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."

Obama's Faulty Nuclear Vision

Obama Needs to Refocus His Vision Over Nuclear Weapons, Yorkshire Post, April 14, 2010. "Nuclear weapons are in the news again. But the focus of attention isn't dictatorial North Korea, whose weapons are under no international control. Nor is the spotlight on Iran's programme, even as its tyrannical leaders crush their own people, support terrorism across the Middle East, and threaten Israel's annihilation. The focus is on the United States. And, even stranger, it's the President of the United States who put it there by signing a new arms treaty with Russia. The spotlight will only brighten this week when Obama hosts his nuclear security summit in Washington."

A Faulty Nuclear Posture Review

A 'Declaration' Jack Bauer Wouldn't Make, Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 9, 2010. "The President’s recently-released Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) has come under intense criticism for its revision of the U.S.’s declaratory policy, the statement that sets out when the U.S. would consider employing nuclear weapons. Declaratory policy has two purposes. Publicly, it’s a warning. Privately, it provides the military guidance for building and modernizing the U.S. force, and so ensures the U.S.’s weapons are actually useable in a crisis. In other words, it makes deterrence creditable, politically and militarily."

Tony Blair and the Chilcot Inquiry

Tony Blair is Not Perfect, But He Showed Courage and Judgment over Iraq, April 4, 2010, Yorkshire Post. "Poet Walt Whitman said of the American Civil War that "the real war will never get in the books". Never is a long time. But, like the Vietnam War before it, we now know so much that isn't so about the Iraq War that it will take a generation to clear away the myths. The Chilcot Inquiry has contributed nothing to this process. That is because it, too, is a manifestation of a civil war, in this case the one inside the Labour Party. The purpose of the inquiry is to assuage the tender consciences of Labour MPs by rubbishing Gordon Brown's predecessor, who is the only reason Brown is now Prime Minister." This op-ed was written in my personal capacity.

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."

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."

Siemens (Sort of) Disengages from Iran

Annals of Disengagement, Contentions, January 29, 2010. "On Tuesday, Siemens, the German conglomerate, announced in its annual shareholders meeting that it has reduced its commercial ties with Iran. The next day, a company spokesman made that statement a bit more explicit: the company, he said, has 'decided not to conclude new contracts with commercial partners in Iran.'"

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."

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."

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."

The Index of Economic Freedom on Britain

The Mostly Free Anglo-American Alliance, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 26, 2010. "The 2010 edition of the Index of Economic Freedom poses a frightening paradox. Around the world, the economically freest countries are, by and large, those with a British legacy. Indeed, the top five – Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland – were either founded or influenced by the British. Of the top ten states, only Denmark, Switzerland, and Chile were not, at one point, governed from London. The lesson should be clear: economic freedom, born of the thought of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, spread round the world with the English-speaking people, to the immense benefit of both their children and those who learned from them. And yet the two most important English-speaking countries today are sliding backwards."

Under Obama, Worse Relations with Democracies

Obama Fails to Value America's Real Friends, Yorkshire Post, January 16, 2010. "At the end of his first year in office, President Obama has an amazing achievement to his credit. Under his leadership, America's relations have worsened with all the friendly democracies around the world. His vaunted popularity has proved to be no substitute for appreciating the value of America's allies."

Cameron's Launch Speech on National Security

The Conservative Party and British National Security, Contentions, January 16, 2010. "In a major speech on Friday at Chatham House, David Cameron set out how the Conservative party would approach the issue of national security should it win the forthcoming general election. His theme was the value of connection — both domestically, with an emphasis on what Britain has to gain from better joined-up government, and abroad, emphasizing Britain’s need to see conflicts as a whole, and to respond to threats before they become crises."

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."

Where's The Money Going in Defense?

Something Fishy in the Ministry of Defense, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 8, 2010. "American commentators, like Michael Barone, are starting to focus on the fact that, while the recession has hurt the private sector, it’s helping the public one. A Rasmussen poll found that 46 percent of government employees say the economy is getting better while just 31 percent say it’s getting worse. In the private sector, those proportions are reversed. While the private sector economy has lost millions of jobs, the public sector one has been stable. But anything the U.S. can do, Britain, in this context, can do worse."

The Next Excuse for Cuts

The Next Defense Crunch in Britain, Contentions, January 8, 2010. "Contracting out in defense is an important public and political issue in both the United States and Britain. When based on the proper principles, contracting out allows the government to draw on private-sector skills and resources to deliver services more efficiently. But in Britain, Labour’s sketchy accounting methods for the cost of these contracts has created another snare for Britain’s defenses. These contracts, of course, commit the government to future costs. But because Labour has played accounting games that put these contracts on the department books but not the national ones, Britain’s total future obligations will be larger than those shown on the country’s overall accounts."

American Manners, English Gloom

On A Letter from London, Contentions, January 7, 2010. "Geoff Dyer’s column “My American Friends” in the New York Times is hitting my mailbox from every direction at once. If you’ve not read it, you should: it’s fun. It’s got, of course, a few swipes at George W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair, but it’s really a love letter from Britain to the United States. Dyer points out that many of the British clichés voiced about America reflect either ignorance or a barely-disguised, liberal-elite desire to bring the U.S. down a peg or two because, as too many Britons are grumpy and desperate to feel superior about something, Americans must be made out to be inferior."

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%."

The Good Principle Behind The TSA's List

An Opportunity for Leadership, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 6, 2010. "The TSA’s announcement that citizens of fourteen countries – Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen – will be subject to intensified airport screenings before being allowed to fly to the United States, and that flights originating in or passing through one of these nations will also face extra scrutiny, is both a problem and an opportunity."

A Chilling Effect

Don't Get the Word Out, Contentions, December 4, 2009. "It’s commonly believed that, compared with other countries, the U.S. enjoys an exceptional measure of freedom of the press and, closely allied to it, exceptionally liberal libel laws. The comparison with Britain is particularly marked, and the Index on Censorship and English PEN have launched a libel-reform campaign that describes British libel law as “a global disgrace” and refers glowingly to American freedoms."

Where's the Corruption in British Politics?

British Corruption, Contentions, November 24, 2009. "Britain has fallen a notch in Transparency International’s 2009 Corruptions Perceptions Index. It now ranks 17th out of the 180 countries surveyed. Transparency said that the decline 'reflects the damage to its international standing caused by the MPs’ expenses scandal and the weakness of its efforts to prosecute foreign bribery.' "

On Strykers, Humvees, and Helicopters

Don't Blame the Tools, Contentions, November 20, 2009. "Stuart Koehl has an excellent piece up at the Weekly Standard on a Washington Post article that characterized the Army’s Stryker combat vehicle as a “kevlar coffin.” Koehl’s not an unmitigated supporter of the Stryker, but his main point is that criticism of the Stryker’s ability to protect infantry in Afghanistan is misinformed in ways both obvious and subtle."

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."

A New UN Arms Control Resolution, (Almost) As Bad As Before

U.S. Policy on Conventional Arms Control Departs Reality, Heritage Foundation Foundry, November 4, 2009. "On October 30, the United States voted with the majority in the General Assembly to support U.N.-sponsored negotiations to regulate the conventional arms trade. The vote was 153-1, with the pariah state of Zimbabwe the lone hold out. More significantly, some of the world’s more ethically challenged arms traders – the states of China, Russia, Iran, Syria, India, Pakistan, and Cuba – abstained in the vote."

The Diplomacy of Solipcism

Time for Action, Not Words, Mr. President, Yorkshire Post, November 4, 2009. "What, in the year since he was elected, has Barack Obama actually done? Making speeches doesn't count. It's certainly part of the President's job to make them, and he's not disappointed. According to CBS News, in mid-July – and less than six months after his inauguration – he gave his 200th speech, and, if anything, the pace has only accelerated since then. But it's a cardinal error to mistake giving speeches for getting things done." This op-ed was written in my personal capacity.