Standing With Saudi Arabia
How President Donald Trump has been forthright about the actual drivers of American policy in the Middle East
Harry S. Truman
Trump Is Crude. But He’s Right About Saudi Arabia.
On the strategic questions that matter in the Middle East, the president is cleareyed.
Op-eds
The Preeminent Challenge
The biggest foreign-policy challenge before Donald Trump isn’t North Korea, where the usual pattern of diplomacy and deception persists. Nor is it Russia; it doesn’t have the mus...
Op-eds
The Worst Thing for Iran’s Protesters? U.S. Silence
We are now six days into the Iran protests, and the questions that seized Washington during the 2009 pro-...
Op-eds
Defending the civilized world
In an inaugural address that was more purposeful than poetic, President Trump last Friday vowed to “unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate from...
Op-eds
Curb your socialism
Groucho Marx famously said he wouldn’t join any club that would have him as a member. Bernie Sanders last week turned that on its head, saying he wouldn’t remain a member of...
Op-eds
Can America change course?
As you watch the circus that is the 2016 presidential campaign, which candidate strikes you as having a coherent vision of national security for the post-Obama era? Who has told you what he (or s...
Op-eds
The Iranians “Arrest” Our Sailors, “13 Hours” Gives You Dots To Connect
Last night, we went to see a preview of the new documentary movie about Benghazi, “13 hours.” The audience was one of those Washington groups that contained real expertise, including...
Op-eds
Divided We Fall?
“Divide and conquer” describes an age-old military concept: If your enemies are fighting among themselves, they can’t effectively battle you. Phillip II of Macedon, Julius Caesa...
Op-eds
Memo to Presidential Campaign Advisers
This memorandum is addressed to the brave souls advising presidential candidates. As you know, the recent terrorist attacks in France – and in Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Lebanon, Turke...
Op-eds
Europe Needs Greece
The Greek debt crisis has become so complicated that we now have digests and timelines to guide us through the saga. In this spirit, the Bertelsmann Foundation recently released an infographic de...
Op-eds
Why the Media Always Gets Israeli Elections Wrong
The era of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [is] coming to an end,” read one ...
Op-eds
America Needs Its Rough Men
In spring 2009, I was invited to debate “torture” with Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show.” He gave me an opportunity to make a case with which he vehemently disagreed. He did...
Op-eds
Analysis: ‘One-Handed Economist’ Needed to End Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program
With Iran and the world powers meeting on Monday in Geneva for a new round of negotiations to end the Islamic Republic’s illicit nuclear weapons program, the question arises: How vulnerable...
Op-eds
Eisenhower’s New Fans
Barack Obama and Chuck Hagel look to the 34th president as a foreign-affairs model. But is it a willful misreading?
Op-eds
The Last Liberal: The Legacy of Joe Lieberman
In January 2004, the New Republic endorsed Joe Lieberman for president. By this time, recriminations against Democrats who had supported the Iraq War (or, in the parlance of the American...
Op-eds
Osama and the Two Nazirs
Their deaths are instructive.
Op-eds
Oliver Stone’s Party Line
Re-litigating the Cold War and defending the honor of poor old Joe Stalin.
Op-eds
Ban Ki-moon Over Tehran
Proof – as if more were needed – that the UN is broken beyond repair.
Op-eds
Jeane Kirkpatrick’s War
It was against totalitarianism. And it’s far from over.