Outside the Beltway

While no official announcements have been made, President Obama’s second term national security team appears to be taking shape.

Remember when the Bush administration was spying on calls Americans made overseas without a warrant? Those were the good old days.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is bemused that the generals who worked for him lived more lavish lifestyles than he did.

Couples of the same sex can marry at the West Point chapel, they’re treated much differently under the Defense of Marriage Act.

The National Intelligence Council has released its quadrennial strategic forecast, Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds.

The title of most impressive Heisman winner of all time goes to Pete Dawkins, who won the award in 1958.

The Air Force has a leadership crisis.

My first piece for the New York Daily News, “A Drone Strike on Democracy,” has posted.

Congress is trying to re-write a law that the Supreme Court found unconstitutional in June. Have they succeeded?

NATO has agreed to deploy Patriot missiles along the Turkey-Syria border to protect Turkish airspace and territory, while making clear no escalation is intended.

Outgoing Senator Jim Webb is making another attempt at passing the Stolen Valor Act, deemed unconstitutional last year by the US Supreme Court.

One of West Point’s first female graduates has married her long-time girlfriend at the Cadet Chapel.

US military drones are crashing at civilian airports around the world.

Has Petraeus provided the basic explanation for the administration’s immediate responses to Benghazi?

The conflict between Israel and Hamas appears to be heading in one unfortunate direction.

People continue to spread conspiracy theories explaining the “real reason” that David Petraeus’s extra-marital affair became public.

If nothing else, the Petraeus affair is teaching us a valuable lesson in just how extensive the Surveillance State has become.

The scandal now surrounding David Petraeus should lead people to reassess his past record.

The David Petraeus/Paula Broadwell story gets curiouser.

An attempt to lay down some basic groundwork for discussing this story.

As is often the case with sex scandals, pretty much everything ever written about General David Petraeus takes on an ironic double meaning in hindsight.

The scandal that led to P4’s downfall has many layers, none of them flattering to the most famous American general of his generation.

A surprise Friday resignation at the CIA.

A passenger praying in the aisles will apparently get your plane priority landing privileges.

Without question, Barack Obama won the foreign policy debate in the 2012 campaign.

In a posting for New Atlanticist titled “Status Quo Election,” I note the near total absence of foreign affairs from a presidential campaign that’s mercifully coming to an end.

Trending on Twitter this morning: “R.I.P. Paul Davis. The Navy Seal who killed Osama Bin Laden died in battle today. Retweet to honor him.”