Judging by the budget gridlock the answer seems to be no. As mentioned in my last blog, I spent last week in San Diego attending West 2013, a Navy/ Marine focused conference co-sponsored by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute. The conference theme was: Pivot to the Pacific What Are the Practical & Global […]
Departing Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s farewell letter is not the usual five paragraphs consisting of gradiose claims and bromides for the ages. At more than 3,750 words, it is the length of a college term paper or a magazine feature article. As interesting for what it leaves unsaid as for what it says, it says […]
It may be a small cause — the World Hijab Day Facebook page has around 8,000 likes — but there’s no denying the reasoning behind the campaign: “Better Awareness. Greater Understanding.” Women worldwide, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, are invited to spend a day in hijab to experience modest dress (and because we’re in the 21st […]
“More than ever, foreign policy is economic policy. The world is competing for resources and global markets.” John Kerry Considering the positive trend of the past eighteen months, Somalia is en route to recovery, and, in due course, to re-engineer a better state from the ground up. The caveat being: in the long term, this […]
On January 24, during his confirmation hearing to become secretary of state, Senator John Kerry discussed the relationship between U.S. foreign policy and the U.S. economy. In well-phrased remarks that I expect will be quoted for some time to come, he noted: …as a recovering member of the Super-Committee, I am especially cognizant of the […]
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 still within reach. Funded by the U.S. over decades, […]
Just a few weeks after France launched an intervention aimed at rooting out Islamist Ansar Dine rebels in northern Mali, French and Malian forces retook the historic desert city without resistance and to the cheers of local citizens. However, the city’s ten months under Islamic rule still had consequences, not just for the people living […]
This film is riveting. It is a fictional look at the hunt for and eventual killing of Osama bin Laden, the man who is believed to have masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Jessica Chastain rightfully won the best actress in a drama at the Golden Globes. She has also […]
A regular theme on this blog (here, here, here and here) is how the marked surge in U.S. oil and natural gas production over the past several years is reviving America’s strategic prospects. The energy boom, which is due largely to innovations in extraction technology – namely, hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and horizontal drilling – that […]
It’s been just 3 days since I last wrote about the French military supporting the embattled West African nation of Mali, but a lot has happened since. French and Malian military forces–formerly empire and colony, now teamed up–have gone on the offensive, driving militant rebels back from their recent acquisitions with air strikes and armored […]
On Sat. Jan. 26, 2013 the people of the Czech Republic elected Milos Zeman to be their next president. This news will not have much direct impact on the country’s operations, as the Czech president is largely a ceremonial role. But Zeman becoming president is significant because: This is the first time in Czech history […]
Should the U.S. government ever come under threat, would the U.K.–its colonial overlords from way back when–send over troops to stabilize the situation and keep the country and democracy intact (as presently designed)? Sounds pretty far-fetched, but that is exactly what France is aiming to do now in the West African nation of Mali. In […]
“Tribalism” as many know describes the political system in technologically primitive countries without established central government or democratic tradition. Today it also applies to the US Congress. What is tribalism? Blind faith in a single leader or ideology. Support for a clan member in any dispute no matter how incriminating. Decision by consensus, while graybeards […]
In 2011, President Obama instructed the U.S. State Department to try to find a new route for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline citing environmental concerns. The concerns were especially related to a potential contamination of the Ogallala aquifer. This is an important groundwater source and therefore it makes sense to bypass the most sensitive areas […]
Understandably, most of the U.S. was preoccupied with Barack Obama’s second inauguration yesterday. However in the midst of the celebrations of yet another peaceful transfer of power in the U.S., word began to trickle out of an attempted coup in Eritrea. It appears that the attempt, led by a group of military mutineers at the […]