Recommendations on U.S. Policy Towards Europe

President Obama Goes to Europe: Top Five Policy Recommendations, with Nile Gardiner and Luke Coffey, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4234, June 4, 2014. "President Obama’s visit to Europe this week will be an important opportunity for the U.S. President to restate America’s commitment to the transatlantic partnership, strengthen the NATO alliance, and shore up European opposition to Russian aggression against Ukraine."

Check Your Privilege!

Liberals Have Plenty of Privilege to Check, Too, Newsday, May 30, 2014. "Universities are hothouses for ideas, a lot of them bad. Fortunately, most die a rapid death from mockery. But the trending campus admonishment to "check your privilege" is actually a good one."

UKIP, the European Elections, and the Opportunity Beyond

Growing Pains, Weekly Standard, May 26, 2014. "There is much to applaud in UKIP’s desire to free the Parliament of Westminster from the toils of Brussels. But there is nothing about this mission that is going to be easy. Whether it wins or not on May 22, UKIP has a narrow and testing window of opportunity before the next general election. If UKIP is going to do the job, this needs to be the year it grows up."

Call It What It Is: A War

Hashtags No Substitute for Strategy, Newsday, May 18, 2014. "We are being led to believe that helping Nigeria is a mission of mercy. But we are actually taking sides in a religious war. And while we are right to side against Islamist terror, we are publicly entering this war, which the administration is not eager to explain, simply because taking visible action can be sold as easy, popular and humane. The problems of Nigeria and its neighbors are too serious to be treated so casually."

Neither Submission Nor War

Obama’s Furious Battle Against Straw Men, Newsday, May 2, 2014. "We can go well beyond his toothless sanctions on Russia without going to war. And far from loving war, Obama’s critics want to prevent it by making it clear to regimes like Russia and Iran that we will – calmly and resolutely – defend our allies and interests. By encouraging autocratic regimes to take chances, Mr. Obama actually risks encouraging wars.

Irrelevancy Commands No Respect

Obama Is Irrelevant Abroad and Now Disliked at Home, Yorkshire Post, April 29, 2014. "A year ago, Obama’s highest Gallup rankings were on foreign affairs. But by February, a majority of Americans believed the world’s leaders had little respect for the U.S. president. In late March, CBS found that only 36 percent of Americans approved of his foreign policy. Even Obamacare is more popular."

Grand Strategy, Political Economy, and Free Trade

The Limits of Free Trade, Newsday, April 18, 2014. "Since the Second World War, the United States has carried the banner of free trade. It’s not just a slogan: advancing economic freedom has been a central pillar of American grand strategy. But recently, the limits of that strategy have become clear."

The Brexit Prize and the IEA

And the Prize for Britain’s Exit to the EU Goes To . . ., Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 11, 2014. "The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in London awarded its prestigious “Brexit Prize,” a 100,000 euro award for the best plan for a British exit from the European Union (EU), earlier this week. The winner, Iain Mansfield, is the director of trade and investment at the British embassy in the Philippines. Thankfully, there are evidently still a few civil servants who have not succumbed to the British establishment’s decades-long bias in favor of the EU."

Favors Don't Work in International Affairs

The Genesis of Really Bad Ideas, Newsday, April 4, 2014. "Most bad ideas in the world grow from a few seeds. And there is no seed more dangerous than the belief that we can make other places see things our way by tossing out favors like candy at Halloween."

Against the ATT, Again

Arms Trade Treaty: Congress Warns White House on Backdoor Implementation, Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 3, 3014. "On the first anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), Senator Jerry Moran (R–KS) and Representative Mike Kelly (R–PA) sent powerful messages rejecting the White House’s efforts to implement the treaty outside the ratification process."

Develop First, Cancel Second

Tomahawk Cancellation an Error of Defense Strategy and Alliance Policy, with Steve Bucci, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4190, April 2, 2014. "Earlier this month, the U.S. Navy announced that it will stop buying Tomahawk cruise missiles in fiscal year (FY) 2016 and will seek to field a replacement within a decade. This decision is an error of both defense strategy and alliance policy. Congress should reject the Navy’s plans and require it to continue buying a sufficient number of Tomahawks annually to keep production lines open and unit costs affordable until a replacement can be effectively deployed into service, and until Britain and Australia (which use or plan to use the Tomahawk), after close consultation with the U.S., are satisfied that this replacement will affordably offer them equivalent or superior capabilities to the Tomahawk."

On Brexit As Means, Not End

Can Britain Learn to Stand Up for Itself?, Yorkshire Post, March 22, 2014. "There is a sense in which complaining about the EU risks being an end in itself. It satisfies a deeply-held need in modern society: to have something to gripe about. And that actually suits the EU chorus just fine, because one reason politicians of all stripes love the EU is that it gives 
them an excuse for anything that goes wrong. Leaving the EU implies that Britain is going to commit itself to everything the EU dislikes: freedom, and preferring deeds to words. That approach will make Britain’s moribund foreign policy relevant again. But it is an approach that will take leadership and commitment, and planning that needs to start now."

What We Can Do Now About Ukraine

Ten Ways the West Can Help Ukraine, Newsday, March 21, 1014. "It's not good enough to say the United States can do nothing to help Ukraine and deter Russia from future bullying and aggression. While we cannot overcome six years of errors in a day, we are only as powerless as we want to be. Here are 10 ways we can start to do better."

Freedom in Bournemouth

At Britain’s CPAC, Heritage Joins Conservative Allies, Heritage Foundation Foundry, March 19, 2014. "The Heritage Foundation was proud to be the only American think tank invited to participate in the inaugural Freedom Festival, Britain’s equivalent of the Conservative Political Action Conference in the U.S. Organized by the leading center-right think tanks and activist organizations in Britain, including such stalwarts for freedom as the Freedom Association, the TaxPayers’ Alliance, and Margaret Thatcher’s own Centre for Policy Studies, the Freedom Festival was a three-day long event held on the sunny south coast of Britain in Bournemouth. If there was one opinion that united the conference, it was dislike of Britain’s membership in the European Union."

The Troubled European Periphery

Europe Must Wake Up to New Danger, Newsday, March 7, 2014. "If you looked out from Europe in the 1990s, you could see sunshine on the horizon. With the end of the Cold War, NATO appeared to be on the road to irrelevancy. But the sunshine has faded. Russia's dismemberment of Ukraine should remind Americans and Europeans that European security, for which all of us paid a high price over the past hundred years, is not assured."

Iran Sues Europe, and Wins

Of Mullahs and Lawyers, with Andrew Southam, Weekly Standard, February 24, 2014. "For the past year, British and European Union sanctions against Iran have faced a string of legal challenges and lost nearly every round. The sanctions relief offered by the so-called interim nuclear deal between the P5+1 and Iran conceals the broader problem that the European legal basis for sanctions is eroding. Iran is expert in the waging of terror wars. It’s also, it turns out, good at lawfare."

Here's a New Idea: Blame the U.S.!

Hypocritical NGOs Like to Blame US While Turning Blind Eye to Terror, Fox News, February 19, 2014. "Supposedly, the treaty is about cutting off the supply of arms to terrorists and dictators. But the evidence shows that the NGOs are, in practice, more interested in the supposed misdeeds of the United States and other democracies than they are in stopping terror and dictators."

Non-Profts Aren't A Sector, They're Life

Nonprofit Model Entirely Misleading, Newsday, February 16, 2014. "One of the many virtues of the United States is it has an exceptionally lively nonprofit sector. There is an organization for everyone, and every organization speaks for itself. Europe is less fortunate: there, government funding of nonprofits is the norm. But at least Europe is waking up to the dangers of subsidies. We seem to be going to sleep."

International Sports, National Dictators

Olympics’ Edifice Complex Is Ultimately a Loser, Newsday, February 3, 2014. "The Olympic Winter Games start Friday in Sochi, Russia. They were supposed to cost $12 billion, but the latest estimate is higher: more than $50 billion. Small wonder that, increasingly, the nations that want to host international sporting events are corrupt, publicity-seeking dictatorships or deluded Keynesians."

Obama's Three Failed Middle East Aims

Barack Obama’s Mideast Strategy Has Failed, Newsday, January 17, 2014. "The damning report of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Benghazi confirms that the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. compound was planned and carried out by al-Qaida."

Top Five for 2014

Top Five Foreign Policy Priorities for 2014, with Nile Gardiner and James Phillips, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4123, January 14, 2014. "In 2014, the U.S. should be willing to stand up to those who threaten its interests while it stands with those who share its values and goals. Foremost among those values are the principles of sovereignty and self-determination, which must be as central to U.S. foreign policy as they are sacred to its system of government. Here are the top five foreign policy priorities for the Administration and Congress in 2014."

An Update on Looming ATT Dangers

After U.S. Signature, Dangers of U.N. Arms Trade Treaty Begin to Surface, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4216, January 14, 2014. "After U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry signed the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in September, a bipartisan majority of the Senate stated its opposition to ratifying the treaty. Over the past months, the dangers of the ATT have become increasingly obvious, and supporters of the treaty have been increasingly assertive in their claims and their criticism of the United States. The wisdom of the Senate’s opposition to the treaty having already been amply demonstrated, it is time for both the Senate and the House to hold hearings on the ATT."

A Narrative and Analysis of the Arms Trade Treaty Process

The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty: A Process, Not An Event, Journal on Firearms and Public Policy, vol. 25 (Fall 2013), available in PDF only. "The ATT is ambiguous for a reason. There was no chance that all the world’s nations would ever have been able to negotiate a clear treaty, with careful definitions, regulating the entire world’s trade in conventional arms. Moreover, if they had been able to do so, it is very unlikely that such a treaty would have been acceptable to the United States, because it would almost certainly have sought to place unacceptable limits on civilian ownership."

Go Where The Going (Might Be) Easier

A Ground Game That Could Favor the U.S., Newsday, January 3, 2014. "As in the previous decade, freedom made little headway in 2013. Throughout that period, the United States has labored unsuccessfully to build free governments in the Middle East and Africa. In 2014, we should seek to promote freedom where the going may be easier."

A New Year's Interpol Wish List for Jeh Johnson at DHS

New Homeland Security Chief Jeh Johnson Must Fight Interpol Abuse, Washington Times, January 2, 2014. "In his confirmation hearing to be secretary of the perennially troubled Department of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson emphasized that his priorities would be to fill senior DHS vacancies, improve its management and raise its morale. But now that he's on the job, Mr. Johnson is responsible for more than just the DHS. He also helps lead the National Central Bureau, through which the U.S. works with Interpol. The bureau's budget is only about $30 million, but that is no measure of the troubles it can cause."