Samatha Powers and the Hypocrisy of the Atrocities Prevention Board

Atrocities Prevention Board, One Year Later, Contentions, April 23, 2013. "It’s about as likely that the U.S. will develop the ability to predict atrocities before they happen as it is that we’ll develop the ability to predict events like the Arab Spring before they happen. It’s all too easy to make a list of places where bad things are more likely to happen: any place where government is either really strong or really weak is a contender to head the list. Nor is there any secret about where the world’s atrocities are happening today: Syria, North Korea, Iran, the DRC, and Sudan, among others. The usual suspects. The problem is not that we lack the administrative tools to recognize this. It’s not even that this administration has in practice been more interested in cozying up to Russia, downplaying radical Islamism, and kicking the can down the road in Syria and Iran, though all of that will feature heavily in the work of a future Samantha Power. It’s that these are, in Power’s own words, problems from hell, and you don’t address problems from hell with a nice, well-mannered, invisible inter-agency board."

The ATT's Fundamental Flaws

Five Fundamental Flaws in the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, July 23, 2012. "The overwhelming majority of commentary in the United States on the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) has focused on the possible risks it poses to rights protected under the Second Amendment. There is nothing wrong with being watchful on this front, but the ATT raises broader concerns for U.S. foreign policy. Indeed, the ATT is inherently flawed simply because of the beliefs on which it is based and the process by which it is being drafted. Here are five reasons why."

On the 2012 SOTU

American Leadership AWOL Again, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 24, 2012. "The President’s remarks in his State of the Union Address on foreign policy were formulaic. This Address was about domestic policy and, ultimately, about the 2012 election, which the President clearly believes will be won or lost on the basis of his record at home. Unfortunately, that does not absolve him of his responsibility to do more than slot token references on events abroad into his remarks."

On Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, Uniquely American, Contentions, October 6, 2011. "Jobs may at times have denied that technology could genuinely change life, but as President Obama said in his statement yesterday, he “exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity” and “changed the way each of us sees the world.” On the subject of change, the last word belongs to Jobs. When he sought to recruit Pepsi’s John Sculley – an ill-fated hire – to become Apple’s president in 1983, Jobs’ legendary pitch to a reluctant Sculley was pure and true: “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”"

What Could Have Been in Libya

US Leadership Melts Away Into Sands of Libya Over Obama’s Foolish Humanitarian Foray, Yorkshire Post, June 24, 2011. "It didn’t have to be this way. Across the Middle East, the perception is growing that the U.S., in its haste to find the exit, has forgotten the ironclad rule of the region: reward your friends and punish your enemies. Instead, the U.S. is trying to pacify quarrels by slapping its allies down and allowing the worst of the dictators to slide by. From Obama’s perpetual jabs at Israel to his reluctance to speak out against the Assad regime in Syria, he is feeding the belief that the U.S. wants to bug out. A decisive NATO intervention against the Gaddafi regime would have demonstrated that West is not quitting, that it retains the will and the ability to act."

After Bin Laden, Now What?

Obama Has Shown His Leadership, But Now We Must See His Common Sense, Yorkshire Post, May 12, 2011. "After his election in 2008, President Barack Obama was occasionally lauded as the Reagan of the left, an orator of genius who would reshape the landscape of American politics for a generation. Two years later, the landscape was indeed reshaped – by the conservative landslide of 2010. The very scale of that loss evoked enough pity to give Obama a brief post-election bounce. The wonderful success of the strike against Osama Bin Laden has given him another one. But will it endure?"

Response to State of the Union

Reaction Roundup: Heritage Responds to the State of the Union, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 25, 2011. "In the opening section of his address, the President referred to the need to “sustain the leadership that has made America not just a place on a map, but a light to the world.” Those are certainly words that conservatives can endorse and respect, just as they will agree with his statement that America is “the first nation the be founded for the sake of an idea.” As Matthew Spalding has stated, the American creed 'is set forth most clearly in the Declaration of Independence, . .. a timeless statement of inherent rights, the proper purposes of government, and the limits on political authority.' Unfortunately, this was not the creed that the President proclaimed in his speech."

The Fiftieth Anniversary of Kennedy's Inaugural

Kennedy’s Myth May Not Be Reality, But It Shows Us What Obama Lacks, Yorkshire Post, January 19, 2011. "FIFTY years after his inauguration on January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy remains America's most popular president in the last half-century. A recent survey by Gallup finds that 85 per cent of Americans retrospectively approve of Kennedy. The next highest ranking president, Ronald Reagan, scores only 74 per cent. Kennedy not only leads: he laps the field."

George Washington, First Principles, and Foreign Policy

Yes, the Founding Fathers Have Foreign Policy First Principles, Heritage Foundation Foundry, August 26, 2010. "James Downie, standing in for Jonathan Chait at The New Republic, believes that The Heritage Foundation’s view of the relationship between first principles and foreign policy is wrong, and contrary to George Washington’s vision. Inevitably, he seeks to prove his point by quoting Washington’s Farewell Address. His case would be even less persuasive if he’d read a little more, or a little more thoroughly."

The Rule of the People and Foreign Policy

First Princples and Foreign Policy, Heritage Foundation Foundry, Augsut 24, 2010. "One common way of thinking about foreign policy is that it exists in its own world, separate from domestic policy or the first principles on which a nation is founded. According to this view , the job of the foreign policy expert is to deal dispassionately with the world as it is, making no distinction between democracies and dictatorships, and shaping policy solely by cold-hearted consideration of the national interest. The Heritage Foundation has never accepted this way of thinking."

Rising Taxes, Declining Jobs

Less Economic Freedom = Fewer Jobs for Americans, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 31, 2010. "What does America’s declining economic freedom mean for you? It means that America will create fewer jobs. And that means that Americans will be poorer, as well as less free."

State of the Union Lacks Substance on Foreign Policy

The President Looks Inward, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 28, 2010. "In publicizing the President’s State of the Union address, Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett announced that one of the achievements of which the administration was most proud in its first year in office was its action to repair “badly frayed global alliances” and “to restore America’s leadership in the world.” That leadership was not much in evidence in the President’s speech, which is only fitting, because it has been lacking in reality as well."

American Leadership on Economic Goes AWOL

U.S. Can't Lead on Economic Freedom When It's Retreating, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 28, 2010. "The news is out: the U.S. is falling behind on economic freedom. In the 2010 edition of the Index of Economic Freedom, the United States, for the first time, dropped out of the ranks of the free, and into those of the ‘mostly free,’ ranking eighth in the world and behind Canada in North America."

Foreign Policy After The First Year

One Year Later: America Retreats From Global Leadership Under Obama, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 16, 2010. "The world needs American leadership. In the interwar years, we saw that the enemies of freedom advance when the great liberal and democratic powers of the day failed to lead. We saw it again in the dark years of the Cold War under President Carter. The alternative to an America willing and able to lead is not a paradise of peace through engagement. It is a world where the undemocratic, the unsatisfied, and the illiberal powers of the world advance at the expense of American ideals, American interests, and America’s allies."