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The internet went dark in Syria last week. Although media reports blamed the outage on a fault in optical fiber cables many in the tech community were skeptical. After all, it’s not the first time Syria shut down the internet in …

Like many Americans, I’ve been watching the budget impasse with a mix of consternation and disgust. It seems like our politicians are playing a game of chicken with our country’s welfare hanging in the balance. Of course, the most talked about implication of the so-called sequester is the certain impact …

I’m looking forward to the State of the Union address tomorrow night; it promises to mark the back-to-business start of Obama’s second term and the official proclamation of his agenda. While I would understand if the bulk of the speech is taken up with matters of domestic policy, I do …

The history of Radio Liberty is the stuff of Cold War legend: dissidents huddled around a contraband radio in some dimly lit room in a cold and dreary gulag, hoping desperately to hear that the world recognized their suffering and that the promise of liberty was …

As rebel forces advance in Syria’s north and east and prepare to contest regime forces for control of Damascus, the internet went dark in Syria last week. The strategic importance of cutting communication lines is obvious …

 

I received an email from a publisher today, and I was tempted to quickly skim it and move on. Like many of you, I get far more email than I can reasonably deal with. This e-mail, however, was apropos of a blog post I wrote over the summer …

 
I’m looking forward to the upcoming presidential debate on foreign policy. This will be the final debate before election day and will be held in Florida on Monday night at 9pm ET and hosted by Bob Schieffer of CBS News. According to the 

 
This is a quick follow up to my last post and it continues the theme of foreign policy as a topic in the U.S. presidential election. We have previously noted that there is a perception that this election will focus primarily on economic issues (jobs!) and domestic policy (health care) …

 
 
Foreign policy has come roaring back into a presidential campaign that pundits said would be devoted almost exclusively to economic issues. Since the Foreign Policy Association is a non-partisan group I will shy away from partisan spin, but there’s no denying the appeal of the renewed focus on foreign policy, …

 

I’m saddened by the murder of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, his colleague Sean Smith, …

It is difficult to find words as the anniversary of 9/11 arrives again. The inclination is strong to sum-up, to summarize in some way the distance covered, as if distance somehow lends better perspective on the attacks of 9/11. Last year I wrote a

As we approach World Humanitarian Day, there’s something I’d like to note.  Something very interesting that happened last week, something the U.S. did to help another country, but something so scarcely reported it almost flew beneath the mainstream news radar. As you may know, Iran recently suffered two large earthquakes. Amid …

 
The U.S. is the only country to have used nuclear weapons in war. As we approach the anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, it’s an appropriate time to take a look at the state of U.S. nuclear policy. American nuclear policy has changed dramatically under the Obama Administration. True …

Why is it that the media in the West seem to fixate on some stories while completely ignoring others? The strategic analysis firm Stratfor recently sent their subscribers a report by Robert Kaplan that contained the following quote that provides an insightful answer:
The media love …

Someone wished me a “happy Memorial Day” in passing and I wondered if they understood what the holiday was really all about. What is it really all about? The photo above was taken at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial in France. According to the