During the Republican primaries, Mitt Romney’s watchword was caution. But over the last two months, things have changed. The …
foreign policy
U.S. Evangelicals See Political, Religious Cause in Syria Conflict
Catholic Father Paolo Dall’Oglio of Syria’s Mar Musa monastery stood before Rock Springs Congregational United Church of Christ in Arlington, Virginia, on July 23 and pleaded for U.S. intervention in his homeland’s escalating civil war. Already half of Syria’s two million Christians have fled, he said, comparing the exodus of …
Mitt Romney’s Commander in Chief Problem
For decades, Republican presidential candidates enjoyed a predictable advantage over Democrats on foreign policy. But not in 2012. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows President Barack Obama holding a steady 10-point lead …
The Obama Doctrine: Syria vs. Libya Intervention
As the pressure grows on President Obama to take action in Syria, it’s worth going back to re-read the March 2011 speech he gave explaining his intervention in Libya. In it, Obama made clear that that he was not raising the …
Obama in Foreign Policy Interview: Warmonger or Milquetoast?
To the foreign policy left, Obama is a turncoat who spoke out against the George W. Bush Administration’s expansion of executive power during the 2008 campaign only to adopt some of Bush’s security-over-civil-liberties policies on taking office. To those on the right, Obama is a turncoat determined to cede American global preeminence …
Rick Perry and the GOP’s Afghanistan Bind
Rick Perry is still laboring to articulate a clear position on Afghanistan.
Where Democrats Erred on Health Reform, Peter Orszag Edition
Former Obama Administration budget director Peter Orszag has not exactly worked hard to maintain friendly ties with the White House since he left his post in the summer of 2010. First, he took a job writing columns for The New York Times, the first of which ran in September 2010 and suggested extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, …
Pawlenty Finds His Hawkish Voice
Tim Pawlenty looked to turn the page on his summer slump Tuesday morning with a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations bashing Barack Obama — and elements of his own party — over the course of U.S. foreign policy.
Titled “No Retreat From Freedom’s Rise,” Pawlenty’s speech aspired to be a Reaganesque declaration of American …
Are Republicans Going Wobbly on Afghanistan?
One of the few truly reliable campaign strategies for Republican presidential candidates over the last 40 years has been to run to the right of Democrats on foreign and national security policy no matter what the issue, no matter …
2nd Prime Ministerial Debate
It’s about to start in a matter of moments. I’m at a pub, The Red Lion, across from 10 Downing Street — just about the only pub in London that’s broadcasting the debate so far as I can tell. CNN also found it extraordinarily difficult to find a pub willing to switch from the big Spanish soccer match to the debate, they’re doing stand …
What’s in a Debate?
An excellent primer lies below from TIME’s London bureau chief, Catherine Mayer, of what to expect from Thursday night’s second ever debate of British prime ministerial candidates. The first debate catapulted Nick Clegg into newfound stardom — he’s even overtaken or tied Prime Minister Gordon Brown in some polls — so it’ll be …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Obama as Jeffersonian Carterite? Hmmm.
Walter Russell Mead, usually a very fine foreign policy thinker, has a piece in the new issue of Foreign Policy that sort of compares Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter…and to Thomas Jefferson in his attitudes about America’s place in the world. I don’t find it very convincing. Here’s Mead’s definition of a Jeffersonian foreign
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