Outside the Beltway

The godfather of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine has passed.

Some analysts are already suggesting that Russia’s two month old intervention in Syria is becoming a quagmire. That seems to be a premature judgment, but it’s not accomplishing much more than anything the West is doing.

After thirty years in Federal Prison, Jonathan Pollard is a free man. Make no mistake, though. Pollard is not, and never has been, a hero and he deserves to be remembered as nothing but the criminal that he is.

John Kasich wants the United States Government to create an agency to spread ‘so-called ‘Judeo-Christian values.’

We are legally, morally, and practically obligated to respond. Let’s not do so stupidly.

Legislators in Spain’s Catalonia region took a step toward independence, but Madrid apparently wants nothing to do with it.

Give Jeb Bush a DeLorean or a TARDIS and he’ll be traveling back in time to Hitler in no time!

President Obama has apparently come to the same realization as many of his predecessors, that trying to craft a legacy by single-handedly bring about “Middle East Peace” is largely a waste of time.

In a new book, former President George H.W. Bush is highly critical of two of his son’s closest advisers in the White House.

After 30 years in prison, Jonathan Pollard will be released later this year.

In bringing Holocaust imagery into the debate over the Iran nuclear deal, Mike Huckabee has displayed the intellectual bankruptcy of his position.

There are mutual embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time in 54 years. It certainly took long enough.

For the first time since 1961, there will soon be an American Embassy in Havana, and a Cuban Embassy in Washington. It’s well past time that this happened.

A well-founded fear of ISIS seems to be drawing many of the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia closer to Moscow.

A thirty-seven year long drought is over.

Seymour Hersh is out with a conspiracy theory about the death of Osama bin Laden that just doesn’t make sense.

Ben Carson doesn’t seem to know much about foreign policy or history. And he doesn’t belong on anyone’s list of serious Presidential candidates.

The Atlantic has a fascinating cover story by Graeme Wood titled “What ISIS Really Wants.”

There’s not a whole lot the United States can do to respond effectively and proportionally to North Korea’s hacking attack against Sony.

Two potential candidates for the Republican nomination in 2016 traded barbs this week over the President’s new policy toward Cuba.

Rand Paul is one of the few Republicans who seems to be evaluating the new policy toward Cuba through something other than an outdated Cold War perspective.

The resumption of diplomatic relations between U.S. and Cuba, and expansion of some commercial trade ties, is historic but it’s only the first step toward the goal of ending an outdated embargo.

For a year that started out with regaining long-lost territory in Ukraine, 2014 is not ending so well for Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Russia’s own government is projecting that its economy will slip into recession next year. How that will impact Putin’s current belligerence remains to be seen.

The CIA has always separated its core spying and analysis functions; that may soon change.

Vladimir Putin’s reception at the G-20 Summit in Australia has been less than warm thanks to recent events in Ukraine.

Despite the conciliatory language after Tuesday, it’s unlikely that much will change in Washington in the next two years.

A disappointing setback.

The U.S. embargo of Cuba, and our lack of diplomatic recognition of the government in Havana, is an outdated relic of the Cold War. It’s time to end it.

In the current situation, speaking out forcefully as some are demanding can only do more harm than good.

Newly released documents reveal that Henry Kissinger wanted to attack Cuba in the mid-1970s.

The Khorasan Group is, functionally, al Qaeda. Or is it?

Even with the passage of time, Watergate remains a singularly important event in American history

Scottish independence may be more likely than many think.

The U.S. and Europe have announced a new round of sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis, but it’s not clear that the Russians will be motivated to change course.

History matters.

Relying on the policies of a man who was President in a very different time is not a substitute for a rational foreign policy.

George Will has come under criticism for pointing out what seems to be an undeniable fact.

If you live in Russia, you’re getting a different version of the story of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

Vladimir Putin has become immensely popular in Russia again, and its not hard to figure out why.

Rick Perry and Rand Paul are highlighting what looks to be a coming battle inside the GOP over foreign policy.