Ideas
What Trump's Reshuffling of the National Security Council Means
A former Bush and Obama NSC staffer says changes to the Council's top committee suggest Trump may exclude it from his decision-making entirely.
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We Conservatives Warned You, Trump Will Not Get Better. Here's What You Can Do.
To my friends thinking of serving this administration, either you stand up for your principles and decent behavior, or you go down as a coward or opportunist.
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Everything I Need to Know about Russia’s Internet Interference I Learned Through College Pranks
It's not terribly difficult to inject fake news into conversation.
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5 Things to Know Before the US Reduces Its Role at the UN
Trump’s hyper-nationalist, 'America First' agenda will play well with his populist base. But it signals a reckless abdication of U.S. global leadership.
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The Dangerous Delusion of 'We Should've Kept the Oil'
The president has said he wants to support the troops, but his careless comments put U.S. lives at risk in Iraq.
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Why Iraq Needs the Oil
Taking it, as Donald Trump has mused about doing, is not only illegal—it would tear the country apart.
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The Art of Dealing with Pakistan
Trump’s transactional approach to foreign policy may help get Islamabad moving in the right direction.
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No Way to Honor Sacrifice
On Saturday, President Trump stood in front of the CIA’s Memorial Wall and gave a speech that said more about himself than those the wall commemorated, or the agency they served.
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The Foreign Crises Awaiting Trump
Trump wants to undo the liberal international order the U.S. built and replace it with a 19th-century model of nationalism and mercantilism. Its unwinding cannot, and will not, be pretty.
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Ranked: Donald Trump's Foreign-Policy Contradictions
A guide to the unpredictable presidency to come.
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Don’t Shut Down Foreign Investment in the Name of Security
The next administration could impose significant constraints on business deals it sees as national security risks by reshaping an interagency watchdog group.
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No Turning Back? First Woman Makes Army’s Elite 75th Ranger Regiment, Big Step For Women in Combat
One woman just made it that much harder for anyone to argue women don't belong in America's most elite combat positions.
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Did Trump’s Team Just Threaten War With China?
Rex Tillerson said the U.S. should threaten to keep China from its new man-made islands. That requires a naval blockade. And that is war.
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A Pledge for More of the Same at the Pentagon
James Mattis has no new ideas for solving America's most intractable conflicts. Neither does congress.
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Obama and Eisenhower, Two Legacies In Arms
On national security, the most illuminating presidential comparison is the one Obama most often made of himself. Barack likes Ike.
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Still Fighting, US Troops from Syria to Afghanistan Await Trump Orders
Special operators move ahead with plans for the press to Raqqa, but uncertainty clouds US war plans.
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Trump vs. the Spies
In this digital age, it is reasonable to ask just what America’s intelligence community still brings to the table. The answer is a lot.
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As Trump's Foreign Policy Emerges, Watch His Temperament in Washington
By what Trump has shown, even where there's policy continuity the world will see Washington as more erratic and less reliable.
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Weaponized Narrative Is the New Battlespace
And the U.S. is in the unaccustomed position of being seriously behind its adversaries.
Ideas