The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live tonight from 7-8 Eastern. As usual, Dave Schuler will co-host. We’ll be joined tonight by Bernard Finel, a senior fellow at the American Security Project and blogger at his eponymous site and elsewhere. We’ll talk about the torture memos, Russia’s Near [...]

In the discussion section of Steve Verdon’s Obama the Fear Monger post, commentor Drew and I had a brief debate about the possibility of using TARP funds to create new banks rather than try to rescue old ones.  In today’s Wall Street Journal, Paul Romer of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research makes this [...]

Having already devoted several thousand words to the topic of American involvement in the Middle East, I will make my closing comments brief. First, I’d like to thank Dave for a vigorous debate, James for hosting this discussion, and all the readers who have taken the time to follow the back-and-forth and comment on the [...]

Dave Schuler’s arguments and his responses to my cross-examination questions highlight three critical failings in his argument. These flaws are his preference for inertia over strategic assessment, overweighing ambiguous evidence that marginally supports his case while ignoring compelling evidence that refutes it, and a failure to account for what might be called “conditions on the [...]

Question 1 (Finel): You write: “I believe the evidence speaks clearly: the increased U. S. engagement in the region has overall been a stabilizing force.” What is the precise benefit to the United States of this increased stability? Are American interests in the region more or less secure today as a result? Or is this [...]