Section: The American Conservative (USA)
Obama’s Rhetorical Excess and U.S. Foreign Policy
Damon Linker comes to a curious conclusion about Obama’s foreign policy: In foreign policy, Obama has had a very different problem. Far from being too straightforwardly aggressive, the president has combined extreme rhetorical restraint (that has often made him sound weak or passive when discussing national threats, including terrorism)...
Iran Nuclear Deal: Alive or Dead?
Though every Republican in Congress voted against the Iran nuclear deal, “Tearing it up … is not going to happen,” says Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Hopefully, the chairman speaks for the president-elect. During the campaign, Donald Trump indicated as much, saying that, though the U.S. got jobbed in the...
Think Before Sanctioning Russia
Between the cyberattacks it allegedly directed, its continued military support for the Assad regime in Syria, its deployment of nuclear-capable missiles on NATO’s eastern border, and its obstruction in the UN Security Council, Russia has gotten a lot of people in Washington angry—and justifiably so. It is a certainty that once the new...
Legitimate Differences
Given the recent near-hysteria over Russia’s alleged hacking of U.S. political email traffic, it is difficult to imagine a U.S.-Russia relationship established upon a peaceful footing—or, to put it another way, a relationship so stable and constructive that it no longer would depend on the vagaries of changing political personalities....
Obama’s Misguided Indulgence of U.S. Client States
Uri Friedman comments on Obama’s management of relationships with allies and clients: By contrast, Obama seems to believe that the United States and its allies should—in an ideal world, at least—share interests and values. When an ally acts in ways he disapproves of, Obama has been more willing than his recent predecessors to publicly...
How to Avoid a New Cold War
In retaliation for the hacking of John Podesta and the DNC, Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats and ordered closure of their country houses on Long Island and Maryland’s Eastern shore. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that 35 U.S. diplomats would be expelled. But Vladimir Putin stepped in, declined to retaliate at all, and...
Christmas Crackers, Moscow-Style
My wife is English, so every Christmas we include in our celebration holiday crackers. For those unfamiliar with British traditions, the crackers are cardboard tubes wrapped in decorated paper. When you pull on the ends they pop open with a bang, and inside there is a paper crown to commemorate the visit by the three kings as well as a small gift...
Barack Backhands Bibi
Did the community organizer from Harvard Law just deliver some personal payback to the IDF commando? So it would seem. By abstaining on that Security Council resolution declaring Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal and invalid, raged Bibi Netanyahu, President Obama “failed to protect Israel in this gang-up at the UN,...
Americans Want Foreign-Policy Restraint
A recent poll by the Charles Koch Institute and the Center for the National Interest sheds new light on why Donald Trump captured the White House. Its results amount to a public-opinion indictment of the foreign policy thinking—and the foreign policy results—of both parties over the past decade and a half. It exposes a divide between the...
Putin, Notre Bon Ami
A reader writes: My wife and I are regular readers of your blog, French living in France, orthodox Catholics, and we thought you might be interested in a “grassroots” perspective on Putin enthusiasts in France, among which we count ourselves. We are not National Front (FN) supporters. Christian values or the support thereof probably have little...
