Principles Of Government

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This site is designed to generate ideas for a supplementary section on think tank websites.
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(A) Articles are foundational content and (B) Articles are urgently important but may be replaced as they become dated

(Foundational) Russia and Europe

What Went Wrong After 9/11 AA

By William A. Galston Sept. 8, 2026

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By William A. Galston Sept. 8, 2026 – A series of errors over a quarter-century leaves the U.S. in dire need of rebalancing…. On Sept. 10, 2001, the U.S. was at the peak of its post-Cold War dominance. Our response to the attacks … began a process that diminished our status, step by step…. the decision to wage expensive wars in the Middle East while cutting taxes disrupted the … hard-won return to fiscal discipline. … our excessive focus on the Middle East diverted us from the most important foreign policy challenge of the 21st century—the rise of China. Read More

America’s Success Against Iran May Prove a Distraction

By David H. Petraeus April 15, 2026

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By David H. Petraeus April 15, 2026 – War is increasingly defined by unmanned systems, artificial intelligence and mass precision. The Gulf offers useful insights, but Ukraine is the more demanding laboratory. There, the true challenges of unmanned systems at scale and the rapid emergence of autonomous capabilities are already on display….The Ukraine war involves remotely piloted systems, electronic warfare, layered air defenses and relentless adaptation. …This is industrial-scale warfare, in which success depends less on exquisite platforms than on mass, resilience and constant innovation. Read More

There’s a New Way of War, but Is It Evolution or Revolution? AA

By Yaroslav Trofimov July 7, 2026

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By Yaroslav Trofimov July 7, 2026 – The key feature of the war between Russia and Ukraine, and likely of other major conflicts to come, is that what used to be cutting-edge weapons and technologies becomes outdated within months. “If you have an adaptive adversary, it’s the speed of iteration and the rate of learning that matter, rather than the technology per se,” Mosley added….One example of adaptability is Ukraine’s new procurement system for drones, which account for over 90% of enemy losses, electronic warfare systems and some other key weapons. It is fundamentally different from how Western militaries, with their centralized defense budgets, operate. Read More

The World War II Lesson for DOGE AA

By Arthur Herman - Dec 9, 2024

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By Arthur Herman – A Trump revolution is poised to unleash the innovative and productive power of the private sector, transforming the federal government. If it happens, Americans will witness the most significant change in the operation and philosophy of governance in 120 years. Fortunately, the precedent for this kind of transformation occurred more than 70 years ago, when American private industry mobilized to win World War II. Read More

Henry Kissinger on Power and Morality AA

By Walter Russell Mead - Dec. 4, 2023

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By Walter Russell Meade – Kissinger understood something that too many Americans, on the left and right, find difficult to grasp: Power and morality aren’t opposites. Rather, power is the platform that makes moral action possible for a state. And morality isn’t a set of rules and laws that states are expected to obey. Rather, in international relations, morality involves creating an order that prevents the anarchy and slaughter of great-power warfare. Such an order gains legitimacy not by its perfect adherence to a religious or secular moral code, but by its ability to preserve values and conditions that allow civilizations, and the human beings who inhabit them, to flourish. Read More