Looking Forward to SOTU 2013
February 11, 2013 2 min. read

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 hope to get a few […]

Read more
Benghazi, Adequate Security, and Reporting What You Know before You Know It
February 10, 2013 12 min. read

Hillary Clinton’s testimony before Congress the other week brought the country’s attention back to the Benghazi attack of Sept. 11, 2012. It is a topic that I find fascinating, less for what it says about U.S. foreign policy than for what it says about domestic politics and the processes of perception and interpretation. In this […]

Read more
U.N. Secretary-General Report Recommends Coordination over Integration in Somalia
February 10, 2013 4 min. read

As the U.N. Security Council is determining what future role it should play in Somalia based on the recent report of the Secretary-General, the major developments of the political track of the United Nations approach are overshadowed by the security and humanitarian developments during the previous four months. These conditions support the report’s conclusion that […]

Read more
How Secretary Clinton Got It All Wrong
February 5, 2013 4 min. read

  “To work with all our heart and all of our might to make sure that America is secure, that our interests are promoted and our values are respected.” –  Former Secretary of State Clinton If only former Secretary of State Clinton had remained true to the words she uttered so many times during her […]

Read more
GailForce: Does Congress REALLY Want to Maintain Our Military Readiness?
February 4, 2013 6 min. read

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 […]

Read more
Nuclear Weapons Accomplishments in the Chu Years
February 4, 2013 3 min. read

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 […]

Read more
Hijab Awareness Day
February 1, 2013 3 min. read

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 […]

Read more
Ending “Doormat Politics” In Somalia
January 31, 2013 7 min. read

“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 […]

Read more
The Economics of U.S. Foreign Policy
January 31, 2013 4 min. read

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 […]

Read more
Is Liberty Losing Her Voice?
January 30, 2013 3 min. read
Tags: ,

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, […]

Read more
Timbuktu’s Cultural Treasures & the ICC
January 29, 2013 6 min. read

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 […]

Read more
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
January 28, 2013 2 min. read

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 […]

Read more

Popular from Press