDS is an essential part of trade agreement enforcement and should be included in any comprehensive U.S. trade agreement with the EU. The EU’s proposal, backed by a vote of the European Parliament on July 8—that the TTIP should establish a permanent investment court, not an ISDS mechanism—is a bad solution in search of a non-existent problem. ISDS mechanisms work well to secure basic legal protections for a signatory state’s nationals abroad. The U.S. should firmly reject the EU’s proposal and insist that TTIP establish an ISDS."

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Depression's Not the Cure for Greece

European Union Not the Answer to Greek Extremism, Newsday, July 11, 2015. "After 1945, the U.S. promoted economic freedom and growth in Europe to keep Communism at bay. Today, by backing the European Union in Greece, the Obama administration is driving Greece deeper into a depression that already has brought the far left to power."

Thursday, July 9, 2015

The Ponderous PoA

The U.N. Confuses Gun Ownership with Arms Trafficking, National Review Online, June 9, 2015. "I spent last week at the U.N., watching so-called national experts talk about guns. Turns out most of them weren’t experts. Then again, the ponderousness of the meeting’s title — 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 — gave fair warning that the gathering was unlikely to achieve anything of use."

Monday, July 6, 2015

Liberalism's AWOL Leaders

Where Are the New Leaders For Unpopular Left?, Yorkshire Post, July 6, 2015. "It's difficult to look around America, or Britain, and see the next generation of liberal leaders. Undoubtedly, this is partly cyclical: in the mid-1990s, the Tories were short on talent, yet a decade later, it was Labour that was exhausted. Liberalism is not down forever."