Order A Salad, Get The Menu

Why the Arms Trade Treaty Is No Answer for the Saudi Problem, Forbes, October 31, 2018. "As part of the reaction to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and as part of the wider left-wing preference for siding with Iran instead of Saudi Arabia, progressives who were already thoroughly in favor of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) are arguing that Western governments should ratify it, or uphold it, in order to cut off arms sales to the Saudis. This is a terrible argument."

An Academic Question

Why the U.S. Sometimes Supports International Treaty Enforcement, Forbes, October 31, 2018. "Thanks both to President Barack Obama’s willingness to evade the treaty-making process entirely in order to do his deals with Tehran and in Paris, and to President Donald Trump’s justified skepticism that it’s in the U.S.’s interests to stay in the INF Treaty while the Russians serially violate it, treaties are suddenly interesting again. But activists tend to ignore one of the more important questions regarding treaties: How will they be enforced? A second question follows logically: What will the U.S. support by way of enforcement?"

The Disappeared

Why Interpol’s Chinese President Disappeared – And Why It Matters, Daily Signal, October 22, 2018. "It was unseemly for Interpol to have a Chinese political policeman as its president to begin with. It’s also true that the danger of having the Chinese political police at the helm of Interpol was not quite what it seemed."

A Choice Between Bad and Worse

What Not To Do About Khashoggi, Newsday, October 21, 2018. "The death of Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi Arabia offers a terrible temptation to the United States: We can indulge our outrage at the expense of our interests. We have few good options, but giving in to that temptation would be the worst thing to do."

What's at Stake in Meng Hongwei's Removal

Why China Shouldn’t Run Interpol, Weekly Standard, October 19, 2018. "And that is what is at stake in Meng’s leadership of, and removal from, Interpol. The issue is not that by charging a Chinese national who happened to be the president of Interpol with a crime, Beijing has done something inherently wrong."

Steady Downward As She Goes

Europe Paves the Way for Its Decline, Newsday, October 7, 2018. "Europe is declining. It’s getting richer too slowly — so slowly that it’s being left behind by the rest of the world. Strangely, that’s the result Europe prefers. Britain has a chance to escape from the European trap, but even if it does, Europe’s decline is a defeat for the United States."

A Fight Delayed

Britain’s Conservatives Press the Pause Button, Weekly Standard Online, October 4, 2018. "If you are looking for a disastrous performance in a starring political role, it would be hard to top British prime minister Theresa May’s turn at last year’s Conservative Party Conference. There, following the catastrophic June 2017 general election, she delivered an equally catastrophic speech, culminated in a coughing fit so severe as to be almost terminal. This year’s Party Conference, held in Birmingham, went a good deal better than that. But then, if you set your standards low enough, you’ll never be disappointed."

The Tory Fade in Birmingham

British Conservatives Are Growing Weary of Their Own Leaders, Daily Signal, October 3, 2018. "It’s almost universally accepted here that by this time next year, May will be a former prime minister. Expectations like that have a way of fading, but today, May is simply not delivering on either the substance or the style that her party demands."

A Train Line to Nowhere

Look at America’s Example – HS2 Will Only Drain Britain – and the Economy – Towards London, Yorkshire Post, October 1, 2018. "But neither commuter trains nor the fast one – the Acela – that runs between New Haven and New York can make New Haven as attractive as New York. The trains, basically, are a way to get to New York. And I fear that will be the fate of Britain’s newest tracked adventure, HS2, the fast line from Birmingham to Euston – and, latterly, Leeds. It is a curious fact that Britain, a nation that is unhappy about its existing trains, has decided that it should spend a great deal of money building another one."