The Board Is Set, and the Pieces Are Moving

For Putin, All Pieces Are in Place, Newsday, February 26, 2016. "The last few months of 2008 were among the most important in recent history. They saw the tail end of a tired presidency, the Russians on the warpath in Georgia, and a long-approaching economic crisis about to reach its climax. The last few months of 2016 may repeat the pattern."

The Problem Isn't Us, It's Them

Review of Phil Haun, Coercion, Survival, and War: Why Weak States Resist the United States (Stanford University Press, 2015), Cercles, February 25, 2016. "The United States is the greatest power in the world. Why, therefore, doesn’t it simply threaten its enemies until they give it what it wants? After all, provided that what the U.S. demands is less costly for its adversary than fighting, and likely losing, a war, the U.S.’s adversaries should always, if they are rational, submit rather than fight. But yet, on occasion, U.S. demands are indeed resisted, sometimes successfully. That failure of coercion is the paradox that Phil Haun, adjunct Professor of Aerospace Studies at Yale University, and a former A-10 pilot for the U.S. Air Force, sets out to explain."

The Better Strategy We Didn't Follow

On U.S. Energy Policy, Obama Should Trust the Market, Newsday, February 13, 2016. "On Wednesday, according to AAA, the average price for a gallon of gas in the United States was just under $1.72. Low energy prices are good for American consumers, for the U.S. economy, and for the United States in the world. Too bad President Barack Obama wants to raise them."

ITAR Reform on Firearms, part 2

Obama Administration Commits to Initial Reform of Rules on Gun Exports in 2016, Daily Signal, February 11, 2016. "Last month, I reported that the Obama administration was resisting a bipartisan push to make it easier for U.S. firearms manufacturers to export. But now, that pressure has produced results. First, a bit of background. The administration is reforming the U.S. Munitions List (USML), which sets out what defense items are subject to the stringent export control rules of the Arms Export Control Act. The principle behind the reform is sensible: Build higher walls around fewer items, and stop burdening American business if American security isn’t at risk. So far, the administration has fully revised 15 of the 21 U.S. Munitions List categories. But it’s made no public progress on categories one through three, which cover firearms, artillery, and ammunition."