Outside the Beltway

Examining the impact of current events requires stepping back from them just a little bit.

The cuts to Pentagon spending in the new debt deal are further revealing a split in the GOP over foreign policy and military spending.

It is always useful to go inside the numbers.

A new Tim Pawlenty television ad is raising copyright issues rather than, as intended, bringing back memories of the 80s.

I’m continually shocked when demonstrably bright and accomplished people fall in love with authoritarian states.

Danger Room’s Spencer Ackerman reports on an alleged secret CIA interrogation facility somewhere in the former Soviet Union.

Tim Pawlenty’s foreign policy speech shows him siding with the hawks, and joining in the neocon distortion of Reagan’s legacy.

Last night, the President basically announced that America’s longest war had entered it’s end game.

While President Obama has had some amusing gaffes on his trip to London, including getting the year wrong in the guest book and an awkward toast to the Queen, his speech to Parliament today hit all the right notes.

The myth that the U.S. armed and trained Osama bin Laden in the early 80’s is rearing its ugly head again.

A version of a piece I wrote Wednesday, titled “NATO’s Death Greatly Exaggerated,” has finally been published at Foreign Policy under the title “Back in the Saddle: How Libya Helped NATO Get Its Groove Back.”

Stephen Walt doesn’t expect Obama’s foreign policy to change along with the names on the org chart.

Did President Obama pull off a diplomatic masterstroke? Or is he muddling through?

If Mubarak is driven from power, will that make Egypt a case of “revolution”?

The events in Egypt have led some to ask if the mere act of cutting off access to the Internet is, in itself, an human rights violation.

Thirty years after the hostages were freed from captivity in Iran, the United States still hasn’t figured out how to deal with the Islamic Republic.

With just over a week to go before the 112th Congress convenes, battle lines are already being drawn in battle over the defense budget.

If the Soviets had put Jews into gas chambers, it would have been a pity.

Daniel Larison’s “The Case Against NATO” makes compelling reading. In my New Atlanticist post “The Case Against the Case Against NATO,” I explain why it’s wrong.

Yesterday’s NATO Beyond Afghanistan conference was a depressing day for fans of the most successful military alliance in history.

Mary Anastasia O’Grady takes Jeffery Golodberg to task over his interview with Fidel Castro. Much hilarity (or, at least, poor analysis) ensues.

Fareed Zakaria argues that the fact al Qaeda has not launched a major attack on U.S. soil since 9/11 proves we overreacted to those attacks. I beg to differ.

Four news items and articles about China that have caught my eye.

Daniel Schorr’s journalism career ended far too early, lasting a mere eighty-one years.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in an interview that he considered raising Muslim self-esteem about their contributions to science one of the goals of his agency.

President Obama is following the example of his predecessors in abusing his power to enact his preferred policies. Has he gone too far?