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.

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."

Proof of Churchill's Contention That No One Learns From History

"Britain’s Report on the Libya Fiasco," Forbes, October 1, 2016, "Almost unnoticed in the United States – and neglected even in Britain – the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has produced a superb report on Britain’s role in the disastrous NATO intervention in Libya in 2011. It makes for depressing, if valuable, reading."

The Decline and Fall of British Liberalism

Election Reveals Battle for Britain’s True Liberal Soul, Yorkshire Post, April 17, 2015. "THE debates between the party leaders have made one thing clear. The election isn’t just a struggle between the Tories, Labour, and the rest. It’s a moment that reveals the state of British liberalism. By liberalism, I don’t mean the nanny-statism that today passes for liberalism, with its identity group politics, its ravenous appetite for state spending in the name of appearing to care and its 
love of top-down control."

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."

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."

John Stuart Mill, the ATT, and Syria

Multilateralism and the Arms Trade Treaty, Contentions, March 18, 2013. "The negotiation of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which I am observing at the U.N., offers a wonderful environment in which to observe the various species of hypocrisy. But like any zoo, you pretty well know what’s in the cage. Iran will be smoothly menacing, Syria will spit venom, and every developing nation will demand “implementation assistance,” i.e. more foreign aid. In the U.N., the dangers and the silliness are somewhat mitigated by their predictability."

Two Lightweights Prop Each Other Up

"United By Appearance Not Substance," Yorkshire Post, March 17, 2012. Reviewing the March 2012 Obama-Cameron Summit. Not available online. "Palling around with Obama is part of that policy of appearances, of winning credibility by association. It is a strange fate for Cameron, who made waves in 2006 with his call for a Britain that was “solid but not slavish” in friendship with America. But in 2012, Britain is short on friends. The much-touted revival of Commonwealth ties has fallen flat, and the very idea of drawing closer to Europe is profoundly unpopular, not to mention economically suicidal."

The Arms Trade Treaty and Libya

On Arming Those Libyan Rebels, Contentions, March 10, 2011. "Max Boot has argued that arming the Libyan rebels may be the best way to ensure that a prolonged conflict in that country doesn’t flood the world’s black market with arms. I am agnostic on this point: the world’s black market is flooded with arms in any case, and if I believed it was necessary or desirable to arm the rebels — though certainly not with surface-to-air missiles, a possibility against which Max rightly cautions — I would not be dissuaded by the reality that at least some of the weapons would inevitably surface somewhere else."

The U.S. on Britain in Europe

A Policy That Pleases No One, Contentions, January 28, 2011. "In a private meeting with British MEPs on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to Britain Louis Susman is reported to have said: “Washington wants a clearer British commitment to remain in the EU. … [A]ll key issues must run through Europe.” He was not expressing a personal preference. He was reiterating the administration’s policy. After all, it was the vice president who last May described Brussels as “the capital of the free world.” But this is not a policy that is likely to achieve results satisfactory to anyone."

British Defense Cuts Are Too Deep

Spending Cuts in British Defense Review: Less Than Expected, But Still Damaging, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #3039, October 22, 2010. "On October 19, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced the results of Britain’s Strategic Defense and Security Review. This review, the first since 1998, has resulted in substantial reductions in Britain’s defense spending that will have dangerous long-term consequences."

The Defense Review Represents Continuity, Not Change

Hitler's Nemesis Still Carries a Big Stick, Blooomberg.com, October 21, 2010. "The British defense review, announced this week, has given critics an opportunity to misjudge the U.K. again, and many have made the most of it. But even if the cuts are carried out in full, Britain will still be a major military power. The review isn’t flawless, but it represents continuity, not change."

Cameron's Visit and the US-UK Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty

David Cameron Must Press for U.S. Ratification of the U.S.–U.K. Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, July 16, 2010. "The U.S.–U.K. Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty, which was signed in 2007 and ratified by Britain in 2008, has the support of the Obama Administration. But the Administration has not worked hard enough to allay the concerns that have so far prevented the U.S. Senate from ratifying the treaty. During Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to the United States, he should press President Obama to demonstrate his commitment to advancing the Anglo–American Special Relationship and improving the efficiency of defense procurement in both countries by announcing his intention to work with the Senate to secure the rapid ratification of this treaty."

The U.S.-Australia Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty

Now Is the Time to Seek Ratification of the U.S.-Australia Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #2836, March 18, 2010. "The U.S.–Australia Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty, like its U.S.–U.K. counterpart, is in the American interest. . . . The ball is now where it has been since 2007: in the Administration’s court. With the President’s postponement of his previously announced visit to Australia, it is all the more important for his Administration to demonstrate its commitment to the U.S.–Australia partnership. The energy with which it pursues this opportunity of closer defense ties with Australia and the U.K. will speak to its commitment to defense procurement reform, sensible export promotion, and firmer ties with America’s closest allies."

Example #6: Why the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty Is a Bad Idea

The Media Spins More Nonsense About the Arms Trade Treaty, Contentions, January 28, 2010. "UPI is running a story that sums up a lot of bad reporting about a favorite liberal cause: the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty. The piece – headlined “Arms Trade Plagued By Corruption” – is halfway between reporting and editorializing. It’s occasioned by the arrest in Las Vegas, after a two-and-a-half-year undercover Department of Justice sting operation, of 22 Americans, Britons, Israelis, and others at an arms expo. They are charged with trying to bribe an individual they thought was an African defense minister to obtain a $15 million contract. Bribing foreign officials is a violation of the 1977 U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."

Britain, Pakistan, Terror, and Assimilation

The Pakistan-Britain Terror Connection: Lessons and Warnings for the United States, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2337, November 6, 2009, co-authored with Lisa Curtis. "The Pakistan-Britain terror connection poses a serious threat to Great Britain and its allies, including the United States. Breaking the personnel, financial, and ideological links will require fighting terrorism on three fronts: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Britain. In Afghanistan, the U.S., the U.K., and their allies need to continue to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda. They should also hold Pakistan accountable for its failure to act decisively against terrorism. In Britain, the government needs to enforce the tightened immigration and asylum practices, refuse to cooperate with radical Islamism, and promote citizenship and economic opportunity to help immigrants assimilate into British society."

Example #5: Why the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty Is a Bad Idea

Another Day, Another Arms-Trade Scandal, Another Excuse for a Treaty, Contentions, October 28, 2009. "The story by now should be wearily familiar. Last week France was caught supplying arms to the dictatorial regime in Guinea, which then used them to brutally suppress protesters. This time, it’s Britain. Amnesty International UK asserts that Guinea also used a Mamba armored personnel-carrier that it bought from a South African subsidiary of a UK-based company. Amnesty International UK’s arms programme director, Oliver Sprague, followed with the predictable call . . . ."

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."

Example #4: Why the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty Is a Bad Idea

The Sweet, Sweet Mirage of Consensus, Contentions, October 21, 2009. "Late last week, the Obama administration did what I feared it would do: It endorsed the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty negotiations. The goal is to craft a treaty negotiated and ready for signature by 2012 that would impose standards on the entire conventional arms trade. The projected treaty’s scope is vast."

A Libyan Redux?

Was Qaddafi Paid Off?, Contentions, October 13, 2009. "No, I’m not talking about the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, though some very stinging questions have been raised about just how, exactly, the release was related to BP’s negotiation with Libya about an oil exploration deal. I’m talking about the 1970s."