When It Comes to Treaties, I Don't Believe in Magic

The Magical Thinking Behind the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, June 14, 2013. "The problem with the world’s arms trade is not, as treaty defenders like Oxfam America President Raymond Offenheiser like to claim, that there are “loopholes in the current, irresponsible global arms trade.” The problem is that some nations deliberately sell arms to terrorists and dictators, and many others are corrupt. If a nation cannot maintain democratic law and order, it will not be able to implement the ATT. A treaty cannot make the incompetent competent. Nor can it make the malicious responsible."

What Apple and Budweiser Have In Common

Of Bacon and Apple and Taxes and Beer, Newsday, June 7, 2013. "Last week Shuanghui International, China's largest pork producer, announced a surprise agreement to buy Smithfield, the largest such U.S. firm, for $7.4 billion, including debt. We can expect more deals like this in the future. The reasons tell us a lot about what is right, and what is wrong, with the U.S. as an economic power."

The Latest on the Arms Trade Treaty from the Hill

As U.N. Arms Trade Treaty Opens for Signature, Opposition Rises on Hill, Heritage Foundation Foundry, June 3, 2013. "The ATT is badly flawed in substance, and the way it was adopted in the U.N. General Assembly and the speed of the U.S. review process of the treaty poses further serious problems. In part for those reasons, the treaty has drawn considerable skepticism on the Hill. A Concurrent Resolution offered by Senator Jerry Moran (R–KS) and Representative Mike Kelly (R–PA) has 35 bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate and 144 in the House. Kelly has also released a Dear Colleagues letter opposing the ATT, with 129 co-signatories. Finally, Kelly has the support of 50 of his colleagues for an amendment to the fiscal year 2014 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill that would ban funding for the ATT."

The Process of Implementing the ATT Poses New Risks

New Risks, Dangers Loom as UN Arms Trade Treaty Opens for Signature, Foxnews.com, June 3, 2013. "The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) opens for signature on June 3. Well over 30 nations will sign it immediately, and the U.S. has announced it will follow suit. Once 50 signatories ratify the treaty, implementation begins 90 days later. And implementation will present new risks to the U.S. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Countryman insists implementation will bring “no change in legislation, policy, or procedures.” That promise will be nearly impossible to keep, since key terms in the treaty have no fixed meaning. As they evolve, the U.S. will change its policies accordingly. But the ATT was never designed to stand on its own. It will be fleshed out in innumerable ways. That process that will end up determining what the treaty actually means."

The Rise of the Part-Time Job

“U.S. Must Learn Jobs Lesson from the Plight of Part-Time Europe,” not available online, Yorkshire Post, May 25, 2013. "Part-time jobs aren’t all bad. But Europe’s reliance on them rests on its failure to be flexible enough to create full-time jobs. One of the secrets of the U.S.’s success has been its extraordinarily flexible economy. Obamacare was inspired by Europe’s example. It’s no surprise that it mirrors Europe’s destructive pattern of inflexibly pricing full-time work out of existence."

In the Middle East, Focus on Iran, Not the Syrian Rebels

"Focus on Iran," Newsday, May 24, 2013, not available online. "On Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 15-3 for a bill that would provide U.S. weapons to Syrian rebels. An Assad victory in that war would indeed be its worst possible outcome. But the conditions the bill attaches to U.S. aid show how tough it will be to help the right rebels. Rather than focus on the rebels, we should focus on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s friends in Iran. If we had been tougher on Tehran since 2009, we might not be worrying about Assad now."

On ATT Review, Start Over

U.N. Arms Trade Treaty: U.S. Decision to Sign Treaty Shows Review Process Was Rushed, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #3944, May 20, 2013. "On May 15, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman stated that the U.S. would sign the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) “in the very near future.” The treaty opens for signature at the United Nations on June 3. The fact that this decision was announced only six weeks after the treaty was negotiated shows that the U.S. rushed its internal review process. Before it actually signs the ATT, the U.S. should retract this statement and conduct a full and careful legal and policy review of the treaty."

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."

From Internet Tax to VAT

Senate Takes A Step Toward the VAT, Newsday, May 10, 2013. "If the Senate has its way, online sales taxes are coming to a computer near you. The so-called Marketplace Fairness Act sailed through the Senate on Monday by a 69-27 margin. If approved in the House, the act won’t just cost you money. It will also put the United States on the road to adopting a European-style national sales tax."

Another Reason for Britain to Leave the ECHR

European Court Errs in Decision on Terrorist Suspect Extradition, with Andrew Robert James Southam, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #3930, May 7, 2013. "The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has given an interim ruling that Britain cannot extradite Haroon Aswat to the United States. Aswat has been indicted in the U.S. on conspiracy charges related to the establishment of a terrorist training camp for radical Islamists in Bly, Oregon in 1999. By this decision, the ECHR, unless its decision is overturned, will have done significant damage to the Anglo-American extradition system, and to the ability of both sovereign nations to try and punish serious offenses, including terrorism."

Bet He Wishes He Hadn't Said That

Obama’s ‘Red Line’ Comes Back to Trip Him, Newsday, April 26, 2013. "Last August, President Barack Obama called the use of chemical weapons a “red line.” He now faces a hard choice: Admit his red line was phony or intervene in a conflict he has sought to avoid."

Vladimir Putin's Crocodile Tears for Boston

After Boston, Regard Vladimir Putin’s Sympathy With Distrust, Newsday, April 24, 2013. "Russian strongman Vladimir Putin expressed his sympathy for the victims of the Boston bombings last week. But make no mistake: Putin sees the bombings as an opportunity to rebuild relations with the United States on his terms."

Samatha Powers and the Hypocrisy of the Atrocities Prevention Board

Atrocities Prevention Board, One Year Later, Contentions, April 23, 2013. "It’s about as likely that the U.S. will develop the ability to predict atrocities before they happen as it is that we’ll develop the ability to predict events like the Arab Spring before they happen. It’s all too easy to make a list of places where bad things are more likely to happen: any place where government is either really strong or really weak is a contender to head the list. Nor is there any secret about where the world’s atrocities are happening today: Syria, North Korea, Iran, the DRC, and Sudan, among others. The usual suspects. The problem is not that we lack the administrative tools to recognize this. It’s not even that this administration has in practice been more interested in cozying up to Russia, downplaying radical Islamism, and kicking the can down the road in Syria and Iran, though all of that will feature heavily in the work of a future Samantha Power. It’s that these are, in Power’s own words, problems from hell, and you don’t address problems from hell with a nice, well-mannered, invisible inter-agency board."

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."

The ATT: Bad Treaty, Worse Precedent

Arms Trade Treaty: Problems with Substance and Process, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #3892, April 4, 2013. "The concept of the ATT is inherently flawed, and the treaty as adopted contains significant defects. Because of these flaws, the U.S. should neither sign nor ratify the ATT. But the process by which it was adopted is even more damaging. The U.S. should in the future uphold consensus as a negotiating red line, stop supporting the transfer of failed consensus-based negotiations to the majority-rule GA, and recognize that the GA vote on the ATT is only the beginning of the process of treaty interpretation and amendment."

For the ATT, A Bad Treaty, A Bad Process

U.N. General Assembly Adopts the Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 2, 2013. "This morning, by a vote of 154 nations in favor (including the United States), 23 abstentions, and three against (Syria, North Korea, and Iran), the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The treaty will be open for national signature on June 3, 2013, and will enter into force for its signatories when it has been signed and ratified by 50 nations."

At the ATT, A Classic Illustration of How to Blame the U.S.

The Arms Trade Treaty: The Big Lie About July 2012, Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 1, 2013. "One of the unreported stories about the negotiation of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) at the United Nations is the effort by many U.N. members, supplemented by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), to blame the failure of the first negotiating conference last July on the United States. This story demonstrates the widespread eagerness to blame the U.S. for anything, which in turn sheds light on how the ATT, once it comes into being, will be interpreted and implemented in practice."

At the ATT Conference, the Worst of All Possible Worlds

The End of the Arms Trade Treaty Conference Is Not the End of the Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 1, 2013. "Late on Thursday, the U.N. conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) fell apart when Iran, North Korea, and Syria opposed the treaty. This was a surprise to virtually all the conference observers. By mid-day Friday, almost everyone thought the treaty would get done that day, if only because the delegates were too tired of the process to do anything else. Sure, there were rumors of trouble with Iran and North Korea, but when Iran’s PressTV reported that Tehran was on board with the treaty, it was hard to take the rumors seriously. The first lesson is that as long as Iran’s regime is talking, they’re lying."

The Aftermath of the Final ATT Negotiating Conference

At the UN Arms Trade Treaty Talks, The Dictators Rule the Day, Foxnews.com, April 1, 2013. "The new Axis of Evil did object. But they weren't the only ones. I should know: I was in the room for the entire seven-hour session. The conference rules stated that only a single nation had to speak up to stop the treaty, so when Iran objected, it was game over. Syria and North Korea were merely piling on. But after the conference failed, we saw that it wasn't just those three nations that opposed the treaty."

Serious Problems in ATT Final Draft

The Arms Trade Treaty: Reactions to the Final Draft, Heritage Foundation Foundry, March 28, 2013. "This latest draft contains a substantial number of minor changes to the previous text. In reacting to this text, it is important to bear in mind that the treaty has underlying flaws that no amount of improved drafting can fix. The latest draft has also not remedied a substantial number of the problems in previous drafts. But the following deficiencies in the text are both new and particularly regrettable."

Against the ATT, Again

Treaty Binds the Hands of the Good as Evil Thrives, Yorkshire Post, March 28, 2013. "For the past two weeks I’ve been in New York, sitting in the back of a United Nations conference room as the world’s nations negotiate the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). Before I starting watching these negotiations, I was sure I could not have any less respect for the UN. But actually, I had a lot of respect left to lose."