Foreign Policy
The Hillary and Bernie Show
I didn’t expect much enlightenment from last night’s debate and I didn’t get any. I was a bit disturbed to see the tone become noticeably sharper than in probably all the previous debates, and I thought the weight of the ...
Read MoreTerrorism in Perspective
I have argued that Americans’ perception of the terrorist threat tends to be greatly inflated. Our fear of terrorism is way out of proportion to the real danger it poses. Political scientist Stephen Walt has expanded on this theme in a ...
Read MoreThe Candidates go to AIPAC
The Brussels attacks today came one day after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) held its annual meeting, dutifully attended by all but one of the 2016 candidates for president of the United States. What’s the link between the ...
Read MoreIsrael/Palestine: One State or Two?
A few weeks ago the NY Times’ Thomas Friedman, surveying the mess that is the Middle East today and reflecting on US policymakers’ proclivity for wishful thinking, dropped a bombshell: Start with Israel. The peace process is dead. It’s over, ...
Read MoreTerror and Politics
It is the nature of terrorism to have greater psychological than physical impact. That is the point: to sow fear—terror, after all, is pervasive, randomized fear—that far exceeds the death and destruction that the terrorists are actually capable of inflicting. ...
Read MoreObama’s Foreign Policy: An Excess of Restraint?
Obama has gone too far, according to Roger Cohen. In two op-ed columns, the NY Times pundit has bemoaned what he sees as the president’s reluctance to use American power abroad. Excessively concerned with the possible dire consequences of US ...
Read MoreThanks, Tom Friedman
I have to preface this post with some caveats about Tom Friedman, since I’m about to commend him. Friedman is a blowhard who has been wrong about a lot of things, most notably in his support for G.W. Bush’s ...
Read MoreThe Iran Deal
Yesterday’s front-page headlines in New York’s two leading newspapers provided an interesting contrast. The NY Times, in one of its rare full-banner headlines, proclaimed WORLD LEADERS STRIKE AGREEMENT WITH IRAN TO CURB NUCLEAR ABILITY AND LIFT SANCTIONS. The World Street ...
Read MoreBrooks on the TPP
David Brooks is very upset at the Democrats for torpedoing President Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership. The Democrats’ move threatens to impoverish the world’s poor, damage the American economy and stifle innovation. It even imperils world peace, in a mini-version of ...
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