Outside the Beltway

An IR theory that is often misapplied in my view (especially by certain kinds of practitioners).

Shooting down cheap drones with expensive missiles is problematic in more ways than one.

Western intelligence services are sounding the alarm.

Will POTUS listen?

The long-awaited document is less disruptive than it appears on the surface.

A slow-moving disaster.

An actual move to acquire Greenland by force or coercion would be a massive line for the Trump administration to cross.

And what application does it have to Venezuela in 2026?

Sure, Donald. Whatever you say.

Ukraine’s president is trying to negotiate a deal that Russia will surely reject.

Don’t tell me there’s no hope at all

With a heavy dose of Christian nationalism.

Come for the shots fired at the cabinet, stay for the weird digression.

A minor, yet telling, example of the intellectual maturity of this administration.

The public is much less concerned than you are.

A four-pronged test.

A long and unusual speech has implications for civil-military relations.

People are weird.

To be fully human requires living with and in sometimes unresolvable contradictions

If President Trump sends unwanted military force into American cities, the one thing we should not act is surprised.

There’s a vast difference between someone getting dogpiled on social media and the most powerful man in the world using the machinery of the state to eliminate dissent.

A very different way to run a railroad.

Town hall meetings are a relic of a different age.

If any other president…

…but don’t let the Epstein matter distract you from everything else Trump is doing.

The artless deal.

The Russian autocrat may be on the verge of getting what he wants.

The last survivors want us to remember the horrors of nuclear war.

Trump’s One Weird Trick to end the war in Ukraine.

An unusual diplomatic approach.

Where are we with my concerns about the Trump administration?

Is dropping it on Israel the most likely reason?

Thinking about possible outcomes.

Not really posts, but hey, here they are anyway.

Spoiler alert: the joke wasn’t funny

The bromance is apparently over.

Terrorism in Colorado. Continued awful violence in Gaza.

What Trump and DOGE hath wrought.

Who could have known?

The Asia pivot is happening very slowly.

USA! USA! USA!

Will the Netanyahu government double down on its weakening of Iran?

The ineptitude is staggering.

You know, the meritocracy at work.

Our leaders are afraid to lead.

Insights into Trump’s worldview.