Outside the Beltway

After months of fits and starts, it appears anti-Gaddafi forces are on the verge of victory.

Does Bachmann think the USSR is on the rise? I expect not, but her defense and fiscal policy skills still need some work.

Not only is the US outspending all our allies and competitors combined in real dollars on defense, we’re doing so in terms of GDP as well.

Like the rest of us, financial analysts across the globe are trying to figure out what the U.S. debt downgrade means.

International options with respect to Syria are limited and likely to have little impact on the governments treatment of civilians.

The world is starting to denounce the crackdown in Syria, but the reaction seems unlikely to go much beyond strongly worded statements.

The cuts to Pentagon spending in the new debt deal are further revealing a split in the GOP over foreign policy and military spending.

A take on the conflict that’s probably different from the one you’ve been reading.

Thomas Ricks makes the case that JFK was the worst President of his century but his argument misses the mark.

President Obama has walked out of negotiations on the debt ceiling with an agreement is nowhere in sight.

President Obama wants a million hybrid cars on the road by 2015. That’s easier said than done.

The selective application of international law is here to stay.

My latest piece for The Atlantic, “Is the U.S.-European Relationship Really in Decline?” is posted.

While President Obama has had some amusing gaffes on his trip to London, including getting the year wrong in the guest book and an awkward toast to the Queen, his speech to Parliament today hit all the right notes.

Matt Eckel’s takeaway from my Atlantic piece on How Perpetual War Became U.S. Ideology is that we need a peer competitor.

An aide’s compliment about the president “leading from behind” has generated controversy.

The NYT says it’s time for U. S. advisers and military air traffic controllers on the ground in Libya.

Events in Syria, and the world’s response to them, are revealing the moral bankruptcy of the justification for the war in Libya.

The “Obama Doctrine,” such as it is, seems to boil down to moral self-certainty combined with a glaring ignorance of reality. That’s a dangerous combination.

Senator Joe Lieberman said today that we should intervene in Syria using the same rationale we did for Libya. Because, you know, what’s the big deal about a fourth war?

The uneasy coalition that coalesced around action in Libya will be strained by decisions to come.

There must be a predisposition against war and we should only engage in just wars.

Did President Obama pull off a diplomatic masterstroke? Or is he muddling through?

America is about to enter a third war in the Muslim world with no clear idea of the end game.

The Obama Administration is asking the U.N. Security Council to authorize direct military intervention in Libya. The question is, why now?

Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake, which in turned spawned a tsunami.

Intervening to “help” the Libyan revolt is very tempting, but it’s a temptation we ought to resist.

The ongoing saga of piracy off the coast of Somali is about to get Americans’ attention again, as a yacht containing four U.S. citizens has been hijacked.

Americans drink less than Europeans and far less than Russians.

The White House Press Office produces a blog, YouTube channel, Flickr photo stream, Facebook and Twitter profiles, and daily video programming.

A new Wikileaks revelation indicates that the U.S. may have paid a heavy price to get a deal on New START.

Does Russia really spend more on roads than we do?

Here’s how terrorists get past airport security: don’t bother to go through it.

More on the attack at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport.