(A) National Defense and Foreign Policy

Isolationism Makes a Perilous Moment More So A

By Paul A. Gigot - Nov. 12, 2023

Principles of Government · December 2, 2023 ·

By Paul A. Gigot – The relevant questions are: How did we get here? And what to do about it? The answer to the first question is that we forgot the lesson of history. One of my military mentors was Andy Marshall, the legendary Pentagon strategist, who liked to say that peace is best understood as an interlude between wars. Robert Gates issued a similar warning as he retired as defense secretary in 2011 when he said that, when wars end, the U.S. always makes the mistake of drawing down defenses and leaving ourselves vulnerable. We ignored him. So what do we do about it? The obvious initial answer is to spend more on defense, and soon. But that is the easy part; we know the policy solution. The harder issue is finding the political will to do it, while persuading adversaries that we are credible enough to restore American deterrence. As we have learned in Ukraine and now in the Middle East, U.S. deterrence has faded. And the world’s rogues are on the march. Read More

Dostoevsky Knew: It Can Happen Here AA

By Gary Saul Morson - Oct. 18, 2023

Principles of Government · October 26, 2023 ·

By Gary Saul Morson – Cruelty often thrives among the sophisticated. Dostoevsky recalls the French terror, when people were humiliated and murdered in the name of the highest principle…. during the Stalinist terrors millions were routinely tortured … and that during the collectivization of agriculture, millions more were deliberately starved to death, with young Bolshevik idealists brought in to enforce the famine…. In the West, intellectuals justified such behavior because it was done in the name of socialism …Dostoevsky adds that there is no need to resort to examples from the past because the same dynamic can occur in any place at any time that allows the dark side of human nature to show itself, clad in the language of whatever passes for progressive and enlightened. “Believe me, the most complete aberration of human hearts and minds is always possible.” Read More

How China Could Turn Crisis to Catastrophe A

By Walter Russell Mead - Oct. 23, 2023

Principles of Government · October 24, 2023 ·

By Walter Russell Mead – A war over Taiwan would devastate the economies of both Asia and the globe….the most important international development on President Biden’s watch has been the erosion of America’s deterrence. The war in Ukraine and the escalating chaos and bloodshed across the Middle East demonstrate the human and economic costs when American power and policy no longer hold revisionist powers in check. Washington’s attention is understandably fixed on the threat of a wider Middle East war…. But if the erosion of America’s deterrent power leads China and North Korea to launch wars in the Far East, it would be a greater catastrophe by orders of magnitude. Read More

A World Without American Deterrence A

By Walter Russell Mead - Oct. 19, 2023

Principles of Government · October 24, 2023 ·

By Walter Russell Mead – Why are so many actors challenging American power in so many parts of the world? Because the U.S. is losing its power to deter….the erosion of deterrence usually begins gradually and ends suddenly. Emboldened by American failures to respond effectively (as when Mr. Putin invaded Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, when President Obama failed to enforce his “red line” in Syria, or when China built and militarized artificial islands in the South China Sea), our adversaries gradually lost their inhibitions and dared to challenge us more directly in more damaging ways. Read More

Isolationism Makes a Perilous Moment More So A

Dostoevsky Knew: It Can Happen Here AA

How China Could Turn Crisis to Catastrophe A

A World Without American Deterrence A

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(A) National Defense and Foreign Policy

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Characteristics of Government

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