Outside the Beltway

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

The regime we fought for in Iraq is now aiding the regime we’re fighting against (at least by proxy) in Syria.

Bradley Manning has pleaded guilty to 10 charges stemming from turning classified documents over to WikiLeaks.

A theory on why Benghazi will not die as a political issue.

For the moment, Republicans appear to be blocking Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense but they don’t seem to know why they’re doing it.

The smear campaign against defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel has taken a bizarre turn.

Pretending like the Bush administration never happened is a problem for the GOP.

Chuck Hagel will be confirmed, but the campaign against him tells us much about the current state of Republican foreign policy

The Obama Administration has given us a peek at its legal arguments for targeted killings and they are troubling to say the least.

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

Is America’s focus on defense weakening the country?

My latest for The National Interest, “Ignoring the Hagel Hearing Farce,” has posted.

The office working to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba has been closed.

Greg Jaffe has an outstanding feature titled “In one Army family, women in combat evokes two different perspectives.”

My latest for The National Interest, “Obama Doctrine, Reagan Doctrine,” is out.

The notion that guns prevent tyranny is based on fantasy and movies, not reality.

In “Veterans and Senate Buddies, Until Another War Split Them,” Elisabeth Bumiller profiles the relationship between Chuck Hagel and John McCain:

The first seven men to be awarded the Medal of Honor for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan received it posthumously. Clinton Romesha will be the fourth in a row that’s lived to meet the president.

The idea of completely pulling out of Afghanistan after 2014 is very compelling.

Killing their leaders doesn’t seem to be impacting the ability of jihadi groups to recruit and motivate more terrorists.

Would a formal guarantee of Israel’s security deter Iran from whatever nuclear weapons development program it has?

Arab news giant Al-Jazeera is buying Al Gore’s failing Current TV network, hoping to get a bigger presence in the US cable market.

General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander during Operation Desert Storm, has died at the age of 78.

John Cornyn tells Jennifer Rubin that he’ll oppose the confirmation of his former colleague, Chuck Hagel, for Secretary of Defense.

Recent comments from Russian officials suggest that the nation may be preparing to cut its longtime ally loose.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is bemused that the generals who worked for him lived more lavish lifestyles than he did.

It’s okay to criticize military veterans–even if you never served in the military.

The Republican Party needs a new message on foreign policy that is true to the conservative principles of the base and yet has a broad appeal to the American public.

Guess who’s back?

Are two-term Presidencies the new normal?

Fareed Zakaria declares “America’s election process an international embarrassment.” He’s right.

The scandal now surrounding David Petraeus should lead people to reassess his past record.

A surprise Friday resignation at the CIA.

If the Romney campaign looked shocked on Election Night, that’s because they didn’t believe the polls either.

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.