The Olympics And International Order, Part 1

The Olympics And International Order, Part 1, Forbes, July 31, 2016, "Friday’s opening of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, will mark a highlight in the sporting calendar. But the Olympics – or, more properly, the International Olympic Committee that controls them – are also just another international organization. The Olympics tell us a lot about how society and the international system have changed, for good and ill, since the modern Games began in 1896 in Athens, Greece."

IOC Should Have Kicked Russian Athletes Out of the Olympic Games in Rio

IOC Should Have Kicked Russian Athletes Out of the Olympic Games in Rio, Newsday, July 31, 2016, "When the Olympic Games open in Brazil on Friday, Russian athletes will be there. Not all of them, but many. It would be better for the games, and the other athletes, if the International Olympic Committee had banned Russia."

A Year Later: Why the Iran Nuclear Deal Has Failed

A Year Later: Why the Iran Nuclear Deal Has Failed, Newsday, July 18, 2016, "This week marks the anniversary of President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. That deal was never about stopping Iran’s nuclear program. It was about resetting the United States’ relations with Iran and the wider Middle East. By that standard, the deal has been a failure."

Why Did Britain Exit? Because It Finally Got the Chance To

Why Did Britain Exit? Because It Finally Got the Chance To, Weekly Standard Online, July 12, 2016, "The reason immigration mattered in 2016 wasn't that Britain was in the midst of a sudden panic. It was that immigration had been a front-burner issue for 15 years. Immigration, in short, was a background condition. And it was a background condition not because of vague theories about globalization, or vaporous claims about the failure of Britons to "imagine themselves part of a cosmopolitan, thriving democratic polity," but because of specific actions taken by the New Labour government, and broader EU policies, that were very unpopular."

What Mad Cow Disease Tells Us About Brexit

What Mad Cow Disease Tells Us About Brexit, Weekly Standard Online, July 11, 2016, "If we want to understand why the EU was not very popular in Britain in 2016, the answer is simple: After 1995, the EU was never very popular in Britain. If we want, in turn, to understand the EU's long-run unpopularity in the U.K., we need to look at that longue durée, because the U.K. is reliably one of Europe's most Euroskeptic nations. But the fact is that, as far as British opinion since 1995 goes, there was nothing unusual about the conditions under which the 2016 referendum took place."

Losers, Winners, Free Trade, And America

Losers, Winners, Free Trade, And America, Forbes, July 1, 2016, "The 2016 campaign has forced me to face up to an uncomfortable truth–the United States isn’t nearly as friendly to free trade as I’d believed. The remaining candidates either waffle on it or condemn it. I don’t know who will win in 2016, but I do know who looks like losing: all of us."

Britain Is Back – An American Perspective on Brexit

Britain Is Back – An American Perspective on Brexit, Yorkshire Post, June 30, 2016, "Being in Britain for the referendum was a joy. It was also a lesson. I watched the last week of the referendum campaign from London. That may have been a mistake – not the watching, but London. I would have learned more in Yorkshire. As it turned out, the referendum was, among other things, a vote against London’s view of the European Union. By staying in London, I missed a chance to meet the people who won the vote for Brexit, the people of northern England."

Obama Administration’s Goal Is to Undermine Brexit Vote

Obama Administration’s Goal Is to Undermine Brexit Vote, Daily Signal, June 30, 2016. "Before Britain’s historic vote to leave the European Union last Thursday, the Obama administration was eager to pressure the British people to stay in. They lost, but they can’t stop playing their games."

Why Britain Voted for Brexit

Why Britain Voted for Brexit, Newsday, June 27, 2016, "Basically, the reason the EU was unpopular on Thursday was that it was unpopular last year, and the year before that, and a decade ago, and even two decades ago. The EU’s unpopularity has certainly waxed and waned, but, by and large, it’s waxed."

Why You Should Be Glad Britain Voted for Brexit

Why You Should Be Glad Britain Voted for Brexit, US News and World Report, June 25, 2016, "Britain's historic referendum on its membership in the European Union ended early on Friday morning with a clear result: 52 percent of the British people, a margin of more than 1.2 million voters, wanted to exit the E.U. Brexit is a reality, and, as a result, Prime Minister David Cameron, who led the campaign to keep Britain in, has resigned. To listen to the intelligentsia scream about this, you would think that Britain has done something dangerous. But Britain's going to stay in NATO. It's not going isolationist. It's not going to stop buying, selling and investing around the world. What it is going to start doing is controlling its own borders, making its own trade agreements and writing its own rules. Inside the E.U., it couldn't do any of those things. After it completes its departure from the E.U., it can."

Brexit Opponents Need to Look in the Mirror

Brexit Opponents Need to Look in the Mirror, Weekly Standard Blog, June 24, 2016, "As I pointed out, the Remain campaign had the advantage of being able to raise fears about an unknown future, and the advantage of being able to campaign on the status quo. It also had the advantage of being able to call on an unlimited supply of famous people to oppose Brexit. And yet it lost. You have to conclude that a lot of people didn't regard the status quo as all that great. But I fear that quite a few EU backers are likely to blame the following things for their loss: a) Fascists; b) Racists; c) Liars; d) The man at the pub. Well, if they really want to argue that over half the British public are that terrible, that's their right."

Britain Backs Brexit – Against All Expectations

Britain Backs Brexit – Against All Expectations, Forbes, June 23, 2016, "The remarkable has happened. Against all the polls, against all the expectations, against all the pressure, the British people have voted to leave the European Union. Brexit has won. In the end, the vote was massive – 72.2% turnout – and decisive: 51.9% for Brexit, a margin of approximately 1.3 million votes. Regionally, the breakdown was equally clear: London and a few other major cities, mostly in the south, voted to remain, as did Scotland and (narrowly) Northern Ireland, while England as a whole, and especially the north, voted to leave. It was really the north that won it for Brexit. There, Brexit piled up big majorities which more than offset losses in London and Scotland. In some ways, this was as much a vote against the dominance of London as it was against the EU."

For Britain, June 23 Is Independence Day

For Britain, June 23 Is Independence Day, Daily Signal, June 24, 2016, "In a historic referendum, by a margin of a million votes, the British people have decided to leave the European Union. Brexit is no longer a dream. It is a fact."

Fear and Loathing in the Brexit Debate

Fear and Loathing in the Brexit Debate, Weekly Standard Online, June 23, 2016, "From the start of the current battle over Britain's EU membership—which culminates Thursday in the vote on the Brexit referendum—advocates of a British exit have half-joked and half-worried that the Remain campaign would get its gas from what they called Project Fear, a relentless barrage of fear, uncertainty, and doubt aimed at wavering voters. How right they were."

British Decline, American Decline – And Brexit

British Decline, American Decline – And Brexit, Forbes, June 22, 2016, "James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute is – at least to this historian of Britain – one of the most readable and stimulating commentators on economic affairs out there today. His recent column on “Is America Really in Decline? What We Can Learn from Britain” raises a few points which shed some light on the declinist argument and on the case for Britain’s exit from the European Union, or Brexit. As Pethokoukis puts it, drawing on historian Robert Tombs, the so-called decline panic that Britain experienced in the post-1945 decades “rests on two assumptions: First, Britain experienced a collapse in global influence and economic dynamism. Second, those results stemmed from ‘long-standing failures’ of the nation’s core institutions.”"

Why Brexit Will Promote European, British, and American Security

Why Brexit Will Promote European, British, and American Security, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4584, June 22, 2016. "On June 23, Britain will hold a referendum on its membership in the European Union. Opponents of a British exit from the EU assert that a “Brexit” would be bad for both British security and the peace of Europe. Indeed, on May 9, British Prime Minister David Cameron, a supporter of Britain’s EU membership, implied that Brexit risks causing a European war. This argument rests on bad history and a worse understanding of the risks to peace in Europe today. If Britain exits the EU, it will ensure that it retains control of its foreign, security, and alliance policies. This will allow it to continue to play a leading role in the NATO alliance, and ensure that it remains a vital security and intelligence ally of the United States. It is the United States and NATO—not the EU—that have brought peace to Europe."

The Great Brexit Stitch-Up

The Great Brexit Stitch-Up, Weekly Standard Online, June 21, 2016, "At times—blessedly—politics barely intrude on normal life. Last year, for example, Britain held an election that bored virtually everyone who wasn't directly involved in it. It was no more consequential than most elections (in other words, it mattered, but not as much as everyone believed), but it had the merit of producing an entirely reasonable outcome that almost no one (myself included) expected: A bored nation voted narrowly for a boring party, the Conservatives, and was placidly surprised by the outcome."

Brexit: Should They Stay Or Should They Go?

Brexit: Should They Stay Or Should They Go?, CNN, June 21, 2016, "The vital issue at the heart of Brexit -- whether Britain should exit the European Union -- is simple. It's not about money, trade, war, or immigration. It's about democracy."

Brexit Would Strike A Blow For The Staying Power Of The West

Brexit Would Strike A Blow For The Staying Power Of The West, Forbes, June 20, 2016. "On Thursday, Britain will vote in a referendum on whether or not it should exit – thus, Brexit — the EU. I have no idea how the vote will go. The polls have favored the Remain campaign, but more recently Leave has leapt into the lead. But the tragic murder of Labour MP Jo Cox has paused the campaign on both sides, and in any case I doubt the value of the polls. They were wrong before the last British general election in May, and I see no reason to believe them now. But there is no doubt how most famous people want the vote to go."

Congressional Letter Urges Obama to Rethink Brexit

Congressional Letter Urges Obama to Rethink Brexit, Daily Signal, June 20, 2016. "Britain’s referendum on its membership of the European Union—which might lead to its exit (known as Brexit)—will take place on June 23. After a pause following the tragic murder of Jo Cox, a Labour Party member of the British Parliament, the campaign resumed on Sunday, with the polls still too close to call. But a number of members of the House of Representatives aren’t happy with the approach the Obama administration has taken toward Brexit. When he visited Britain in April, President Barack Obama made it clear that he wanted Britain to stay in the EU, and that, if it left, Britain would be at the “back of queue” for a trade deal with the United States."

Brexit, Britain’s Immigration Fight

Brexit, Britain’s Immigration Fight, Newsday, June 19, 2016, "On Thursday, Britain will vote in a referendum on whether it should exit — hence, Brexit — the European Union. If it does leave, one reason will be because the British people are fed up with uncontrolled immigration. This is a story about the arrogance of Britain’s elite, with a lesson for politicians in all countries."

The Other Half Smuggled the Gun

At the U.N., Lather, Rinse, and Repeat for Gun Control, National Review Online, June 14, 2016, "The more time you spend at the U.N., the more its activities fall into a pattern. There are big promises, followed by failure and complete unwillingness to look that failure in the face. The affair invariably concludes with the piling up of yet more promises. Like a naughty child, the U.N. responds to evidence of past underperformance with pledges of future overachievement."

On the Special Relationship

The Special Relationship: Anglo-American Relations Since 1776, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, June 8, 2016, "The Special Relationship is a term used to describe the close relations between the United States and the United Kingdom. It applies particularly to the governmental realms of foreign, defense, security, and intelligence policy, but it also captures a broader sense that both public and private relations between the United States and Britain are particularly deep and close. The Special Relationship is thus a term for a reality that came into being over time as the result of political leadership as well as ideas and events outside the formal arena of politics."

The Right Trade-Off for the Migrant Crisis

No Easy Answers to European Migrant Crisis, Newsday, June 5, 2016, "In 2015, more than 3,700 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean, and more than a million arrived in Europe. So far this year, at least 2,500 have died, and another 200,000 have arrived — and if 2015 is any precedent, migration will spike in the summer and fall. Europe seems helpless to stem the tide."

Five Facts About Brexit, the U.S., and Britain

Brexit and the Future of the Special Relationship, Heritage Foundation Factsheet #165, June 2, 2016, "Many Americans believe the EU is a bit like NAFTA—a free trade area. That is untrue. The EU is not even a free trade area: it is a customs union. More important, the EU is a political project and always has been. Imagine if the U.S. was part of a federal union with every other nation in the Western Hemisphere, with a supranational bureaucracy in Costa Rica that had the power to make rules for us, and a court in Mexico City that could overrule our Supreme Court. That is the EU. If you believe in democratic national sovereignty, the EU isn’t for you."