Outside the Beltway

Examining SECDEF’s call for radical overhaul of our defense structure against the fate of similar calls past.

The Iraq War did significant damage to the legacy of the Republican Party.

Providing a little context for Pope Francis’ background+Erick Erickson needs to learn a little history.

Walter Russell Mead presents his sitrep of the War on Terror.

Andrew Bacevich bemoans the social impact of the all-volunteer force.

Minting a Platinum Coin would be a really bad idea.

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

First in a series of posts looking at the substance of the final presidential debate, ostensibly about foreign policy.

President Obama seems to have given away the store when it comes to the defense sequestration cuts.

Like the men who came before him, Barack Obama has vastly increased the powers of his office. Someone should have asked him about that last night.

Mitt Romney is once again making completely false claims about the status of the United States Navy.

Let’s take a trip back in time to see what some conservatives thought 2012 would look like if Barack Obama were elected President.

With Mitt Romney and Barack Obama basically saying the same things about foreign policy, it’s time to take a look at an alternative.

The Romney campaign’s critique of the President’s foreign policy record is weak, and based on bad history.

President Obama didn’t blow the doors off the Time Warner Cable Arena last night, but he didn’t need to.

The GOP claims to be a party that favors limited government, but its foreign policy positions reveal this to be little more than a lie.

Today’s convention activities will include the opening salvos of an attack on the President’s foreign policy. This strikes me as a mistake.

A former Obama official says government should learn from business, but is private industry really more efficient?

Some troubling, sad, and downright puzzling stories

For the first time in 80 years, there are no veterans on the major party Presidential tickets.

Examining a history that might have been.

The US government has an odd and unproductive view on the concept of talks.

Were the Colonists wrong to toss aside the British Empire so casually?

Mitt Romney’s confrontational approach to Russia makes no sense.

The President’s Cabinet is less a Team Of Rivals and more a Team Of Managers.

The factors influencing Russian policy in Syria are many, and some of them are quite ancient.

Romney comes down firmly on the guns side of guns and butter.

For the first time in 68 years, neither major party candidate for President has served in the military. Does this matter?

Does the Romney campaign know the USSR doesn’t exist anymore? Of course they do, but the language they use still means something.

Mitt Romney called Russia our “number one geopolitical foe.” Is he right?

An attack on Iran is likely to unleash consequences that we are unprepared to deal with.

No, the Obama Administration is not plotting to nationalize the economy in the name of some “national emergency.”

There are all manner of myths that are held by supporters of both parties. Debunking them is not the role for presidential aspirants.

Peter Berkowitz has presented a flawed legal argument for attacking Iran.

Rick Santorum’s stump speeches have becoming increasingly dark.

Not surprisingly, Republicans are trying to reverse the automatic cuts to defense spending agreed to in August.

He may be praising Ronald Reagan now, but Newt Gingrich was singing a different tune in the 1980s.

The US Army is returning to a peacetime mindset, which means promotions will cease to be automatic for anyone willing to endure service.

President Obama’s Pentagon is planning for an unlikely war with China rather than the small wars America will inevitably fight.

Rick Santorum’s foreign policy positions are troubling in many respects.

Despite the opposition of the SECDEF and Joint Chiefs, the latter expanded yesterday.