Foreign Policy and the Fear of Boredom
I admire Michael Ignatieff’s courage in entering electoral politics, I voted for him when he was Canada’s Liberal party leader, and I’ve profited from reading his writings over the years. But he is a...
View ArticleWill Conservatives Revolt Against a Rubio Coronation?
Last summer, “Donald Trump can’t get the nomination” was a straightforward prediction, but after three straight primary victories, it now often sounds like more of an incantation—something that...
View ArticleSetting Priorities on Cybersecurity
What if Russia, with its economy in its last throes and threatening the regime’s hold on power, chose to lash out with cyber attacks against its perceived tormentors, disrupting the West’s financial...
View ArticleOur Overworked Security Bureaucracy
Over the last two years, the West has been caught by surprise by a number of transformative international crises. From Russia’s annexation of Crimea to the Ebola outbreak to the rise of ISIS and the...
View ArticleThe Election & the World
In the last half-century, the world has rarely—if ever—been perched on such a parlous ledge, or, more accurately, so many of them. Yes, the Cold War was dangerous, and yes, 9/11 was a historic...
View ArticleThe Mounting Threats of Climate Change
Once considered a back-burner domestic policy issue, the environment—particularly the urgent need to curb climate change—has emerged as a pressing foreign policy and national security challenge....
View ArticleThe Financial System of the Future
The global financial system is in the midst of profound transformation. This shift represents both a great opportunity for the United States in terms of job creation and potential growth and a new set...
View ArticleConfronting the Pandemic Threat
Sometime during the next President’s term, her or his national security team may be summoned to the Oval Office to discuss a catastrophe of historic proportions: more than one million deaths in just a...
View ArticleTaking on ISIS—and Assad
The civil wars in Syria and Iraq have transformed the jihadist threat to the United States. For the first time, a jihadist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), has been able to combine...
View ArticleWhere in the World Are We?
To judge from the Republican primary campaign as it played out over late 2015 and early 2016, the United States is a pitiful giant in decline, outmaneuvered by Russia and China and besieged by...
View ArticleA Smarter Intervention Debate
When it registers in national politics at all, the conversation around intervention is marked by drastic swings between overconfidence and resignation. Right now, the latter dominates: there’s no...
View ArticlePragmatism Isn’t Enough
When it comes to foreign policy, the most basic characteristics we should want our presidents to possess—prudence, rationality, a thoughtful knowledge base about international affairs—are in...
View ArticleHillary’s Security Blanket
The national security insiders gathered at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House Wednesday afternoon were restless. In less than a week, Donald Trump had aimed a kick at every pillar of...
View ArticleOur Foreign Policy Provincialism
It’s hard to disagree with Arthur Goldhammer’s gloomy overview of the current geopolitical moment in The American Prospect: The United States is still the dominant power but now in a multipolar system...
View ArticleOur Overworked Security Bureaucracy
Over the last two years, the West has been caught by surprise by a number of transformative international crises. From Russia’s annexation of Crimea to the Ebola outbreak to the rise of ISIS and the...
View ArticleThe Election & the World
In the last half-century, the world has rarely—if ever—been perched on such a parlous ledge, or, more accurately, so many of them. Yes, the Cold War was dangerous, and yes, 9/11 was a historic...
View ArticleOur Overworked Security Bureaucracy
Over the last two years, the West has been caught by surprise by a number of transformative international crises. From Russia’s annexation of Crimea to the Ebola outbreak to the rise of ISIS and the...
View ArticleThe Election & the World
In the last half-century, the world has rarely—if ever—been perched on such a parlous ledge, or, more accurately, so many of them. Yes, the Cold War was dangerous, and yes, 9/11 was a historic...
View ArticleOur Overworked Security Bureaucracy
Over the last two years, the West has been caught by surprise by a number of transformative international crises. From Russia’s annexation of Crimea to the Ebola outbreak to the rise of ISIS and the...
View ArticleThe Election & the World
In the last half-century, the world has rarely—if ever—been perched on such a parlous ledge, or, more accurately, so many of them. Yes, the Cold War was dangerous, and yes, 9/11 was a historic...
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