Outside the Beltway

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

President Obama issued a warning to Syria today over its chemical weapons stockpiles.

Some troubling, sad, and downright puzzling stories

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

The war in Afghanistan has not been a topic of discussion in the Presidential campaign, but that’s largely because there’s not much left to talk about.

According to a new report, the CIA considers Israel to be an espionage threat.

Disseting the Romney visit to the UK and musing about the state of GOP foreign policy views.

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

It would be nice if people who make authoritative decisions had some idea what they are talking about.

Are the Stuxnet and Flame attacks the opening shots in a dangerous new era of secret war?

Gas prices are falling nationwide but that’s mostly because the economy kind of stinks.

The stage is set for a showdown between the Executive and Legislative Branches.

Rand Paul calls Mitt Romney out over his comments about Presidential War Powers.

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

Mitt Romney believes he could take America to war without Congressional involvement.

If the Department of Justice does not fully comply with Congressional subpoenas, then there seems to be no alternative other than holding the Attorney General in contempt.

The United States may have slowed down Iran’s nuclear program without firing a shot–not counting the one at our own foot.

The first shots have been fired in cyberspace. How will it end?

The New York Times finds some infighting among old Republican foreign policy hands.

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

Meet Flame. A cyber threat that makes Stuxnet seem like child’s play.

Is there a Romney Doctrine?

My first piece for the Christian Science Monitor, co-authored with my Atlantic Council collegue Barry Pavel, has been posted.

Mitt Romney is proposing one of the biggest peacetime increases in military spending in U.S. history.

Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb isn’t as easy as most think, Jacques Hymans argues in the current Foreign Policy.

We seldom blame presidents for bold actions that go wrong. We despise them for appearing weak and indecisive.

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

Lt Gen Benny Gantz says Iran “is going step by step to the place where it will be able to decide whether to manufacture a nuclear bomb. It hasn’t yet decided to go the extra mile.”

Despite their rhetoric, there would be few differences between a Romney Administration and an Obama Administration when it comes to foreign policy.

In reality, it probably doesn’t,

Once again, those predictions of $5.00 gas may have been much ado about nothing.

OTB’s comment section as a microcosm of the American political landscape.

There’s a big hole in the latest sanctions against Iran.

The wonderfully wry British media strikes again with the BBC headline “Soviet ex-KGB chief Leonid Shebarshin ‘kills himself'”

Russia is the most significant geopolitical player actively opposing significant American interests.

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