The scandal over the conduct of Secret Service agents in Colombia seems to be receding as the media moves on to new stories and new scandals, though the politics of the scandal appears to be in no danger of going away. Opponents of President Obama have …
If the reality comes anywhere close to matching the hype, then the speeding of Russia’s national decline and the revival of America’s ideological authority will be among the transformative effects
As an earlier post suggested, the dramatic rise in U.S. natural gas production is one …
Often criticized for ignoring our Latin American neighbors, President Obama had been looking forward to the Summit of the Americas as an opportunity to engage in diplomacy and talk up trade deals. Instead, the summit was all …
One does not have to look hard to find publications or experts pronouncing or describing an America in decline. They have now become ubiquitous and in many circles pass for the conventional wisdom of the day. In a similar vein, it is not that hard to …
What James Cameron and SpaceX tell us about the Future of Global Power
James Cameron’s solo journey into the ocean’s deepest recesses is being hailed as a tale of personal daring and scientific adventure. But it also holds a lesson relevant to the debate about whether the global hierarchy is being …
Do you follow celebrity news? I have to admit that it’s not something I keep up with. I’m not one to care all that much about celebrities or their occasional forays into foreign policy. I know there are people who base their foreign policy views on the well-informed …
My posts for the U.S. Role in the World blog tend to focus on specific expressions of the U.S. role that are current and timely (like foreign aid or defense spending) but I was reminded today that it’s sometimes good to step back from the specific and look at the big picture. The …
The New York Times reported this morning that Secretary of Defense Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey voiced their concerns over a possible military operation in Syria. From the Times:
General Dempsey and Mr. Panetta spoke two days after Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who …
I recently came across this report from BBC News about a U.S. casualty in World War II. The report provides the back-story on the first American casualty in Europe on the eve of the war, …
The Roosevelt Institute recently celebrated the anniversary of the birth of President Franklin Roosevelt. In this post on the Institute’s website, Senior Fellow David Woolner reviews some of FDR’s …
President Obama delivered his final State of the Union address to Congress last night before facing the voters in November. Although the speech was primarily concerned with economic matters and his efforts to build an “economy built to last,” it also contained …
Google, Reddit, and Wikipedia all are using their considerable web presence today to protest legislation pending in the U.S. Congress. According to the Google announcement:
Two bills before …
On New Year’s Eve, President Barack Obama signed into law the post-9/11 practice of detaining terrorist suspects indefinitely without charge. Shock and awe waves rippled through the blogosphere in response to the move, not least because Obama had threatened to veto an earlier version of the bill. Other grumbles included …
For the second time in days the U.S. Navy has saved Iranian fishermen. As you will recall, it was earlier this month that the Navy rescued Iranian fishermen being held by Somali pirates. That incident came amid rising tensions and threats from Iran that …
The U.S. formally ended the Iraq War today. As The New York Times reports:
Almost nine years after the first American tanks began massing on the Iraq border, the Pentagon declared …
