OPINION
February 1, 2012 | By Rosa Brooks
Is America in decline? Is our global influence waning? Expect that question to get plenty of airtime as the presidential campaign heats up. According to the Republicans, President Obama's fundamental foreign policy problem is that he thinks America is a fading power and all we can hope for is to "manage the decline. " It's a claim that's long been echoing through the conservative blogosphere, and now the campaign trail. John Bolton, who's joined Mitt Romney's foreign policy team, minces no words: Obama "believes that the role of America in the world is to be a well-bred doormat.
OPINION
January 6, 2012
Budgetary necessity may have been the mother of President Obama's reinvention of military strategy, but that doesn't mean the change is reckless or even imprudent. After the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and with the winding down of the American presence in Afghanistan, it's time for new thinking. In an appearance Thursday at the Pentagon, Obama unveiled the recommendations of a Defense Department study group that he said would produce a military that is "agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats.
NEWS
July 29, 2011 | By Ken Dilanian, Washington Bureau
The U.S. is "doubling down" on its strategy of covert targeted missile strikes in Pakistan in the wake of Osama bin Laden's death, believing that Al Qaeda is susceptible to a decisive blow, a senior Obama administration official said Friday. "I think there are three to five senior leaders that if they're removed from the battlefield, would jeopardize Al Qaeda's capacity to regenerate," said retired Gen. Douglas Lute, who oversees Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy at the National Security Council.
OPINION
June 15, 2010 | James K. Galbraith
In American public discourse, national security is the first refuge of scoundrels. For six decades good and dreadful ideas alike have been buttressed by claims that they will help make us secure. President Eisenhower used the claim to promote spending on highways and education. President George W. Bush used it to justify wiretapping and torture. Now deficit hysterics have started trilling the national security song to justify a coming attack on Social Security and Medicare. In late May, the Obama administration released its National Security Strategy, a wide-ranging and broadly sensible 60-page document articulating a full menu of economic, human rights and environmental foundations of a strong security policy.
OPINION
June 6, 2010 | Doyle McManus
When Barack Obama arrived at the White House, he quickly acted on the foreign policy promises he'd made in his presidential campaign, drawing up a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, seeking diplomatic "engagement" with adversaries such as Iran and North Korea, and trying to "reset" the contentious U.S. relationship with Russia. But until last month, he hadn't laid out his broader approach to the world beyond our borders. Now he has, in the recently released National Security Strategy, a lengthy essay required by Congress.
NATIONAL
May 27, 2010 | By Paul Richter, Tribune Washington Bureau
The Obama administration on Thursday released a sweeping statement of its national security goals, emphasizing a strong counter-terrorism effort but also citing the importance of government action on issues such as climate change and the economy. The 52-page manifesto, called the National Security Strategy, aims to draw contrasts with President Bush's 2006 version, which focused heavily on the anti-terrorism fight, and began by saying, "America is at war." The Obama plan says that the government campaign against radical extremism is "only one element of our strategic environment and cannot define America's engagement with the world."