Marking the Anniversary of the Embassy Seizure
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the seizing of the U. S. embassy in Tehran by factions of the revolution that overthrew the shah. President Obama has issued a statement on the occasion which I will reproduce in full here: Thirty years ago today, the American Embassy in Tehran was seized. The 444 days that began on November 4, 1979 ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 5, 2009 10:58
Web’s Latin-Only Policy Ending
Starting in two weeks, users from countries who don't use the Latin alphabet will find using the Internet much easier, FT reports. Latin script’s monopoly in internet domain names will end next month, a development that could usher in a fresh wave of internet usage from Bulgaria to China. So far, finding web addresses has required some basic familiarity with Latin letters ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 30, 2009 14:28
Obama’s Europe Neglect Could Bring Bush Nostalgia
My first piece for ForeignPolicy.com, "Europe's Obama Fatigue," is online. Despite George W. Bush's defiant "you're with us or you're against us" public stance, he actively solicited advice and input from his NATO partners. Obama, by contrast, is saying all the right things in public about transatlantic relations and NATO but adopting a high-handed policy and paying little attention to Europe. [...] It would ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 30, 2009 06:10
Meet the New Doctrine
I was rather surprised at the uproar in some corners of the blogosphere following the publication in Izvestiya of an interview with Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Kremlin's security council. In the interview Mr. Patrushev mentioned a new doctrine regarding the Russian Federation's use of nuclear weapons (hat tip: Nathan Hodge). Meteor Blades notes that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 15, 2009 08:57
Advice from the Saudis on Afghanistan
In this morning's Washington Post Prince Turki al-Faisal of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, former director general of their intelligence service and also their former ambassador to the United States offers President Obama some advice on how to proceed in Afghanistan with which I find I am in almost complete agreement. His advice consists of six action items: There is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 9, 2009 11:34
Medvedev’s Comments on the Revelations from Iran
As I noted yesterday, based on what I'd seen of Russian Federation President Medvedev's comments in reaction to the revelation that Iran was covertly building an additional uranium enrichment plant, I was a bit skeptical that Russia would change course and support a new sanctions regime against Iran despite the hints in that direction I was reading in the Western ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 26, 2009 11:32
In Which I Disagree with Brent Scowcroft
General Brent Scowcroft issued a statement through the Atlantic Council at noon: "I strongly approve of President Obama's decision regarding missile defense deployments in Europe. I believe it advances U.S. national security interests, supports our allies, and better meets the threats we face." Given that I work at the Atlantic Council and have blogged on its site taking a different view, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 18, 2009 14:34
Did Obama Break Promise on Missiles?
I've been critical of the optics of President Obama's decision to abandon missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic on the 70th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland. But I disagree with Jim Geraghty's assertion that it also represents breaking a promise made in April. Here's what he said in Prague: So let me be clear: Iran's ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 18, 2009 10:21
Obama Abandons Poland
On the 70th Anniversary of Russia's invasion of Poland, Barack Obama announced that he was abandoning Bush era plans to install ballistic missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, pleasing Moscow and igniting fear among our Eastern European allies. In my New Atlanticist essay "Obama Abandons Poland and Czech Missile Defense," I take exception to the strategic rationale offered ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 17, 2009 12:06
Old Europe, New Europe
Back in 2003, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously noted that while "Old Europe" (particularly France and Germany) was hard to work with, America could count on "New Europe." Fast forward to 2009 and we may have reversed polarity. My latest New Atlanticist essay, "Losing New Europe, Too?" explores this evolution, including why Western Europe is back in the fold and why ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 15, 2009 09:29
Why We Drive on the Right – And Others Don’t
Monday, Samoa will switch to driving on the left side of the road in order to benefit from cheap used cars from Australia and New Zealand. This gave Time's Randy James to explain, "Why Don't We All Drive on the Same Side of the Road?" It's especially odd that two-thirds of the world drives on the right, since most of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 4, 2009 08:15
Obama’s Schoolchildren Speech
President Obama is set to address the nation's schoolchildren next week, presumably to propagandize them into his evil agenda of turning the country into Communist Russia (pronounced "roo-shuh") and offing granny to save money on health care just as they do in his native Kenya. There are even instruction manuals to enlist the support of the teachers unions in brainwashing ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 3, 2009 12:35
Unforced
This morning in the Washington Post Stephen Stromberg echoes a point I made over at my place yesterday about President Obama's flat joke about the purchase of Alaska, made during his Moscow visit: But Obama probably also shouldn’t have said this. The president joked to a group of Russian businessmen about how Czar Alexander II gave America “a pretty good deal ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 9, 2009 10:06
OTB Radio – Tonight at 5:30 Eastern
The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be talk about President Obama's trip to Russia, the G8 summit, the Afghanistan surge, and anything but Michael Jackson. We'll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit callers ratio, however, we'll be ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 8, 2009 16:09
Obama in Russia: Good Start or False Start?
Yesterday Presidents Obama and Medvedev called for sharp reductions in the numbers of nuclear weapons in each of their countries arsenals: July 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev called for a reduction of their nuclear arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 warheads and between 500 and 1,100 delivery vehicles, according to a “joint understanding” ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 7, 2009 09:14
