Author Archive
Ideas
A Low Bar for Success in Today’s Iran-Nuke Talks
The Nov. 29 session between the U.S., Iran, the European Union, and the rest of the P5+1 has the air of a make-or-break moment.
Ideas
The Defense Budget Process Is Broken
What the U.S. needs isn’t more money for the Pentagon, but an honest and tough debate about strategy.
Ideas
Can the US and Russia Agree to Disagree?
The relationship is cold, but there are still some areas of mutual interest.
Ideas
Don’t Divide the World Between Democracies and Autocracies
There are better ways to face our challenges than pushing for ideological blocs.
Ideas
The Big Hack Is Damaging. That Doesn’t Make Russia 10 Feet Tall.
U.S. leaders must not overestimate a country with a weak economy and overrated military.
Ideas
The 20th Year of the Afghanistan War Should Be America’s Last
U.S. national security interests do not depend on the outcome of the peace talks. It’s time to come home.
Ideas
How Washington Should Handle Turkey's Summer of Flex
Turkey looks less like a treaty ally and more like a competitor.
Ideas
Trump’s All-Stick, No-Carrot Approach Has Brought Two US Adversaries Together
The blooming China-Iran bilateral relationship serve as a warning to U.S. policymakers.
Ideas
The NDAA Should Prompt a Rethinking of Costly U.S. Foreign Policy
The annual defense authorization bill offers a chance to end wars and programs that are not worth their price.
Ideas
It’s Too Late for US-Russia-China Arms-Control Fantasies
As U.S. and Russian negotiators open two days of talks in Vienna, they should waste no more time talking about a tripartite agreement.
Ideas
Cool It With the ‘America In Decline’ Talk
Clear-eyed assessment, not reductive defeatism, is required to develop a foreign policy that meets U.S. interests.
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Ideas
No, ISIS Isn’t Resurging Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic
A spate of recent attacks show the group’s capabilities haven’t advanced in a year.
Ideas
What If Kim Jong Un Dies?
Improvements in U.S.-North Korean relations would still largely be up to Washington.
Ideas
It’s Time for the US and Saudi Arabia to Break Up
Riyadh’s recent crude-oil dump is the latest indication that the oil-for-security basis of the special relationship is no longer applicable.
Ideas
ISIS Is No Reason to Stay in Iraq
Don’t take the wrong conclusion from recent news about the group’s “resurgence.”
Ideas
US-Iranian Diplomacy Almost Worked. Let’s Try It Again
Direct talks may be too much to ask for at this stage, but tension-reduction measures promoted by third parties are still very plausible.
Ideas
The Trump Administration’s ‘Denuclearization’ Is A Road to Nowhere
U.S. policy will remain stuck as long as the administration continues to convince itself that the North’s nuclear dismantlement can be achieved on Washington’s timeline.
Ideas
NATO Should End its Open-Door Policy
Enlarging the alliance has caused more problems than it has solved.
Ideas
Trump Made His Real Syria Mistakes Months Ago
U.S. involvement should have ended with the recapture of ISIS’ territory and a Kurd-Assad deal.
Ideas