Tag: Russia

What FDR Can Teach Obama About American Leadership

Posted on

The poll numbers are undeniable. Disillusioned by Afghanistan and Iraq, focused on domestic concerns, Americans increasingly want their nation to reduce its global footprint and stop trying to solve the problems of others. A cautious, poll-driven President Obama responds predictably, defining America’s global interests more narrowly and eschewing calls to address humanitarian horror, protect human …

Continue reading “What FDR Can Teach Obama About American Leadership”

No, Mr. President, your critics aren’t just neoconservatives

Posted on

WASHINGTON — “My job as commander in chief,” an exasperated President Obama told critics this week, “is to deploy military force as a last resort, and to deploy it wisely. And, frankly, most of the foreign policy commentators that have questioned our policies would go headlong into a bunch of military adventures that the American …

Continue reading “No, Mr. President, your critics aren’t just neoconservatives”

Boycott of Israeli institutions is academically dishonest

Posted on

U.S. scholars’ mounting boycotts of Israeli academic and cultural institutions are ironic indeed, for they contradict everything that higher education is supposed to stand for – they are wholly ignorant and profoundly narrow-minded. That Israel is a perennial target on America’s college campuses is hardly breaking news. The Jewish state has long suffered from the …

Continue reading “Boycott of Israeli institutions is academically dishonest”

U.S. Can’t Bribe Israelis, Palestinians To Make Peace

Posted on

“First as tragedy, second as farce.” It’s Karl Marx’s line about history repeating itself but, per the Jonathan Pollard trial balloon of recent days, the line could just as easily apply to America’s foreign policy. We need not debate the merits of Pollard’s release, for which supporters and detractors each can mount a compelling case, …

Continue reading “U.S. Can’t Bribe Israelis, Palestinians To Make Peace”

John Kerry’s Comments On Israel-Palestine Encapsulate U.S. Foreign Policy

Posted on

Rare is the moment when an unscripted comment from a Secretary of State symbolizes all that’s wrong with America’s foreign policy, but it appeared the other day in the context of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Asked at the Munich Security Conference about prospects for peace, John Kerry expressed hope and discussed the implications of failure, focusing …

Continue reading “John Kerry’s Comments On Israel-Palestine Encapsulate U.S. Foreign Policy”

Freedom’s decline and U.S. silence move in tandem

Posted on

Let’s be clear: the United States cannot single-handedly ensure the advance of freedom and democracy around the world. But, notwithstanding all too much conventional wisdom of late, America retains enormous diplomatic, economic, and other capacities to influence the course of events. So, it’s no coincidence that, as Freedom House reported late last week, freedom declined …

Continue reading “Freedom’s decline and U.S. silence move in tandem”