More Silliness, and Worse, from Interpol

Another Year Brings More Autocratic Victories Over the Democratic Members of Interpol, Daily Signal, November 4, 2022. "The most recent annual meeting of Interpol’s governing body brought more bad news for its democratic member states, including the U.S."

Limit U.S. Visas for Russia

The Administration Needs to Increase Visa Sanctions on Russia, with Simon Hankinson and Victoria Coates, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5291, September 27, 2022. "Economic sanctions against Russia as a result of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 are having an effect on the Russian economy and society, but not quickly or decisively enough to end the war. In addition to stronger economic sanctions, increased pressure is necessary to convince all Russians, not just Vladimir Putin, government officials, and/or Russian oligarchs, that they share some responsibility for the invasion and prosecution of the war and that they will not be able to travel freely while the conflict rages. Especially in conjunction with European Union visa sanctions, restricting visa issuance to all Russian citizens, anywhere in the world, will add more pressure on the Putin regime to bring his war to an end."

Interpol Elections and Interpol Abusers

US Leadership Needed to Push Back on China’s Abuse of Interpol, Daily Signal, August 31, 2022. "But Interpol does have problems. And China is among the biggest. The next meeting of the Interpol General Assembly, which makes the final decisions for the organization, is set to take place in India from Oct. 18 to 21. The General Assembly’s last meeting, in 2021, was a disaster for the U.S. Representatives from authoritarian regimes, including China, took control of the Executive Committee, which supervises implementation of the General Assembly’s decisions."

A Foreign Aid Program That Works

U.S. Foreign Aid for Removing Land Mines Works Well, But Aid Allocations Need Review, Daily Signal, August 26, 2022. "The recent decision by the Biden administration to drop anti-personnel land mines from the U.S. arsenal was a serious mistake. It will not save lives. Indeed, it will likely cost lives—both of U.S. military personnel and of the civilians our military seeks to protect. But there are aspects of U.S. land mine policy that work well. Foremost among these is the support the U.S. provides to foreign countries for removing deployed land mines and destroying unexploded ordnance."

Why the ATT Is A Bad Idea, Part Infinity

War in Ukraine Shows Why Arms Trade Treaty Remains Bad Idea, Daily Signal, August 24, 2022. "The nations that have signed the Arms Trade Treaty are meeting this week in Geneva. In 2016, the Obama administration took the U.S. into the treaty. In 2019, the Trump administration took us out of it. The latter decision keeps on looking better and better."

Biden's Wrong on Landmines

The Biden Administration Is Wrong to Abandon Anti-Personnel Landmines, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5284, August 3, 2022. "On June 21, 2022, the Biden Administration canceled the Trump Administration’s policy that allowed U.S. military forces to employ anti-personnel landmines outside the Korean Peninsula. The Biden policy is the third major change in U.S. anti-personnel landmine policy since 2009. The Biden policy denies U.S. troops the use of weapons that could help to reduce U.S. casualties and help the U.S. military to prevail in future conflicts. It was adopted against the advice of the U.S. military in order to please progressive activists who have led the campaign against anti-personnel landmines. The Biden policy is a gift to Russia’s military land power that will do nothing to curb the misuse of anti-personnel landmines, which has skyrocketed as the campaign against these weapons has helped to disarm democracies."

Interpol's Finances

Interpol Needs Improved Financial Transparency to Restore Its Integrity and Block Autocratic Manipulation, Heritage Foundation Special Report #258, August 1, 2022. "Interpol serves a valuable purpose and deserves to be properly funded. Its democratic member nations have a particular stake in ensuring thatInterpol can fund itself through its normal budgetary processes, for the less Interpol relies on statutory contributions, the more likely it is to fall into the financial clutches of the autocracies that seek to abuse it for their own ends. The U.S. and its democratic allies in Interpol need to start laying the groundwork now for the election of the organization’s next Secretary General in 2024. No reforms of Interpol’s finances or of Interpol more broadly, no matter how necessary or far-reaching, will be effective if Interpol’s leaders are not committed to upholding and advancing them."

UK Defense, Yet Again, Goes Cheap

Why UK Defense Must Go on Offense, with intern Greyson Hoye, Daily Signal, August 1, 2022. "Following a wave of Cabinet and ministerial resignations, Boris Johnson has announced that he will step down as the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Now, Britain and the world are left to wonder who will be next to command its ship of state. Whoever it might be, the next prime minister must make defense a top priority."

Step by Step To Free Trade

Free Trade Between US, UK Is Step Closer, Daily Signal, June 27, 2022. "The United Kingdom is the U.S.’ closest ally. It also has one of the world’s largest economies. And, needless to say, Britain’s a democracy that plays by the rules. All that makes it amazing that the U.S. doesn’t have free trade with Britain. But the reason for that is simple: Until 2020, the U.K. was in the European Union, which meant it didn’t control its own trade policy."

Britain Has to Earn It

On 6th Anniversary of Brexit, UK Yet to Grab All of Freedom’s Opportunities, Daily Signal, June 22, 2022. "Six years ago, on June 23, 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union. Above all, Brexit was about regaining the right of self-government, which is a fundamental value."

Global Britain After Brexit

Defining Britain’s Post-Brexit Role in the World, Centre for Brexit Policy, June 20, 2022. Uncredited contributor to the section on U.S.-U.K. relations.

The Pillars of U.S. Cold War Strategy in Europe

Germany and the Coming Struggle for the Atlantic Alliance, Limes: Rivista Italiana Di Geopolitica (Italy), June 2, 2022. "The U.S. strategy for Europe after 1945 rested on three pillars."

Brexit Britain in the Pacific

How the U.S. Can Support the U.K.’s Return to the Indo-Pacific Region, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5267, June 2, 2022. "The United Kingdom withdrew from major commitments East of Suez in 1968, but since 2019, Brexit Britain has returned to the Indo-Pacific region. While taking measures to restrict Chinese influence in the U.K., it has recognized China as a systemic competitor with values antithetical to its own, has built trading ties in Asia and the Pacific, and has developed new bilateral and multilateral security pacts in the region. The U.S. has benefitted from British initiative but has done little to encourage it. The U.K.’s return to the Indo-Pacific region is in the interests of the U.S. and the democratic world, and the U.S. should take steps to support the U.K."

Now, the UN Wants Bullet Control

UN Gun Control Program Runs Amok Again, Daily Signal, May 13, 2022. "More than two decades ago, the United Nations created a program to curb the trafficking of small arms. It’s done nothing but fire blanks. So now, the U.N. wants to control bullets."

U.S. Policies in Europe After Russia's Invasion

The Top Five U.S. Priorities for European Policy After Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, with Daniel Kochis, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5258, April 7, 2022. "The year 2022 is the most important in transatlantic relations since the end of the Cold War. Russia’s unprovoked second invasion of Ukraine brings new urgency to the need for cooperation between the United States and its European allies. The U.S. can only meet the demands of this new era of great-power conflict, in which Russia and China both pose grave and wide-ranging challenges, if the U.S. builds on the strength of the transatlantic alliance, which remains central to its security. The Russian attack demonstrates that Europe has profoundly underestimated the dangers for which NATO was founded—and exists—to deter. The shock of the Russian assault must lead to unified action."

Interpol Should Have Suspended Russia

Russia Wrongly Escapes Suspension From Interpol, Daily Signal, March 17, 2022. "For years, Russia has been one of the worst abusers of Interpol. It uses the international police organization to harass political opponents and to brand as criminals any business leaders who own property the Kremlin wants to steal."

Land Mines, Clusters, ATT, and Interpol in FY2023 NDAA

How the National Defense Authorization (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2023 Should Prepare the Military for Great-Power Competition, edited by Frederico Bartels, Heritage Foundation Special Report #257, March 10, 2022, see recommendations 59 and 60.

Assessing FY2022 NDAA TRAP Provisions

Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act Contains Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention Provision on Interpol Abuse, with Uttam Dhillon, International Enforcement Law Reporter, February 25, 2022. "On December 27, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) into law. The NDAA contains Sec. 6503, “Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention,” (TRAP) which incorporates, with substantial alterations, provisions from the TRAP Acts introduced on a bipartisan basis in both the Senate and the House in 2019 and 2021."