Oct
12
12
Oct
03
03
Can the U.S. Retain Primacy?
Robert Lieber of Georgetown, in the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs:
Those who focus on current problems and bitter political debates often lose sight of America’s strengths. The American political system, warts and all, remains flexible and accountable to the public while maintaining constitutional liberties and the rule of law. Time and again, when faced with serious crises, the country has eventually found a way to respond. And contrary to Fareed Zakaria’s claim that success has made it “sclerotic,” a capacity for flexibility, adaptability, and innovation is likely to continue to serve it well.
Long-term predictions are notoriously hard to get right, as evident in repeated warnings and prophecies about American decline from the late eighteenth century to the present.
Sep
30
30
Preventing Another Attack
Thomas Farr of the Berkley Center at Georgetown explains that religious freedom is a national security issue:
What if Osama Bin Laden had been raised in a Saudi Arabia that allowed for religious freedom? What if, instead of being steeped exclusively in the toxic teachings of Wahhabism and Sayyid Qutb, he had been exposed to other forms of Islam, to critics of Islam, to other forms of religious belief, and to liberal religion-based arguments about justice and the common good?
Would 9/11 have happened?
Sep
28
28
Stanford Chapter in the News
Our Stanford chapter was recently featured in a Stanford student newspaper.
Sep
26
26
GOP in Opposition
Foreign policy discussion during the Republican debates has so far been minimal. How can we gauge the future direction of the GOP on international and security issues? One way is to look back to similar periods when Republicans were out of power, in opposition to Democratic presidents such as Truman, LBJ, Carter, and Clinton. Several timely lessons emerge from the comparison. Colin Dueck @ RealClearPolitics.
Sep
22
22
Hamilton’s Shining House on a Hill
Myron Magnet, in the Wall Street Journal, on the restoration of Alexander Hamilton’s home, the Grange:
The National Park Service’s small but evocative permanent exhibition in the house’s basement recalls [Hamilton's] achievements, and the airy, light-filled villa itself, in its intricate, symmetrical cruciform plan, seems an embodiment of Hamilton’s logical, complex, elegant mind.
Sep
20
20
Renewing the Discussion
Molly Wehlage and Zachary Young, co-presidents of the AHS Harvard Chapter, in the Harvard Crimson:
Here enters this chapter of the Alexander Hamilton Society. Dynamic debate is essential, and college campuses must serve as the starting place to rebuild this discourse. This chapter hopes to do its part to build a network of committed, proud American policymakers.
Sep
16
16
My Guantanamo Experience
Jennifer S. Bryson, Director of the Islam and Civil Society Project at the Witherspoon Institute @ The Public Discourse:
The most demanding, challenging, and meaningful assignment during my years working for the military was serving as an interrogator at Guantanamo Bay. Becoming an interrogator was not my idea, but when I was asked to go, I went willingly.
Sep
14
14
Rick Perry reads Aaron Friedberg
The Presidential frontrunner in the September 15 issue of Time:
After a trip to Beijing and Shanghai and Taiwan, I realized how important that region of the world is to America . . . I’m reading another book by Aaron Friedberg [A Contest for Supremacy] that is a really fine read about China.
Sep
09
09
Armageddon with China?
Dan Blumenthal @ Foreign Policy‘s Shadow Government blog, responding to critics of Asian Alliances in the 21st Century:
Throughout its history, China has lumbered into disaster after disaster, costing untold sums in lives and treasure. Certainly as China re-emerged as a power it had its chance to “bide its time and hide its capabilities” as Deng Xiaoping instructed. But instead, it decided to build a highly destabilizing military and has proceeded to rattle its saber against Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea, and, most troublingly, the United States. It has now created the conditions for the encirclement is so fears.
The Alexander Hamilton Society