The Al-Qaeda Threat in the U.S.

British Report Supports Heritage Analysis of Al-Qaeda Threat, Heritage Foundation Foundry, February 28, 2013. "On Monday, the Britain-based think tank the Henry Jackson Society—named for Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson of Washington—published a major report by co-authors Robin Simcox and Emily Dyer on Al-Qaeda in the United States: A Complete Analysis of Terrorism Offenses."

Defining Victory Down

Al-Qaeda in the United States, Contentions, February 27, 2013. "It was also 20 years ago that Senator Daniel Moynihan warned of the dangers of “defining deviancy down.” Today, our strategy against Al-Qaeda is to win by defining victory down, and focusing only on the damage we do to its so-called core. That wrongly elevates drone strikes from a tool into a strategy, ignores the recruiting appeal of the Islamist ideology that is at the heart of the danger posed by Al-Qaeda, and neglects the fact that we are not very good at anticipating how al-Qaeda’s franchises and allies will grow, cooperate, and spread. Last year, very few analysts worried about Islamist militants in the Mahgreb; today, they control half a country."

Instant Response to the 2013 SOTU

Foreign Policy in Retreat, Heritage Foundation Foundry, February 12, 2013. "What was striking about Obama’s remarks was how strongly his foreign policy vision contrasted with his domestic policy prescriptions. At home, it seems that very little does not qualify as an “investment”: by his way of thinking, the government exists to start programs, spend money, tax the rich, and do things. But abroad, the government exists mostly to stop doing things."

Whatever It Is, It's Not Strategy

Biden on the Taliban: They Call It ‘Strategery', Contentions, December 21, 2011. "The problem is not that Obama and Biden are uninterested in the evidence of our failed efforts to engage the Taliban. The problem is that – as Max notes in another context – they want to get out of Afghanistan, and they believe that they can facilitate this in the American political context by depicting the Taliban as irrelevant to our security interests. And sadly, the evidence of the steadily-declining popular support for the war over the past year suggests that, politically, this calculation is correct."

Data on Islamist Terrorist Plots in Great Britain

Islamist Terrorist Plots in Great Britain: Uncovering the Global Network, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2329, with Morgan Roach, October 26, 2009. "Individuals who traveled in Pakistan and received terrorist training there or in Afghanistan are a central part of the challenge of Islamist terrorism in Britain. Because al-Qaeda’s strategy relies partly on using European nationals to carry out attacks against the United States, the rise of Islamist terrorism in Britain and Europe poses a serious danger to the U.S. and its allies in Europe and around the world."

What's Wrong in Helmand

The ISW on the War in Helmand, Contentions, October 9, 2009. "The Institute for the Study of War has released an outstanding report by Jeffrey Dressler on “Securing Helmand: Understanding and Responding to the Enemy.” The report surveys the province, the enemy, the Taliban’s campaign plan, the British experience in Helmand, and the recent ISAF operations in it. It also contains some excellent maps. There is too much in the report to summarize: anyone interested in the war should read it in full. But it makes three points that are of particular interest to those, like myself, who have followed Britain’s contribution to the war."

Are Islamists Putting Britain First?

Is Britain Target No. 1?, Contentions, August 20, 2009. "Newspapers around the world are reporting that an Islamist Internet site affiliated with supporters of Abdullah al-Faisal—Jamaican-born Trevor William Forest, who was deported from Britain in 2007 after serving a jail sentence for soliciting the murder of Jews, Americans, and Hindus—is promising 'spectacular attacks' in Britain, to be launched by 'home-grown terrorists.'"

Can Ministers Think?

A Painful Admission of Incapability, Contentions, July 23, 2009. "Jacqui Smith was Britain’s Home Secretary from late June 2007 through early June 2009. She was ultimately forced to resign when, as part of the ongoing scandal of parliamentary-expense claims, it was discovered that her husband had requested reimbursement for pornographic movies. Quite enough has been said about this episode, which reflected poorly not on Ms. Smith, but on her husband and the expense system. But yesterday, the BBC reported that she has given a thoroughly depressing interview to Total Politics magazine. She admits that she had 'never run a major organization' before taking over the Home Office, and that if she did a good job it was 'more by luck than by any kind of development of [my] skills.' "

The Five Myths of US Defense Spending

Demystifying Defense: Exposing Myths About US Military Expenditures, Harvard International Review, Spring 2009, Vol. 31, No. 1. "The most serious impediments to a serious discussion of defense spending are the myths that surround it. Until these myths are cleared away, no rational debate regarding what the US and its allies around the world should do to secure their interests is possible. The most urgent need, therefore, is for politicians and the public to know how much the US and other powers spend, to place these expenditures and their trends in historical context, to weigh the dangers of both excessive and insufficient defense spending, to understand why the US and the world's democracies maintain armed forces, and why the US spends so much relative to its potential adversaries. Absent this knowledge, the political process that shapes defense spending in democracies will not work effectively, and their defense will suffer. In short, for today's democracies, defense spending is not an economic problem. A people who lack the will to pay will eventually find they are a target for those who have the will to fight."