National security strategies are strange beasts. Their glittering generalities and kitchen sink approach to detailing threats, interests, and priorities can make it difficult to know …
Continue ReadingTrump’s Quagmire Strategy
As North Korea’s nuclear weapons continue to dominate the headlines, President Trump has quietly sunk the United States ever more deeply into a series of …
Continue ReadingTrump and Iran: Deal or No Deal?
We talk with Colin Kahl, Vice President Biden’s former national security adviser, on the latest episode of Power Problems. Listen here: “Trump and Iran: Deal …
Continue ReadingTime to Step Back from the War on Terror
President Donald Trump has expanded every aspect of the war on terror he inherited from his two predecessors. In his first nine months Trump has …
Continue ReadingRecent Writings
Here are a few of my most recent writings around the web: August 28, 2017, “Terrorism and the New Domino Theory,” @Cato.org August 22, 2017, …
Continue ReadingFatal Fallacies in the War on Terror
As I argue in my recently published policy analysis here at Cato, the American-led war on terror has clearly failed. Unfortunately, rather than accept the obvious fact …
Continue ReadingAmerica’s Identity Crisis
In August 2010 President Barack Obama brought Gen. James Mattis, then head of U.S. Central Command, to the White House. When Obama asked him what …
Continue ReadingThe Failure of American Leadership
Advocates for robust American global leadership are having a bad decade. Donald Trump’s election was clearly a wake-up call to the foreign policy establishment in …
Continue ReadingLessons from the Failed War on Terror
Cato has just published my most recent study, “Step Back: Lessons for U.S. Foreign Policy from the Failed War on Terror.” In the wake of …
Continue ReadingTrump’s No Good Very Bad Arms Deal
Tomorrow Congress will vote on resolutions of disapproval in response to Trump’s recent arms deal with Saudi Arabia. If passed, Senate Resolution 42 and House …
Continue Reading