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A Preview to Obama’s Final UN Speech

Obama

President Obama’s September 2009 speech at the United Nations General Assembly implicitly rejected both the idea that the United States has done anything exceptional for political freedom, and the idea that political freedom is an appropriate priority for US foreign policy. The speech instead emphasized shared “interests” and “collective action”; indeed, the words interests and collective appeared…

Why I Wrote ‘A Perilous Path’

Iran Protests 2009

At about the time of President Obama’s first inauguration, I began to compile material for a book on the foreign policy speeches of presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush. I felt no urgency. But as the foreign policy approach of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was articulated and put into…

Obama’s Reluctant, Specious Return to Deterrence

Obama’s Reluctant, Specious Return to Deterrence

The Obama administration is playing an impossible game of catch-up. Having degraded America’s defenses and alliances, deemphasized America’s democratic principles and priorities, and delayed taking responsibility, it finds itself in a world so dangerous and hostile that it has no choice but to respond. With the world, in former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s own…

The Power of Words in American Foreign Policy

Words from Obama, Kerry and Biden

Responding to Donald Trump’s bombastic rhetoric, Marco Rubio recently said, “The problem is presidents can’t just say anything they want. It has consequences here and around the world.” Positioning herself as “kind” compared to combative Republican opponents, Hillary Clinton recently said, “Boy does it matter, when you are president, what you say, and how the…

Obama’s American Values Charade

Obama's American Values Charade

AP File Photo / Carolyn Kaster As 2015 comes to a close, our president is improbably reborn. Although he has advocated moral and political relativism by elevating adversaries, demoting democracies, ignoring human rights, downplaying American principles, and questioning American exceptionalism, he appears to have had a change of heart. Formerly reticent and skeptical about such…

Iran Nuke Deal’s Upside-down Logic

Iran Nuke Deal's Upside-down Logic

When do peace plans make war more likely? When does respect for adversaries increase their disrespect for us? When does “non-proliferation” lead to a build-up of arms? When does compromise become capitulation? When does diplomacy for the sake of peace enable aggressors, human rights violators and sponsors of terror instead of rein them in? When…

The Past as Prologue in Iran Nuclear Negotiations

Despite talk of a possible breakthrough, the latest news on Iran nuclear negotiations rings an ominous, familiar bell. Dangerous compromises have been added to dangerous compromises. New “deadlines” have surpassed old deadlines, rendering the word meaningless. Extensions of deadlines have been extended further. And Iran, not the United States and its allies, has benefited and…

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