Adenauer and de Gaulle All Over Again

With her Chequers Plan, Theresa May is repeating the mistakes of former Tory Prime Ministers, BrexitCentral, July 13, 2018. "The cardinal sin inherent in the way Britain thinks about the EU — and its predecessors — is that Britain focuses on economics at the expense of politics, and fixates on visible trade at the expense of invisibles. The focus on economics, I believe, reflects a couple of things."

The Need For A Positive No to the EU

UK Needs Freedom to Pick Talent from the Whole World, Yorkshire Post, November 23, 2013. "The EU’s problems are real, and underneath, they will drive voting in the referendum. But the Out campaign needs not just the Thatcherite spirit of rebellion: it needs her optimism. Even in terms of immigration, the EU means favouring talent from Europe, a tiny part of the world, at the expense of talent from the rest of it. And that makes less sense today for Britain than it ever did in the past."

What Obama Should Do To Restore the Special Relationship

In Meeting with Cameron, Obama Should Advance the U.S.-U.K. Special Relationship, with Nile Gardiner and Luke Coffey, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #3933, May 10, 2013. "President Barack Obama will host British Prime Minister David Cameron at the White House on May 13. Publicly, it has been announced that the visit will be dominated by events in Syria, economic cooperation, countering terrorism, and priorities for the next meeting of the G-8. Privately, David Cameron is likely to raise a number of sensitive issues, such as the U.S. position on the Falkland Islands and the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU). This visit offers an opportunity for President Obama to get the Special Relationship back on track."

Margaret Thatcher, Stakhanovite

Margaret Thatcher’s Lesson: To Triumph, Do Your Homework, Newsday, April 16, 2013. "Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s greatest prime minister since Winston Churchill, will be laid to rest today. In life, Thatcher never rested. American politicians, who have fallen into a bad habit of legislating for the camera, need to learn her habit of sweating the details instead."

On Lady Thatcher's Funeral

Margaret Thatcher’s Funeral: America Says Goodbye to a Friend, with Luke Coffey, Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 17, 2013. "Margaret Thatcher will be missed. But as the world says good-bye to the Iron Lady, we can take comfort in knowing that her legacy will outlive us all."

On Thatcherism and Development

The Problem with Socialism Is that Sooner or Later You Run Out of Other People’s Money, Guardian, April 16, 2013. "Thatcher's achievement was to challenge this increasingly stagnant status quo by making decisions about what to prioritise, thus rejecting the belief in the state as the enabler of all good things. Predictably, it earned her the hatred of the left."

Why Americans Liked Lady Thatcher

"Thatcher’s Radical Spirit Bridged the Atlantic to Drive a Revival of the West," Yorkshire Post, April 11, 2013. Not available online. "There’s no great mystery about why Americans liked Margaret Thatcher. They liked her because she liked them, and she said so, publicly and repeatedly. She was perfectly willing to be critical about the United States, when she thought it was appropriate, but it was always clear that she spoke as a friend."

On Lady Thatcher's Convictions

A Leader with Conviction, National Review Online, April 8, 2013. "Margaret Thatcher was not a woman who liked to look back. She never enjoyed watching her appearances on television, and when her office praised her after a victory, she replied by asking what they were going to do next. Only a leader with that kind of commitment could have rescued Britain from the slump in which it was mired in the 1970s."

Thirty Year On, Lessons from the Falklands

Falklands War: Lessons of Liberation Ring True for U.S. Today, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #3639, June 14, 2012. "The Falklands War illustrates the fundamental point that, in international affairs, one should always treat one’s friends better than anyone else. But it also offers a number of lessons for America as it struggles to avoid the devastating effects of defense sequestration and to maintain a military that provides for the common defense."

Reviewing "The Iron Lady"

'Iron Lady' Bias Can't Diminish Thatcher, Contentions, January 18, 2012. "The Iron Lady is not a particularly good movie. In structure and feel, it’s much more a one-woman play than it is a film. But on the screen it’s a success nonetheless, if only because, perhaps without meaning to, it displays conviction politics in their purest, most elemental, and most attractive form."

Morning Bell on the Iron lady

Morning Bell" The Real 'Iron Lady', Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 11, 2012. "Tomorrow brings the nationwide release of The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Streep referred to the challenge of portraying Lady Thatcher as “daunting and exciting,” and as requiring “as much zeal, fervour and attention to detail as the real Lady Thatcher possesses.” Her performance has already been widely praised by critics, but for those who respect Lady Thatcher, not all the omens are positive. In an interview, Streep compared Lady Thatcher to King Lear and commented that what interested her about the role “was the part of someone who does monstrous things maybe, or misguided things. Where do they come from?” That doesn’t sound good."

The Decline and Fall of Victorian Values

Riots Reveal to World How Britain Has Lost Its Values, Yorkshire Post, August 31, 2011. "As the liberal media are always eager to remind us – because it promotes moral relativism – Britain before the Victorians was a drunken and disorderly place. The Victorians couldn’t solve this problem completely, but they did enough to recast the British character, and to make it more than a stereotype. In modern Britain, this Victorian order has been broken down."

A LOST Ancedote

Secretary Rumsfeld, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and the Law of the Sea Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, February 24, 2011. "Secretary Rumsfeld's memoir is a fascinating read, as reviewers both friendly and hostile have agreed. As the Secretary has been alive for one-third of the history of the United States—as he ruefully observed—it’s not surprising that his memoir is such a treasure trove. His remarks on Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and the Law of the Sea Treaty are a relevant example."

When Cameron Came to DC

PM Shines But Should Have Spoken Out On Fiscal Divide, Yorkshire Post, July 22, 2010. "AT least David Cameron's visit wasn't a fiasco. When Gordon Brown came to Washington last year, it was all too obvious that the US administration in general, and Barack Obama in particular, regarded him as a negligible figure."

On Weak British Election Analysis in Foreign Affairs

What the British Elections Were All About, New Ledger, May 12, 2010. "It’s not fair to say that Mark Blyth and Jonathan Hopkin’s piece in Foreign Affairs on “Labour Pains: Why the British General Election is a Referendum on Its Past,” is the worst piece of commentary I’ve read on the subject."

Back to First Principles on Sovereignty

Sovereignty and Humanitarian Interventions, New Ledger, April 28, 2010. "Mark Mazower is a distinguished historian of Europe, and a professor of history at Columbia University. He has a piece in the latest World Affairs that sheds useful light on the rise and fall of the concept of humanitarian interventions. But it also reveals some common misconceptions about the relationship between sovereignty and international institutions, and presents a thoroughly contradictory vision of the road forward."

Gordon Brown Tells A Porkie

The Economy Drive, Contentions, January 7, 2010. "The parlous state of Britain’s economy and budget and the necessity of cuts in government spending should be common knowledge. The British public certainly grasps the situation. One manifestation is the data by the polling firm Ipsos-MORI. In its latest monthly “Issues Index,” which invites interviewees to name as many issues of concern as they care to, “Economy/Economic Situation” stands at 49%."

Margaret Thatcher and "A Real Detente"

How Margaret Thatcher Helped to End the Cold War, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #2631, September 28, 2009. "When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, many in the West had come to believe that the Cold War could not and should not be won, that anti-Communism was morally wrong, and that the future lay in détente between the superpowers and the evolution of democracy into ever-deepening state socialism. By the time she left office, the Berlin Wall had fallen and Eastern Europe was liberated. A year later, the Soviet Union crumbled into the dustbin of history. Democracy and freedom were on the advance."

President Reagan's Statue in London

Honoring President Ronald Reagan in London, Heritage Foundation Foundry, May 29, 2009.