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Obama Is Right to Target AP National Security Leaks
Tweet Share on Facebook May 20, 2013 CommentDaniel Gallington is the senior policy and program adviser at the George C. Marshall Institute in Arlington, Va. He served in senior national security policy positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Justice, and as bipartisan general counsel for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
In the middle of the other "scandals," i.e. Benghazi and the Internal Revenue Service, that the Obama Administration has to deal with - and which may change the general direction of politics in America at the next general election - there is also the Department of Justice going after the Associated Press in a criminal investigation into leaks of classified information.
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Obama Foreign Policy Inaction Proves Costly in Benghazi and Syria
Tweet Share on Facebook May 20, 2013 CommentDr. Lamont Colucci is an associate professor of politics at Ripon College, recent Fulbright scholar to the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, and author of The National Security Doctrines of the American Presidency: How they Shape our Present and Future, among other books. You can find out more at lamontcolucci.com.
Charles Dickens' famous novel starts out with one of the most poignant passages in the English language: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness …" As many know, the story revolved around the two cities of Paris and London and described both the absurdity and the honor of the humans involved.
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The World Bank’s Poverty Fighting Efforts Are at Risk
Tweet Share on Facebook May 20, 2013 CommentAndrew S. Natsios is an executive professor at the George H.W. Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, and the author of Sudan, South Sudan and Darfur: What Everyone Needs to Know. Natsios served as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and as President George W. Bush's special envoy to Sudan.
Ten years ago, the World Bank created the "Doing Business Report," which has become a powerful tool for local reformers in developing countries trying to kickstart their economies and reduce poverty through economic growth. James Robinson and Daron Acemoglu in their impressive new book, "Why Nations Fail," argue that some economies don't grow because local elites don't want them to. They maintain monopoly control over their economies to protect their own parochial interests; growth is seen as a threat, as it may produce competition and innovation. The "Doing Business Report" is one World Bank's most successful efforts to break that control.
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A New Debate Over the 2001 Authorization of Military Force
Tweet Share on Facebook May 17, 2013 CommentMichael P. Noonan is the Director of the Program on National Security at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
A week after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, the United States Senate passed, and former president George W. Bush signed, Public Law 107-40. Known colloquially thereafter as the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or by the acronym AUMF, this legislation authorized the president:
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America's Three Russian Spy Scandals Worse Than Ryan Fogle's
Tweet Share on Facebook May 17, 2013 CommentHannah Gais is assistant editor at the Foreign Policy Association and editor of ForeignPolicyBlogs.com. You can follow her on Twitter @axi0nestin.
This week Russian officials announced that Ryan Fogle, third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was detained by the Russian Federal Security Service for allegedly attempting to recruit a Russian counterterrorism officer with expertise in the Caucasus. Fogle was declared a persona non grata after his much-publicized arrest on Tuesday, and Ambassador Michael McFaul was hauled to the woodshed for a talking to.
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How to End China’s Cyberattacks
Tweet Share on Facebook May 15, 2013 CommentMieke Eoyang is director of the National Security Program and Ed Gerwin is senior fellow for Trade and Global Economic Policy at Third Way.
Last week, the Pentagon came out and said it: Cyberintrusions on Defense Department computer systems, as well as economic and defense industrial base sectors are "directly attributable to the Chinese government and military." China's cyberintrusions are a serious matter. But why does China's hacking strike everyone as beyond the pale?
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Turkey's Erdogan Hopes to Convince Obama to Act in Syria
Tweet Share on Facebook May 15, 2013 CommentIlan Berman is Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC.
This week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives in Washington for a much publicized state visit. The Turkish leader won't simply be making a courtesy call, however. His U.S. mission is largely aimed at achieving one purpose: goading the Obama administration into taking greater action on Syria.
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Iran's 2013 Presidential Election Centers on Ahmadinejad and Mashaei
Tweet Share on Facebook May 14, 2013 CommentAlireza Nader is a senior policy analyst at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is hardly a poster boy for reform in Iran. He has depicted himself as an original revolutionary and ideological purist. He has questioned the Holocaust and is virulently anti-Israeli in his rhetoric. His re-election as president in 2009 set off the largest popular demonstration since the 1979 revolution. And his presidency has produced an era of economic stagnation, international isolation and deep anxiety for the Iranian people.
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The Global Economy Remains Shaky
Tweet Share on Facebook May 13, 2013 CommentScheherazade S. Rehman is a professor of international finance/business and international affairs at The George Washington University. You can visit her homepage here and follow her on Twitter @Prof_Rehman.
Let me start with the good news for 2013. So far, no major tsunamis are anticipated off the coast of anywhere; North Korea has not fired on South Korea; the royal house of Al Saud of Saudi Arabia has not fallen and oil prices have not skyrocketed; we still have enough clean drinking water for now; America seems to be on the mend; the Japanese economy is back in the news; no big headline news from Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, the United Kingdom or Brazil; stock markets are booming and Wall Street is back; and the euro zone still has 17 members.
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An Obama Trip to Africa Helps Keep Pace With China
Tweet Share on Facebook May 13, 2013 CommentStephen Hayes is president and CEO of the Corporate Council on Africa.
Soon the President of the United States will visit Africa. His visit has been announced in newspapers in Senegal and South Africa, but there is no official announcement yet forthcoming from the White House. That announcement is expected any moment, as there are few such secrets in Washington, and news of the trip has already become the talk of receptions and Africanists in the city. As they say, details are being worked out, and so we wait for the announcement to come.
