Column Archive

If one had to choose the biggest loser in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, globalized free trade would be as good a place as any to start. Among Republican and Democratic candidates, free trade deals have become the red-headed stepchildren of the 2016 campaign. For the presidential bids of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, they are the biggest proverbial punching bags. Even Hillary Clinton, a long-time free trader and the presumptive Democratic nominee, has been forced to back away from her support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal. But much of the criticism of liberalized […]

The Obama administration recently released government information about civilian casualties from U.S. drone strikes targeting terrorists and violent extremists. The data was long-promised and long-awaited, but its release nevertheless received a tepid response from advocates for greater transparency. While the administration deserves some credit for finally acting on its own pledge, it’s clear that total transparency on this and other security issues is not an easy bar to clear. What’s more, it may not resolve disputes over policy and in some cases is not even desirable. Upon taking office, U.S. President Barack Obama set as an early goal “an unprecedented […]

Among his many mangled yet astute observations, the legendary New York Yankees baseball catcher Yogi Berra once noted, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” This is a dilemma that the architects of American security policy often face. Prediction is hard. But the time it takes to develop new military concepts, organizations and technology, added to the potentially catastrophic consequences of being unprepared, makes it imperative nonetheless. Exploring ways to identify possible futures demands creativity, but that is often rare in large, bureaucratic organizations, particularly inherently conservative ones like the military. To get around this, the Department of […]