By Doug Bandow
Mitt Romney has become the inevitable Republican presidential candidate. He’s hoping to paint Barack Obama as weak, but his attempt at a flanking maneuver on the right may complicate America’s relationship with Eastern Europe and beyond. Romney recently charged Russia with being America’s “number one geopolitical foe.” As Jacob Heilbrunn of National Interest pointed out, [...]
Romney and Russia: Complicating American Relationships is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Malou Innocent
The U.S.-Afghan strategic partnership framework agreed to on Sunday extends America’s presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 in a desperate attempt to stave off disaster. The pact allows policymakers to perpetuate our military involvement despite assurances that we are withdrawing. Social and economic development programs will also continue with limited gains. The United States intends to nation-build on the cheap, [...]
U.S. Offers to Defend Afghanistan Indefinitely, Afghanistan Accepts is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Christopher Preble
It appears some Republicans want to return to their familiar national security play book in their pursuit of the White House, accusing a Democratic president of gutting defense spending and undermining national security. An Associated Press story predicts that Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign may feature the “hawkish and often unilateral foreign policy prescriptions that guided [...]
Romney’s National Security Problem is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Justin Logan
In the March/April issue of Foreign Policy magazine, Republican strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie opened an article titled “How to Beat Obama” with this paragraph: In an American election focused on a lousy economy and high unemployment, conventional wisdom holds that foreign policy is one of Barack Obama’s few strong suits. But the president [...]
Ed Gillespie, Flip Flopper is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Malou Innocent
The war in Afghanistan tragically feels like the movie Groundhog Day: reliving and retelling the same stories repeatedly, but with the situation worse than it was the previous time. The United States is perpetually stuck in a repetitive series of setbacks and scandals that damage the mission. It cannot escape the shadow that ruinous events cast [...]
It’s Groundhog Day in Afghanistan is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Doug Bandow
The developing scandal and opaque power struggle surrounding fall princeling Bo Xiali, once thought to be a shoe-in for a top party position, reminds us of the old China. The fate of a nation of 1.3 billion people has been decided by relatively few men in Zhongnanhai, Beijing’s leadership compound. Bo’s ouster appears more likely [...]
China Old and New is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Malou Innocent
For years, my colleagues and I have been arguing that disrupting, dismantling, and defeating al Qaeda does not require the occupation of Afghanistan or anywhere else. Wars are incredibly wasteful and counterproductive to the goal of stopping terrorism. Would-be terrorists, moreover, have reduced their dependence on “base camps” and “physical havens” because they can plan, organize, and train from [...]
“…the American homeland is the planet” is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By David Boaz
Is the United States the world’s policeman, as Cato scholars and presidential candidate Ron Paul, among others, have often complained? A headline on the front page of the Washington Post today reads: U.S. troops moving slowly against Kony Are we then at war in central Africa? Not quite. We’re just there to “assist regional militaries.” [...]
The World’s Policeman is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Jim Harper
Why is it that the head of the Transportation Security Administration comes out with his ideas for reform three years after leaving office? Is it the book he’s got coming out next week? That’s part of it. But he supplies the real answer: “TSA’s bureaucratic momentum and political pressures.” It’s possible to imagine an agency [...]
The TSA Won’t be Reformed is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Jim Harper
Why is it that the head of the Transportation Security Administration comes out with his ideas for reform three years after leaving office? Is it the book he’s got coming out next week? That’s part of it. But he supplies the real answer: “TSA’s bureaucratic momentum and political pressures.” It’s possible to imagine an agency [...]
The TSA Won’t Be Reformed is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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