They're Not Our Friends

The Top Ten U.S. Myths About the European Union, CapX, January 21, 2016. "If the US is to be an effective ally of the democratic nations of Europe, it must see the European Union (EU) as it really is. In the years after the Second World War, the US was right to encourage Western Europe to trade more freely and to cooperate for their own security, both to defend against the Soviet threat and to stabilize the region’s fragile post-war democracies. This policy lost its relevance after the end of the Cold War and the rapid democratization of much of Eastern Europe. At that point, the US had achieved what it wanted to achieve with its support for a united and free Europe."

Shockingly, ATT Activists Blame the Democracies (Again)

Why Arms Trade Treaty Activists Are Wrong to Blame Democracies, Daily Signal, January 20, 2016. "The activists behind the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) have never been shy about blaming the U.S. and other democracies far more than they blame dictatorships for the evils of the world. Their latest campaign shows they’re at it again."

Spend It, and They Won't Come

Blame Washington for Skyrocketing College Costs, Newsday, January 16, 2016. "In a matter of days, college applications will be due. No family can look at those applications without thinking of the opportunity college represents. But they also can’t look without thinking of the bills. A new research paper helps explain why those costs are so high."

What We Should Be Doing on the ATT, 2016 edition

Top Ten Areas for Congressional Action on the Arms Trade Treaty in 2016, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief, #4058, January 14, 2016. "The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which Congress has rightly opposed, entered into force on December 24, 2014. The U.S. signed the ATT on September 25, 2013, but the Administration has yet to transmit the treaty to the Senate. The first Conference of States Parties (CSP) to the ATT was held in Cancun, Mexico, on August 24–27, 2015. The CSP set out the rules of procedure for future CSPs, created a treaty Secretariat, and established a funding mechanism for both the Secretariat and future CSPs. Congress has repeatedly placed the Administration on notice that it regards the ATT as fundamentally flawed, and regularly banned the appropriation of funds to implement the ATT prior to its ratification. Congress should resolutely continue to oppose ratification of the ATT and should act to ensure that any decisions taken in Cancun do not result in the U.S. financing treaty activities."

Russia's Not Pursuing Security

Russia’s Insecurity Strategy, Washington Times, January 12, 2016. "Russia’s new National Security Strategy, signed by Vladimir Putin as last year came to a close, isn’t shy about naming its enemies. From the U.S. to the European Union, from NATO to the varying-colored revolutions, Russia sees foes everywhere. That’s understandable: the treacherous are always distrustful. But the strategy’s biggest surprise is that it shows Russia has met its actual enemy: Mr. Putin himself."

Another Obama Straw Man

A False Foreign Policy Alternative, part of "What Obama Got Wrong in the State of the Union," Daily Signal, January 12, 2016. "President Obama offered his usual false alternative between occupying and rebuilding “every country that falls into crisis” (an option that literally no one is proposing), or agreeing with his foreign policy. Putting it that way is a cheat, not a choice. But let’s take the president at his word, which is that he wants the U.S. to “help remake” the international system that the U.S. built after 1945. Even he doesn’t seem sure about this, because a few lines later, he suggests instead that we should be seeking to strengthen that order, not remake it. And a president more grounded in history might wonder if it’s wise to want to remake the order: from 1815 to 1918 to 1945 to 1991, the system has been at its most flexible after the world has been exhausted by a major war, which isn’t what any of us want. Nor did the president suggest a single measure that would genuinely re-make the world order: from fighting terrorism to complaining about ungoverned spaces to lecturing Russia to talking about trade deals, his proposals (or rather, his applause lines) were all old hat. But yet, if his goal really is to remake the order, he’s actually doing a good job of it. That order was grounded on U.S. pre-eminence – but from Ukraine, to Syria, to Iran, it’s American weakness, not its strength or its leadership, that’s on display. A world order without American leadership would indeed be a new one. But it’s not one that most Americans, or most people around the world, would like."

Advance, Project Fear!

Why Project Fear is David Cameron’s Ultimate Weapon in EU Struggle, Yorkshire Post, January 9, 2016. "DAVID CAMERON launched his renegotiation of Britain’s EU membership with the hope that “we can deliver a more flexible, adaptable and open European Union”. As that optimism has faded, the resort to fear has grown. And so far, the US has lent a willing hand. It’s startling to go back now to Cameron’s Bloomberg speech. It appeared to make the case for fundamental reform of the EU. But from the beginning, there was never any good reason to believe the EU was interested in fundamental reform.

ITAR Reform on Firearms, part 1

Bipartisan Support Grows for Reform of Rules on Gun Exports, Daily Signal, January 8, 2016. "While President Barack Obama tries to limit gun sales in the United States, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging his administration to make it easier for U.S. firearms manufacturers to export. When it comes to guns, the administration has tried to have it both ways. At home, it promotes gun control and abroad, it signs the Arms Trade Treaty, which seeks to set rules on arms exports. But under Obama’s watch, gun sales in the U.S. have boomed like never before, and the administration has promoted U.S. arms exports enthusiastically."

What We Should Be Doing in Europe, 2016 edition

Top Five Priorities for U.S. Policy Toward Europe in 2016, with Dan Kochis, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4506, January 8, 2016. "U.S. policy toward Europe in 2015 failed to rise to the significant challenges that confront it. The U.S. is no closer to having a clear and comprehensive strategy to deal with Russia than it was a year ago; it continues to devalue key bilateral and multilateral relationships in Europe for the sake of supporting the European Union (EU); and it took no effective steps to support improved governance in increasingly autocratic Turkey or in the aspiring democracy of Georgia. The devastating Islamist attacks in Paris in December 2015 prove that terrorism is an increasingly serious threat in the heart of Europe, and, from Russia’s aggression in Ukraine to the refugee crisis stemming from Syria, the EU displayed its customary obsession with inward-looking bureaucratic processes and supranationalism. The U.S. should defend European security, sovereignty, and prosperity, not support supranational institutions that undermine all these values. Here are the top five policy priorities in the European region for the Administration and Congress in 2016."

The World's Most Boring Title, Not Selected by Me

Three Things to Watch For in 2016, Newsday, January 3, 2016. "The trick in life isn’t to know the answers: it’s to ask the right questions. At the end of 2014, I asked three questions about 2015 that I believed would shape the year. Columnists are too rarely held responsible for their work, so, in the name of accountability, here were my questions for 2015, with new ones for 2016." The new questions are on the world economy, Russia, and Iran.

Contra Contra Land Mines

Why Liberals Are Wrong About Land Mines, Daily Signal, December 23, 2015. "One of the progressive left’s favorite causes is campaigning against land mines. The Obama administration naturally has promised to stop producing or buying anti-personnel land mines (APL). In addition, the administration has said it will to stop using mines outside the Korean Peninsula, and – eventually – accede to the Ottawa Convention, which bans anti-personnel mines entirely. Although this might sound great to some, land mines actually cause few civilian casualties, and are an important weapon for the U.S. military."

The Best Kind of Charity

Lessons in Charity for Mark Zuckerberg, Newsday, December 14, 2015. "The best kind of charity doesn’t promise expensive solutions. It provides opportunities that allow us to learn for ourselves — guided by parents who set standards, and in a nation that respects business and charity alike."

Russia and U.S. Grand Strategy

U.S. Comprehensive Strategy Toward Russia, with James Jay Carafano and others, Heritage Foundation Special Report #173, December 9, 2015. "Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has not had a coherent, comprehensive strategy toward Russia. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine demonstrates, the U.S. has paid a price for this failure and, of course, many of Russia’s neighbors have paid far higher prices. At the core of the U.S. failure has been an unwillingness to assess the nature of the Russian regime realistically and to base its policy on that assessment. Too often, the U.S. has relied on wishful thinking."

The Myths of U.S. Strategy in Europe

Available in PDF only. U.S. Strategy in Europe: Advice to Policymakers, American Foreign Policy Council Defense Dossier, November 15, 2015."The fundamental problem confronting American strategy in Europe is that the United States has forgotten that it needs to have its own strategy in Europe. Since the end of the Cold War, and with the important exception of the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, the U.S. has regarded Europe as an area where power politics no longer operate, and thus as an area that is reliably stable, peaceful, and prosperous. As a result, it has ignored the broader implications of Europe’s worsening security environment, and outsourced the effort to care for the future of the European continent to the European Union. Both of these approaches are wrong."

The Do-Nothing President

Whose Values Is Barack Obama Promoting in Syria?, Newsday, November 27, 2015. "The most serious problem with the Syrian refugees isn't that they'll bring terrorists with them. It's the war in Syria that made them refugees in the first place. President Barack Obama claims we have to admit refugees if we are to live up to our values. But he's the one who's sat on his hands as Syria burned."

Against the "Revolutionary" Climate Deal

Climate Pact a Bad Deal for the U.S., Newsday, November 22, 2015. "The nations of the world will gather in Paris later this month to negotiate a major climate change agreement. Most of the world's leaders will arrive in carbon-spewing private jets. It would be even more appropriate if they drove Volkswagens."

Against An International Investment Court

The U.S. Should Reject the European Commission’s Proposed Investment Court, with James Roberts and Riddhi Dasgupta, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4485, November 13, 2015. "The proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union, if negotiated successfully, will certainly contain a mechanism for resolving disputes related to the treaty. The current model for Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) panels is widely used, but also wrongly controversial, particularly in Europe. The European Commission (EC), the executive body of the European Union (EU), has proposed that the TTIP create a new Investment Court System (ICS) to resolve such disputes.[1] The U.S. should firmly resist this proposal, which departs radically from the well-functioning ISDS system."

On Flying In A B-17

The Lady Wants to Fly, Weekly Standard, November 9, 2015. "In the Second World War, flying in a Boeing B-17—the iconic Flying Fortress—was dangerous beyond belief. Of the 12,731 bombers produced between 1937 and 1945, 4,754 were lost or written off in the course of operations, a loss rate of 37 percent. Ten Americans, the B-17’s standard crew, risked death on every mission. To fly in the plane is to remember that, and them. But what was a horror in 1943 is an honor today, for only 10 flying B-17s remain—1 in Britain, the other 9 in the United States. Of these, the finest, the most nearly fully original, is Yankee Lady, restored and owned by the Yankee Air Museum in Willow Run, Michigan, 35 miles west of Detroit. In late September, I joined a crew of seven museum volunteers for a roundtrip flight to London, Ontario."

Problems Brewing for the BRICS

This Country Club Has Problem Members, Newsday, October 31, 2015. "For the past 15 years, if you wanted to sound smart about the world, you talked about the rising power of the BRICs. Today, it's the struggles of the BRICs that are making news. But those weaknesses were there all along. The rise of the BRICs, as a term, was a triumph of slick marketing."

Freedom, Not Goals, Brings Development

The UN Has Yet to Learn Its Lesson, Newsday, October 18, 2015. "The announcement last week that Angus Deaton of Princeton University won the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics offers an opportunity to celebrate the gains the world has made, and to reflect on how we can do better. Unfortunately, the United Nations has not taken that opportunity."

Meet the Ohio Light Opera Company

Awake and Sing, Weekly Standard, October 12, 2015. "No works of the late Victorian age are remembered with more affection than those of Gilbert and Sullivan. Yet it’s not been easy to keep those masters of light opera on the professional stage. Since it closed in 1982, the D’Oyly Carte Company, the legendary troupe that staged Gilbert and Sullivan’s Savoy operas, was revived in 1988, and again in 2013​—​each time to limited success. Today, there is no Mikado, and certainly no Ruddigore, on or off Broadway, or playing in London’s West End. In addition to other challenges, the Victorian bards now face the perils of political correctness: Just a few weeks ago, the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players canceled their planned production of The Mikado after accusations of racism."

When the Tory Music Stops

Tories Count on Labour’s Looniness – For Now, National Review Online, October 9, 2015. "The annual conference of Britain’s Conservative party, which commands a slender but welcome parliamentary majority after the May elections, wrapped up on Wednesday in Manchester. If last year’s conference was an exercise in nerves and jitters, this year’s was a display of confidence — coupled with quiet grumbles from within the party, and shouts of rage from outside of it."

Treating Energy As A Trade Commodity

The Economic and Geopolitical Benefits of Free Trade in Energy Resources, with Nicholas Loris, Luke Coffey, James Phillips, Dean Cheng, Ana Quintana, Lisa Curtis, and William Wilson, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #3072, October 9, 2015. "America has an abundance of natural resources, including sufficient energy reserves to provide Americans with affordable and reliable energy well into the future. With its plentiful reserves of coal, natural gas, and oil, the United States is already a global leader in energy production and has the potential to be a major supplier to the rest of the world. As is the case for many other countries around the world, the United States benefits from free trade because of private property rights. Individuals, in large part, have owned and had the ability to produce America’s natural resources—which is a primary reason why the U.S. is a global energy leader. Individuals extract and sell the energy sources, and the market—not Washington, D.C.—should determine where it goes. Allowing U.S. energy exports would provide a huge boon to the American economy, creating jobs, expanding the economy, and strengthening relationships with global trading partners and important allies."

Insiders and Outsiders, Risks and Safety

Tory Safety First Strategy Is Not Without Its Risks, Yorkshire Post, October 7, 2015. "One striking fact is that Conservative voters in Britain appear to be the only ones in both nations who aren’t hungering for an outsider. A new poll from ConservativeHome finds that safe George Osborne is now the Tory favourite to follow safe David Cameron as Prime Minister."

Contra the EU

Time for the U.S. to Rethink Its Support for the European Union, Daily Signal, October 4, 2015. "It is time for the U.S. to recognize that the policy of supporting the EU is now longer in the interests of the United States, or of Europe itself. The time when that policy was wise has now passed."