Reforming the Treaty Process

If We Care About American Exceptionalism, It’s Time to Reform Our Treaty Processes, Conservative Home USA, January 19, 2010. "As an exceptional nation that values its sovereignty, the United States has much to gain from the practice of responsible diplomacy. After all, diplomacy was invented to allow sovereign states to interact and negotiate. Unfortunately, responsible diplomacy is at risk."

Defense Is Not Just About Defense Spending

The Defense Budget Is Not Just About Numbers, ConservativeHome, December 16, 2010. "There has been quite a bit of public debate about whether the defense budget should be cut along with the rest of the government as we get our deficit under control. This debate usually begins at the wrong end of the argument. The U.S. spends money on its armed forces in order to fulfill the Constitutionally-mandated requirement to provide for the common defense, and because, like all democracies, it has interests it seeks to advance. These interests are not simply material: because the U.S. was founded on the belief that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are universal, our interests are defined, in part, by our values. Before critics blindly take a hacksaw to the defense budget, they should explain exactly how they propose to defend America’s citizens, interests, and values by spending less, or spell out precisely which of those responsibilities they plan to abandon."