On Surveillance and Border Control

More on Britain's 'Police State', Contentions, October 28, 2009. "Anthony Sacramone, working from a New York Times report, is tolerably severe about the rise of domestic surveillance in Britain. As always, the Times is late to the party. The House of Lords Constitution Committee issued a lengthy report on this subject in January, following on five years of discussion about the rise of the “surveillance society” in Britain."

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 . . . ."

The Gray Procurement Report and Labour Defense Cuts

Armed Forces May Count the Cost of Cutbacks on Defence, Yorkshire Post, October 28, 2009. "The publication of Bernard Gray's much-leaked report on defence procurement gives all the parties a vital chance to commit to spending plans and sensible reforms that will protect the future of Britain's armed forces."

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."

Another Bad Arms Control Decision

The Administration Gets It Wrong on Arms Control, Again, Heritage Foundation Foundry, October 16, 2009. "On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the U.S. would seek a “strong international standard” in the control of the conventional arms trade by “seizing the opportunity presented by the Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty at the United Nations.” But the participation comes with a caveat: the U.S. will actively support negotiations only if the conference “operates under the rule of consensus decision-making needed to ensure that all countries can be held to standards that will actually improve the global situation.” "

Why Consensus Won't Help the Arms Trade Treaty

The Obama Administration Makes the Wrong Call on the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #2653, October 15, 2009. "On October 14, 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the United States would seek a “strong international standard” in the control of the conventional arms trade by “seizing the opportunity presented by the Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty at the United Nations.” Her announcement contained an important caveat: The U.S. will only actively support negotiations if the conference “operates under the rule of consensus decision-making needed to ensure that all countries can be held to standards that will actually improve the global situation.” This caveat has been attacked by NGOs supporting the treaty process. The Administration’s decision to participate on the basis of consensus is wrong."

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."

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."

Divinity School Gone Wild

Sometimes, A Watermelon is Just a Watermelon. Not So At Yale, Contentions, October 9, 2009. "The following message, which I reproduce in its entirety, was forwarded to me in my capacity as a Yale alum by a friend at Yale’s Divinity School. I am assured that it is not a parody. Any other comment is superfluous."

Why A British Debate's A Bad Idea

British Politics Will Be the Big Loser if Leaders go Head to Head in TV Debate, Yorkshire Post, October 5, 2009. "David Cameron wants to have a debate. Nick Clegg wants one, too. Gordon Brown did not, but has now changed his mind. This only makes him look weak. Every time Number 10 mentions the issue, it recalls the indecision of the 2007 General Election that never was. Brown's reluctance is rational. He does not have the kind of record as Prime Minister that any politician would want to defend in an unscripted debate. He has taken his party through a staggering local election defeat, suffered resignation after resignation, and wasted billions of pounds of public money. After 12 years in power, Labour has run out of excuses. Participating in a debate is no way to find a new one. But yet, there is something in the media's enthusiasm for a debate that does not sit well." This op-ed was written in my personal capacity.

If At First You Don't Succeed, Vote, Vote Again

Vote Until You Get It Right: Ireland and the E.U., Redux, New Ledger, October 1, 2009. "The European Union Constitution, now gussied up as the Lisbon Treaty, is a remarkable document. Napoleon famously remarked that constitutions should be short and obscure. On that count, the Constitution scores one out of two: it is not short, but it is definitely obscure. What Napoleon curiously failed to appreciate was that length, if carried on for long enough, has an obscurity all its own. At 246 pages in its original form, and a svelte 248 pages as the Lisbon Treaty, the Constitution achieves a comprehensive triumph over comprehensibility."

Should We Want the Games?

Obama's Olympic Audience, Heritage Foundation Foundry, October 1, 2009. "Today, President Obama flies to Copenhagen to lobby the International Olympic Committee to award the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago. So we know that President Obama wants the Olympics. But do the Olympics want the United States?"

The IOC on 9/11

The IOC on 9/11, Contentions, September 30, 2009. "Does President Obama’s trip to Copenhagen tomorrow to lobby for Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics mean that victory is in the bag for the Windy City? Ramesh Ponnuru, for one, believes so, and quite a few others have echoed his thought that the president would hardly dare to go—especially after he said on September 14 that he was too busy to make the trip—and risk looking foolish if Chicago lost. They may be right, but my take is a little different."

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."

Example #3: Why the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty Is a Bad Idea

Why the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty Won’t Work, September 18, 2009. "The U.N. wants to negotiate an Arms Trade Treaty. The Heritage Foundation recently published a lengthy study of this proposal. It found that the Treaty, if brought into being as currently projected, will be used not to restrict the access that dictators and terrorists have to conventional arms, but to reduce the ability of democracies like Israel to defend their people against terrorism. This week brought further evidence of the U.N.’s impending failure."

Dr. Liam Fox MP and the UK's NSS

Dr. Liam Fox MP on Afghanistan, Contentions, September 18, 2009. "Liam Fox, the Tory Shadow Defense Secretary, spoke at the Heritage Foundation yesterday. His admirably concise remarks on the “The War in Afghanistan: Why Britain, America and NATO Must Fight to Win” will be available online shortly. They’re well worth your time if you’re interested in Afghanistan, or what the Conservatives are likely to do if they come to power in May, as all the polls indicate they will. The main takeaways are clear, and welcome."

The EU's Constitution, and the American One

Constitutions, Good and Bad, Contentions, September 18, 2009. "The U.S. Constitution was signed 222 years ago yesterday. But for all the reverence with which the Constitution is treated, Constitution Day isn’t one of the higher-visibility federal holidays. Perhaps that’s because, for most Americans, holidays are days on which you don’t have to go to work. Or perhaps it’s because, until 2004, the day was known—to the few who had heard of it—as Citizenship Day."

Why Obama's Losing the Argument

Obama is Losing the Argument Because He’s Being Himself, Yorkshire Post, September 15, 2009. This article was published in my personal capacity. "Barack Obama has hit the skids. Most of his programmes remain stalled in Congress, and what little he has achieved has turned out to be unpopular. Abroad, his supposedly immense influence has not brought moderation to Iran, peace to Afghanistan, or sanity to the Scottish Executive." This op-ed was written in my personal capacity.

Yale: Living Up To My Expectations Since 1991

What the Yale World Fellows Did on 9/11, Contentions, September 11, 2009. "Yale has a World Fellows Program. When launched, it was talked about on campus as a kind of mid-career equivalent of the Rhodes Scholarship: bring the rising thinkers and doers of the world to Yale for a semester (people with careers, unlike newly minted undergraduates, usually can’t afford to take more than four months off), expose them to American higher education and all its wonders, recruit them into the Yale cadre, and toss them back into the lake to fructify and rise to run the world."

Follow the Money

Who Funds European NGOs?, Heritage Foundation Foundry, September 8, 2009. "The answer is simple: the EU does. The TaxPayers’ Alliance, a British group that is genuinely independent of government, points to two recent EU missives that by coincidence arrived in the same package. The first, from the European Economic and Social Committee, was a report on “The external dimension of the EU’s energy policy.” Among much else – such as, no surprise, a greater role for the EU – it recommends “that the social partners as well as environmental organizations and other civil society representatives should be heard and actively involved in defining the external energy strategy. Their capacities to support international dialogue and negotiations should be fully exploited.” All of that is a long-winded way of saying that the EU should use like-minded European NGOs to advance its energy aims at home and abroad, including hectoring the U.S. to sign on to climate change treaties."

The Latest NHS Leak

A False Idol, Heritage Foundation Foundry, September 7, 2009. "The National Health Service is like a deity in Britain. Or so we are told. Irish actor and director, Graham Linehan – a very funny man – has taken to defending the NHS by saying that American criticisms of it are “like if you criticize your parents. You can do it - but if anyone else criticized them you’d murder them.” That’s not going to keep life expectancies up. The Economist, for its part, offers up the plea “God save the NHS.” So much for the Queen, apparently. There is something distinctly off-putting in this worshipful attitude. The NHS is not the English Bill of Rights, or the First Amendment. It is not a statement of eternal truths. It is a bureaucratic organization intended to serve a particular purpose. If it does not serve that purpose well, then it should be changed. The outraged responses to American – and British – criticisms of the NHS have a calculated political purpose: to reject the very thought that the government should not be responsible for running the entire health care system.

The YUP Scandal, Continued

An Update on Yale, Contentions, September 4, 2009. "Last month, the story broke that Yale University Press was censoring one of its own books—by Jytte Klausen on the Danish cartoon controversy—out of fear that if it published the cartoons in question, it would, in the words of John Donatich, the press’s director, put “blood on my hands.” In other words, there would be riots and murders by outraged Islamists. Since then, there have been several developments that are worth following up on. Martin Kramer has done sterling detective work assembling circumstantial—but plausible—evidence that Yale’s decision had at least as much to do with its desire to win a big donation from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal as it did with cravenness."

Sanity from England

A Revolution Dawns in Doncaster, Heritage Foundation Foundry, September 4, 2009. "The newly-elected Mayor of the English town of Doncaster, Peter Davies, has a very curious idea: the purpose of government is not to propagandize its citizens, not to feather its own nest, and not to raise taxes to fund the non-jobs that are advertised in the liberal Guardian every week. It is to administer public business effectively and efficiently. That may sound obvious, but in Britain – as in many other places – it amounts to a revolution."

Example #2: Why the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty Is A Bad Idea

Iran, North Korea, and the U.N.’s Projected Arms Trade Treaty, Contentions, September 4, 2009. "Last week, a colleague and I published a substantial paper on the faults inherent in the U.N.’s efforts to negotiate an arms trade treaty. These faults are many and serious, but they come down, fundamentally, to the fact that too few states enforce their existing laws, or live up to their existing responsibilities, on the import and export of arms. A treaty will do nothing to remedy this disinterest, incapacity, or – in far too many cases – malfeasance. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal, and other papers, reported a case that illustrates these faults. In August, the UAE seized a shipment of military hardware from North Korea aboard a vessel bound for Iran. This is, needless to say, a violation of the U.N. Security Council ban on military exports from North Korea, but that did nothing to stop Iran from seeking to import them."