Outside the Beltway

According to reports, the President had no idea that the NSA was listening to the phone calls of foreign leaders until this summer.

The latest revelations about National Security Agency surveillance outside the United States have caused quite an uproar overseas.

Few subjects rile members and veterans of military service more than changes to the uniform.

Relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia seem to have soured in recent years.

Jofi Joseph was unmasked as the obnoxious @NatSecWonk and fired by the White House.

My review of Andrew Bacevich’s latest book, Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country.

My latest for The National Interest, “The Military and the Shutdown: Assessing the Damage,” is out.

If the Syrian civil war is like other civil wars, it’s not ending any time soon.

So much for the most transparent Administration in history.

90 percent of DoD civilians will go back to work soon. What message does that send?

The Pentagon is recalling up to 300,000 furloughed civilian employees on the same day that Congress voted to pay all furloughed employees when the government reopens.

The NFL donates its game broadcasts to troops deployed in harm’s way but they still won’t get to see them during the shutdown.

Tom Clancy, author of dozens of bestselling military thriller novels, has died aged 66.

President Obama spoke with Iranian President Rouhani today, the first such contact between the nations in 34 years.

My latest for Defense One, “The Army’s Misguided Crackdown on Tattoos,” has posted.

My latest for The Atlantic, “It Isn’t the Military’s Place to Weigh In on the Syria Debate,” has posted.

Who should qualify as a “journalist” for purposes of a “Shield Law?”

The world changed significantly twelve years ago today. Will it ever change back even a little bit?

:Like his predecessors, President Obama’s speech last night exaggerated the threat that Syria poses in order to sell his plan to American voters.

President Obama’s plans in Syria are as unclear as they were before he spoke last night.

My latest for The National Interest has posted.

Even before the Russian curve ball, the public opposition to military strikes on Syria was mounting.

Opposing interventionism and unnecessary and unwise military engagements is not isolationism.

A throwaway comment by John Kerry in London has led to some interesting diplomatic developments.

Heading into an intense week of Congressional lobbying, the odds still seem against the Administration on Syria.

“No More Baby Steps,” my first piece for Defense News, has posted.

f Assad is eating Cheerios, we’re going to take away his spoon and give him a fork.

President Obama is trying to launch a war but there’s a lot of competition for attention.

With Congress coming back Monday, the prospective vote counts are decidedly against authorizing military force against Syria.

Why are chemical weapons a “red line” in a war where so many have been killed?