William R. Hawkins

William R. Hawkins


  • Climate Changes Nothing in the Real World

    November 30, 2024

    Climate Changes Nothing in the Real World

    The United Nations has been looking for issues deemed larger than the perennial conflicts of traditional geopolitics. It created the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 to acquire the authority to run the global economy so as to “...

  • The UN’s Pathetic Attempt to Rule the World

    October 3, 2024

    The UN’s Pathetic Attempt to Rule the World

    The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) opened its 79th session on September 24 with a week of speeches by representatives of 134 nations (out of a total of 193 members states, with another 118 observer entities and organizations). The UN is ...

  • Keeping Aggression a Bad Idea

    September 14, 2024

    Keeping Aggression a Bad Idea

    At an event in Pennsylvania marking the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, President Joe Biden donned a “Trump 2024” cap handed to him by a Republican in the audience. The White House said this was a show of unity in the face of foreig...

  • National Capitalism, National Security

    August 21, 2024

    National Capitalism, National Security

    The American Enterprise Institute is generally considered part of the “conservative” network of think tanks working to influence policy in Washington D.C. Founded in 1938 by executives of major corporations in opposition to the New Deal, ...

  • Losing Wars, Not Winning Wars

    August 3, 2024

    Losing Wars, Not Winning Wars

    The liberal-left reaction to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent trip to Washington was negative for a simple reason: he is pursuing victory in the existential war against Hamas in Gaza amidst the larger regional confrontation wi...

  • Trump and the True Basis of Conservatism

    May 29, 2024

    Trump and the True Basis of Conservatism

    Once and future President Donald Trump addressed the Libertarian Party convention on May 25. He was reaching out to unify all who oppose a second term for Democrat president Joe Biden. It was not a success, as he was jeered and heckled. Disagreements...

  • As Debate Heats Up, the Masks Come Off

    May 4, 2024

    As Debate Heats Up, the Masks Come Off

    As campus protests turned violent, necessitating police operations to clear illegal encampments, the true agenda of the activists became apparent. Initially, the demonstrations were presented as saving innocent lives in Gaza with a cease-fire an...

  • UN Law of the Sea Gets Even Worse

    April 10, 2024

    UN Law of the Sea Gets Even Worse

    Recently, 60 Minutes ran a new plea for the U.S. to ratify the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). President Ronald Reagan rejected this convention then and, despite tentative efforts by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to rati...

  • December 13, 2023

    Trump, Dictators, and Policy

    The Left has charged every Republican President since Nixon with fascism. The two presidents Bush were major targets before the campaign against President Donald Trump. Trump made fun of this during a Fox News town hall with Sean Hannity. The once an...

  • November 27, 2023

    Endangering Civilians During Wartime

    The hostage-prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas is being called a “ceasefire” in the media, playing on the central demand of leftist demonstrators and others who favor the Palestinian cause. But the proper term is “truce,...

  • November 8, 2023

    The ANSWER Coalition of America’s Enemies

    The large protest against Israel and in support of the Hamas terrorists on November 4 in Washington, D.C. was primarily organized by the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). It has called for a wave of disruption across the country ...

  • November 1, 2023

    More than Anti-Semitism: We are All Targeted

    The wave of alleged “pro-Palestinian” demonstrations whose slogans embrace the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist group are routinely denounced as anti-Semitism. Certainly, the brutality of the attacks by Hamas on October 7, which were direct...

  • September 16, 2023

    Confusion on China

    There has been criticism of President Joe Biden’s rambling performance at his Hanoi press conference and not just from partisan outlets. But there was also substance, both good and bad, in his remarks that indicate two important aspects of the ...

  • August 15, 2023

    The Push to Trade with Enemies

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s attempt in Beijing to separate commerce from geopolitics, to promote private trade and investment even with nations that present threats to American security which include control of strategic industry and reso...

  • July 29, 2023

    Economics Belongs Within Geopolitics

    The Biden Administration has sent a parade of high officials to China who Beijing sees as supplicants seeking favor from their imperial court. The most glaring example was Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who is not properly a diplomat and certainly n...

  • July 5, 2023

    No Mercenaries, No Coup, No Peace

    A week after Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group made their abortive “march for justice” the mainstream media and their featured experts continue to repeat the same story using inaccurate terminology and shallow thinking. The result is...

  • June 18, 2023

    National Strategy and Culture Wars

    On June 7, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for more efforts to consolidate cultural confidence and boost “cultural prosperity.” This was at the opening of the first Forum on Building Up China's Cultural Strength, held in Shenzhen....

  • May 6, 2023

    Beijing's Peace Offensive Against NATO

    The People Republic of China has gained attention by promoting itself as a peace advocate in the Russo-Ukraine War. Yet, it should always be kept in mind that when Chairman Xi Jinping met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the issu...

  • April 19, 2023

    Macron Bows to China

    The respected German observer of American-European relations Josef Joffe has noted “Envy [is] the motive for resentment… with America embodying the might and glory Europe no longer has and therefore pretends to disdain.” “Pre...

  • March 25, 2023

    Isolationism: Unrealistic and Ahistorical

    Concern that some antiwar media personalities and backbenchers will ruin the Republicans as the party most faithful to a strong defense and foreign policy is not new. The conservative movement always has to contend with the libertarian (classical lib...

  • February 16, 2023

    Putin Relies on 'Fatigued' Republicans

    Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to blitz Ukraine back into a restored neo-Soviet Russian Empire failed quickly. The drive on the capital city of Kyiv collapsed, the assault on Kharkiv was turned back. Odessa on the Black Sea was never s...

  • January 20, 2023

    On National Security, Can the Center Hold?

    In domestic politics, the divisions roiling America enter new realms of extremism every week. From traditional economic issues to culture wars, hate speech dominates, the integrity of elections is questioned, civil disobedience is constant, and t...

  • December 27, 2022

    Beijing’s Acts Confirm Need for U.S. and Allied Buildups

    There is a strange but all too widespread coalition of left-wing anti-war activists and alleged “right-wing” isolationists trying desperately to dimmish any perception that Russia and China are working together against American secur...

  • November 17, 2022

    A Republican House in a Divided Government

    I was serving on the staff of the Republican Research Committee, part of the GOP House leadership structure in 1994 when the party won control in the midterm elections during Democratic President Bill Clinton’s first term. I continued to serve ...

  • September 21, 2022

    China Prepares for Another War of Conquest

    On “60 Minutes” President Joe Biden again said that the U.S. would defend Taiwan from an attack by China. He said he did not encourage Taiwan to declare its independence from the mainland, but that was mere diplomatic cover. Everyone, esp...

  • September 1, 2022

    Taiwan: Peace, Stability, and the Status Quo

    World politics dances to a three-step waltz: War, Peace, and Revolution; repeat. Wars are fought to create a better world for the victors. An improvement substantial enough to justify the cost of conflict, a calculation fraught with unknowns and subj...

  • August 9, 2022

    China’s Friends in America Rally to Its Saber-Rattling

    Beijing’s government owned and operated media launched an array of military threats in the days leading up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan that if carried out would have triggered a regional war, perhaps even World War III...

  • July 24, 2022

    Biden in the Middle East: No Shame in Wise Strategic Alignments

    In his Twitter feeds during his Middle East trip, President Joe Biden posted photos with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi “to reaffirm our shared commitment to the U.S.-Egypt strategic partnership.” He also tweeted a photo with President Sh...

  • June 17, 2022

    The Need to Rethink U.S.-China Business Relations

    The Shangri-La Dialogue was recently held in Singapore. This annual event, sponsored by the British think-tank International Institute for Strategic Studies, brings together ministers of defense and other government officials to discuss security...

  • May 24, 2022

    Giving Putin an Off-Ramp to Victory Lane

    The Institute for the Study of War has been providing expert assessments of the conflict in Ukraine. Its May 20 report included the observation that “Russian forces reportedly are holding defensive positions north of Kharkiv City following the ...

  • May 12, 2022

    The Return of a Powerful U.S.

    On May 3, President Joe Biden visited the Lockheed Martin plant in Troy, Alabama. He was there to thank the company and its workers for building the weapons being sent to Ukraine to defend against the Russian invasion, in particular the Javelin anti-...

  • April 2, 2022

    When Anti-War Means Pro-Aggression

    There is overwhelming unity among the U.S., its allies, and even normally unaligned nations against Vladimir Putin’s aggression. On March 2, the UN General Assembly voted 141-5 that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally with...

  • March 14, 2022

    Economic Warfare: Ukraine and Beyond

    President Joe Biden's announcement March 11 that the U.S. and its allies will revoke Most Favored Nation trade status for Russia should drive the final nail into the coffin of economic globalization theory.  So sacrosanct was MFN status...

  • February 18, 2022

    Chinese Strategy and Identity Politics

    The decision of Olympic gold medalist Eileen Gu to join the Chinese national team, though born and raised in the U.S., had drawn criticism even before Nikki Haley called her out. The former governor of South Carolina declared, “You’ve got...

  • December 17, 2021

    Want to Hear Chinese Communist Propaganda Right on Your Own Radio?

    I recently spent a few days in Northern Virginia visiting friends from my two decades working in Washington, D.C.  While driving around the Beltway, I happened upon WCRW, 1190 AM, a radio station in Leesburg with 50,000 watts of power, enou...

  • September 3, 2021

    Biden’s Other Military Collapse

    A post-mortem is needed on President Joe Biden’s decision to make a hasty withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan. The resulting debacle will haunt us because of his simplistic concept of what war is about -- a blunder he has made n...

  • August 11, 2021

    Trading with the Enemy is Wrong

    The Navy and Marine Corps have kicked off their two-week Large Scale Exercise 2021, a massive effort that spans 17 time zones, to test their vision of how to conduct war on a global scale against peer competitors. Such an operation is reminiscent of ...

  • June 17, 2021

    Foreign Policy: Continuity Versus Partisanship

    The hyperpartisanship of the last five years has posed a threat to national security by dividing the American people and distorting how foreign policy is discussed. The “resistance” mounted by the Democrats against President Donald Trump ...

  • May 31, 2021

    The Democrats and Iran: Worse Than Appeasement

    The liberal media approached the latest outbreak of violence in the Middle East as a renewal of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, if not a return to the Arab-Israeli Wars of half a century ago. Former president George W. Bush, however, saw the si...

  • March 29, 2021

    If Democrats Ever Get Our Guns, They'll Get Our Freedom, Too

    To celebrate their origins, the Republican Party holds Lincoln Day dinners, and the Democrats until recently held Jefferson-Jackson dinners.  Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the third U.S. president, has fall...

  • March 16, 2021

    The Real World of 'Vaccine Nationalism'

    There are some policies so clearly in the national interest that they have survived the hyperpartisanship of the presidential transition from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. An example was provided at the March 10 meeting of the World Trade Organization...

  • December 18, 2020

    Climate Ambitions Worse than Climate Change

    The December 12 Climate Ambition Summit 2020, it did not receive much attention, nor did it deserve to. The UN holds a major climate conference at the end of every year under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. (UNFCCC). Se...

  • December 3, 2020

    Could Biden Maintain Trump’s Legacy of Strong Alliances?

    By 2017, the old Cold War alliances had become moribund. The centerpiece North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had seemingly lost its purpose with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign to reassert Mos...

  • November 20, 2020

    China Hopes for a New Era of Appeasement

    On Friday the 13th, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) congratulated Joe Biden on his win in the 2020 presidential election even as the results were still being contested in the U.S. The statement issued by Beijing’s Foreign Ministry wa...

  • November 2, 2020

    Fall of Another Venerable Magazine: The Economist Veers Hard Left

    The cover of the October 29 issue of The Economist displayed its endorsement in the U.S. presidential race: "Why it has to be Biden" under the image of a tattered American flag flying from the White House.  The magazine is based i...

  • September 29, 2020

    The 'Peace Movement' Embraces China

    The Chinese Communist Party media outlet Global Times was happy to report that an international forum of thirteen “peace groups” and assorted academic fellow-travelers had been held to protest the opening of a new U.S.-led Cold War agains...

  • September 9, 2020

    The WTO Should Continue to Fade Away

    Roberto Azevedo stepped down as director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on August 31, becoming the first to do so before the end of his term. Azevedo's surprise announcement was made in May, and the Brazilian was in the third year ...

  • July 30, 2020

    China is all in for shutting down the US economy over COVID

    Xinhua News Agency, a state-run outlet of the People's Republic of China, reported on July 25 that "Over 150 U.S. experts urge decision makers to shut down country before starting over."  Beijing would love to see it...

  • July 1, 2020

    Quisling Conservatives

    At a time when the Left has “progressed” from calling for socialism in the face of an economic boom to calling for the defunding of police in the face of mob violence, anyone not knee-deep in the fever swamp of radicalism should be rallyi...

  • June 2, 2020

    This Bird Won’t Fly: the Fate of the Left-Winged Phoenix

    When I was a student at the University of Illinois, the various left-wing groups formed an umbrella organization called the Radical Union. They hung posters of Marx, Lenin, and Mao on their office walls. Their emblem was a phoenix rising from the ash...

  • April 21, 2020

    China Backs Democratic Resistance to President Trump

    Democratic governors are forming regional blocs to resist President Donald Trump’s efforts to get the American economy moving and put people back to work. They have picked up a powerful ally, one that should give the public cause for alarm. On ...

  • March 3, 2020

    Trump Was Right to Let Turkey Advance in Syria

    The outbreak of direct combat between Turkey and the Syrian regime of Basher al-Assad has shown the wisdom of President Donald Trump's strategy in the area. He took considerable flak for pulling American troops out of northern Syria last October....

  • February 26, 2020

    Why the Greens Love the Coronavirus

    Wall Street's two-day panic, which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average drop 1,911 points (6.8 percent), was sparked by the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.  It is not just that the virus is spreading to lands far beyond its origin in C...

  • January 11, 2020

    Deterrence is Peace Through Strength

      Both Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump came into office with the desire to end the long wars America had been fighting in the Middle East. Both had been opposed to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. President Obama chose the standard isol...

  • January 6, 2020

    Reduced Tensions with China Unlikely in New Year

    The new year brings hope in business and liberal/establishment circles that tensions between the United States and the People's Republic of China are "de-escalating."  President Donald Trump will sign the Phase One trade agree...

  • December 24, 2019

    The Real World Intrudes on the UN Climate Conference

    The leading Democratic candidates for president are still wedded to some form of "Green New Deal" to combat climate change as the progressive heirs of King Canute.  As the Los Angeles Times has reported, Joe Biden's $1.7-trill...

  • December 5, 2019

    Donald Trump, George HW Bush, and China

    On November 22, in a long interview with Fox News, President Donald Trump claimed credit for keeping Chinese forces at bay in Hong Kong. He said that he warned President Xi Jinping that if there was a violent crackdown against the pro-democracy demon...

  • August 27, 2019

    Business Must Adjust to Great Power Rivalry

    “Order? Somebody should tell Chairman Trump this isn’t the People’s Republic of America,” thundered an editorial in the Wall Street Journal on August 23. What prompted this diatribe was President Donald Trump's tweet ...

  • August 9, 2019

    True American Nationalism Is Inclusive

    When the New York Times dropped a factual headline because of partisan complaints (including criticism from several Democratic presidential candidates), it proved again that the liberal media is no longer even pretending to be an objective source of ...

  • July 24, 2019

    The Democrats Posture over NATO

    The U.S. House passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2020 on July 12. It contained strong support for NATO as a deterrent to Russian aggression with some surprisingly tough language that went beyond the passage last ...

  • July 10, 2019

    Should U.S. Health Care Depend on China?

    Two new books expose the health dangers posed by the import of pharmaceuticals from the People's Republic of China. The dependence of America's medical system on products of questionable quality does not just endanger patients today, but risk...

  • June 13, 2019

    Friedrich List, China, and Economic Nationalism

    "We ask, would not every sane person consider a government to be insane which, in consideration of the benefits and the reason­ableness of a state of universal and perpetual peace, proposed to disband its armies, destroy its fleet, and demol...

  • May 29, 2019

    The Left Doubles Down on Defense Cuts

    On May 23, a coalition of left-wing groups sent an open letter to all the announced Democratic candidates for president calling for major cuts in U.S. defense spending. Under the banner of “Put People Over the Pentagon,” the 22 groups sai...

  • May 17, 2019

    This is Truly a Trade War

    The trade negotiations between the Trump administration and the People's Republic of China (PRC) are not rooted in commercial disputes. Though media discussions are dominated by issues about opening markets for U.S. exports limited by Chinese pol...

  • May 7, 2019

    Would Green Socialism Shut Down e-Commerce?

    A few weeks ago a long essay appeared in The New Republic by staff writer by Emily Atkin titled "Breaking up Amazon Won’t Solve Its Climate Problem: The tech giant changed how Americans buy stuff. It will have to do so ...

  • April 25, 2019

    Going Green and Socialism

    In response to New York City mayor Bill de Blasio's threat to make glass and steel skyscrapers "extinct" because “They have no place in our city or our Earth anymore,” the New York Post ran a cartoon depicting the mayor...

  • April 17, 2019

    Trade, the Left, and Trump

    While working in Washington during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, I was part of an effort to build a bipartisan coalition to reform American trade policy; or more precisely, formulate one. International trade was an issue that cut acros...

  • March 25, 2019

    Rep. Omar and the New Flock of Congressional Doves

    For the cover photo on its current issue, Rolling Stone gathered together House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) under the headline "Women Shaping the Future....

  • February 4, 2015

    The Lowest Form of War

    President Barack Obama has again provoked criticism of how he talked about terrorist acts in the immediate wake of the brutal execution of Jordanian air force pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh by the sell-proclaimed Islamic State (IS). This follows earlier...

  • November 14, 2014

    No Agreement in Beijing -- Just a Surrender

    The media is calling the U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change made by President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing  an "agreement", a term that invokes the idea of mutual obligations. It is also fr...

  • November 7, 2014

    GOP Ovecomes Libertarian Plot

    In 2013, Democrat Terry McAuliffe won the governor's race in Virginia with 47.8% of the vote against Republican Ken Cuccinelli who took 45.2%. Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis captured 6.5%, enough to make the difference on the safe assumption...

  • October 8, 2014

    'Madame Secretary' Avoids another Benghazi

    "Madam Secretary" is a new TV drama that follows nearly appointed Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord (played by the very attractive Tèa Leoni). In the third episode that aired Sunday, a hacker leaks the names of three dozen undercov...

  • August 27, 2014

    Unilateral Disarmament and the Police

    Over the weekend, the New York Times ran a lengthy article on how President Obama and liberals in Congress are planning to "review" the policy of providing local police with surplus military equipment. This is supposedly because politicians...

  • August 5, 2014

    CAIR, ANSWER, Hamas and Terrorism

    The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) poses as the voice of moderate Islam to protect the Muslim community in the United States from any unjustified backlash that could be sparked by terrorist attacks committed by radical jihadist groups t...

  • June 24, 2014

    2014 is not 2001

    Over the weekend, prominent lawmakers hyped the case for military action against ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) by arguing that if the radical Sunni insurgent group establishes itself in Iraq and/or Syria it will launch new terrorist att...

  • June 10, 2014

    Who is the Most 'Bloodthirsty' Enemy?

     Brian Beutler, a senior editor at The New Republic, claimed in a column Friday (June 6) that the GOP was "overreaching" in its criticism of President Obama for trading five Taliban leaders for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. He acknowledged that ...

  • June 4, 2014

    China's Unbelievable Hacking Denials

    Jeane Kirkpatrick once said of the Soviet diplomats she dealt with at the United Nations, "They lie. Even when everyone in the room knows they are lying, they lie." The same can be said of those who serve the Communist regime in the People...

  • March 25, 2014

    The Great Illusion Debunked Again

    In Monday's Washington Post, Robert Samuelson noted how the Ukraine crisis "confounds and contradicts one of the hopeful axioms of conventional wisdom. The presumption -- rarely stated openly but widely believed -- has been that the growing ...

  • March 4, 2014

    Bastiat, Obama, and the Russians

    The early 19th-century French radical Frederic Bastiat proclaimed, "I shall not hesitate to vote for disarma­ment because I do not believe in invasions." Bastiat is sometimes unwisely quoted by conservatives because of his opposition to...

  • March 1, 2014

    Losing the Middle East to Iran (and Russia)

    On Tuesday, the BBC opened its news with an account of Syria's expanding offensive against Yabrud, a key rebel stronghold near the Lebanon border. If it falls, a major supply line for those seeking the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad dictatorshi...

  • February 21, 2014

    Secretary Kerry: Leadership for a New Dark Age?

    There was hopeful speculation that when President Barack Obama delegated to Secretary of State John Kerry the task of evaluating the long-stalled Keystone XL pipeline on "national interest" criteria it would lead to approval of the project, to smooth...

  • January 16, 2014

    Should America Realign with Iran?

    On Sunday it was announced that a deal had been reached to implement the interim agreement with Iran on suspending its nuclear program. Since the agreement was negotiated late last year, the ground has been laid in the media for the acceptance of the...

  • November 19, 2013

    Greens on the Rampage in Poland

    A recent video clip shown on the BBC demonstrated the fundamental foolishness and ignorance of the so-called environmental movement. Green activists unfurled a large banner on the side of a building in Warsaw asking "Who rules Poland: the coal indust...

  • October 30, 2013

    No Demagoguery Needed

    At the end of last week, conservative news media reported on Census Bureau data showing that there were more people on welfare in the United States than there were people with full time jobs at the end of 2011. This is alarming news, but there is als...

  • October 6, 2013

    Failure of Appropriations Process Led to Shutdown

    At a press conference held by Senate Democrats on October 2, Majority Leader Harry Reid asked reporters, "What right did they [Members of the House of Representatives] have to pick and choose what part of government is going to be funded?" The answer...

  • March 3, 2011

    China Returns as North Korea's Defender

    In his opening remarks at the Jan. 19 White House press conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao, President Barack Obama said, "I told President Hu that we appreciated China's role in reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and we agree...

  • March 2, 2011

    China Tightens Control Over Its Raw Earths Industry

    On Monday (March 1) environmental standards governing the production of rare earth minerals where issued by the Chinese government. Rare earths, which consist of 17 elements, are essential for high-tech industries ranging from wind turbines and hybri...

  • February 28, 2011

    China Alleges Western Plot to Spread Turmoil Beyond the Middle East

    Beijing gave some support to the uprising in Egypt because it would weaken an ally of the United States at the center of the Arab coalition against China's ally Iran. But as the rebellions have spread, the Chinese regime has become uneasy. Libya, ...

  • February 25, 2011

    USAF Buys American (Finally)

    On Thursday, the Department of Defense awarded a $35 billion contract to build 179 new aerial refueling tankers to Boeing. Aerial refueling is the key to America's global power projection capability, but the U. S. Air Force is dependent on tankers...

  • February 23, 2011

    New Intel Report on the Threat of Chinese Air Power

    The testing of China's new J-20 stealth fighter last month, which garnered international attention because it took place during Defense Secretary Robert Gates' visit to Beijing, was not an isolated event but the sign of something larger. There has...

  • February 11, 2011

    Mubarak Takes the Measure of the Mob

    What would have been gained had Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned as anticipated Thursday? Would the mob in Tahrir Square have gone home so Cairo could return to normal? Or would the protesters have smelled blood and made more demands tha...

  • February 6, 2011

    Hate America. Hate the Superbowl

    It has long been established since the early days of William F. Buckley and National Review that one of the advantages the right has over the left is that is has a sense of humor and its followers get more enjoyment out of life.  In contrast,...

  • February 1, 2011

    Bandow's False Flag Budget Debate

    Doug Bandow of the libertarian Cato Institute has called for large, if unspecified, cuts in defense spending in Forbes magazine. He starts his argument "The U.S. government is effectively bankrupt. The deficit this year will run $1.5 trillio...

  • January 29, 2011

    Channeling Neville Chamberlain to Appease China

    Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is the international business editor of the London Telegraph.  His views are fairly orthodox conservative, as are the editorial positions of his newspaper.  But in his lengthy January 23 column, Evans-Pritchard went ...

  • January 23, 2011

    Framework of Iranian Nuclear Talks Guaranteed Istanbul Failure

    In diplomacy, the framework within which governments think can determine the course of events as much as any negotiations. Consider the seven-nation Istanbul meeting Jan. 21-22 to discuss Iran's nuclear program. Baroness Catherine Ashton, the high...

  • January 17, 2011

    Newest Nonsense: Hu JintaoToo Weak To Do America's Bidding!

    The New York Times continues to look for ways to justify the continued appeasement of Communist China. With President Hu Jintao coming to Washington for a state visit Wednesday, there is a need in liberal establishment circles to downplay expectat...

  • January 12, 2011

    Gates and China's leaders

    Secretary of Defense Robert Gates met with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on January 11. The meetings followed Monday's session between Gates and Gen. Liang Guanglie, China's minister of defense. After the meeting with P...

  • January 6, 2011

    Hailing Violent Criminals as Political Prisoners

    I was visiting Duke University earlier this week and picked up a poster for a January 12 rally to celebrate the birthdays this month of several "political prisoners" who are called 'freedom fighters" by the rally organizers, the I...

  • December 30, 2010

    China Preparing for War in 'Every Strategic Direction'

    Peter Foster, a Beijing-based correspondent for the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper, has reported on an interview with Defense Minister Gen. Liang Guanglie published by several state-run media outlets in China. The People's Liberation Army officer ...

  • December 22, 2010

    Chinese government defends control of Catholic church

    A spokesperson for the People's Republic of China's State Administration for Religious Affairs said on Wednesday that the Vatican's criticism of the recent National Congress of Chinese Catholics was "imprudent and ungrounded."  The...

  • December 20, 2010

    China and Russia Continue Cold War Backing of North Korea

    Based on secret U.S. State Department cables from 2009 and early 2010 provided to it by WikiLeaks, the liberal British Guardian newspaper ran a story Nov. 29 claiming, "China has signaled its readiness to accept Korean reunification and is pr...

  • December 16, 2010

    UN Climate consensus failing

    Japan played a major role in undermining the Kyoto Protocol at the recent UN climate conference in Cancun, Mexico. Tokyo declared that it would not commit to a second period of Kyoto after 2012 unless all other major economies were required to mak...

  • December 10, 2010

    China Calls Nobel Prize Ceremony a 'Farce'

    Ever since the October announcement that the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize would go to Liu Xiaobo, Chinese officials, the state-controlled media, and "patriotic" bloggers have condemned the Norwegian Nobel Committee for honoring a "criminal...

  • December 7, 2010

    China defends growth principle at climate talks

    As the UN climate conference moved into its second and final week in Cancun, Mexico, China said it would not compromise on issues of principle. Su Wei, the chief Chinese negotiator told the state-run Xinhua news agency, "I think we can cooper...

  • December 3, 2010

    Establishment Voices Call for Appeasement

    As tensions have risen in Asia, Establishment voices are coming to China's defense. Writing for The New Republic Dec. 2, Joshua Kurlantzick, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, argued that "China can't fix North Korea, so don't ask...

  • December 2, 2010

    UN Proposal to Prosecute the U.S. for "Ecocide"

    The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conference, which opened in Cancun, Mexico on Monday, has yielded another example of how supposedly idealistic notions concocted by Western liberals, no matter how daft, can be transformed into weapon...

  • November 29, 2010

    The Old World Order Continues

    The December issue of Foreign Policy magazine features an essay by Parag Khanna, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, which asks " How's That New World Order Working Out ?" The timing could not be better. A U.S. carrier s...

  • November 23, 2010

    Russia-NATO summit: Not as positive as portrayed

    The spin given to Russia's participation at the NATO summit in Lisbon has been positive in Western government and media circles. President Barack Obama referred to President Dmitri Medvedev as " my friend and partner." and said " mo...

  • November 18, 2010

    Repudiated at the Polls, Will the Left Resort to Violence?

    Cliff Kinkaid, editor of Accuracy in Media, penned a column this week that warns of a leftward move towards violence in the wake of the Tea Party-Republican victories in the Congressional elections. His focus was nationally syndicated cartoonist T...

  • November 15, 2010

    Iran and Nigeria terrorism

    Writing in this week's Defense News, Efraim Inbar, a Political Studies professor at Bar-Ilan University and the director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, argues, A nuclear Iran would strengthen its hegemony in the strategic energy ...

  • November 10, 2010

    Obama Should Build on Bush Legacy, Not Lie About It

    In Indonesia, President Barack Obama continued to attack a straw man as if he were still on the 2008 presidential campaign trail. He proclaimed that America was not at war with Islam, and that he was trying to overcome "mistrust" which h...

  • November 7, 2010

    Obama's Trade Offensive Cannot Solve Unemployment

    The New York Times published an op-ed by President Barack Obama on Friday to coincide with his trip to Asia. It was entitled "Exporting Our Way to Stability."  In the wake of Republican victories in the midterm elections prompted by ...

  • November 4, 2010

    Voters Were Not Seeking a Weaker America

    In October, the United Kingdom under its new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition announced drastic cuts in the armed forces, reducing the number of warships, tanks, artillery, and aircraft, to help reduce the budget deficit. Last week, the conse...

  • October 28, 2010

    China Provoking Moves to Contain Its Aggressive Rise

    After meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara in Hawaii Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she will press China to clarify its policy on the export of rare-earth minerals which are essential to the production of high-...

  • October 25, 2010

    Chinese Professor Ad Highlights Cause of America's Decline

    Citizens Against Government Waste is running a powerful new one minute ad on how bad economic policies in Washington can change the balance of power in the world to the benefit of foreign rivals. The "Chinese professor" ad is set in the ...

  • October 21, 2010

    Taiwan Sees China's Heir-apparent as Hard-liner

    The Communist Party of China held its Central Committee meeting Oct. 15-18. The first steps were taken on drafting the ruling party's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) which envisions continued high growth to cement its place as the world's second l...

  • October 19, 2010

    NATO defense cuts endanger US security

    There has been virtually no discussion of defense and foreign policy in the debates leading up to the November Congressional elections even with American troops fighting overseas. Politics is dominated by questions of taxing and deficit spending in a...

  • October 15, 2010

    China seeking to exploit American economic woes

    The state apparatus of the People's Republic of China continues its tirade against the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed democracy activist Liu Xiaobo. On Thursday, an official organ of the ruling Communist Party focused its attack on al...

  • October 11, 2010

    Why China Sees the Nobel Prize as a Threat

    The Beijing regime has been very direct in its condemnation of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11 year prison sentence. On Oct. 9, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu stated,  Li...

  • October 7, 2010

    UN Climate talks fail on another issue

    The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is conducting talks all this week in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. Delegates from 190 countries are taking part. It is the last conference before the UNFCCC tries again to write a binding,...

  • October 5, 2010

    Turkey may find shift toward Iran costly

    On Monday, Turkish State Minister for Foreign Trade Zafar Caglayan repeated that Ankara will not allow non-UN sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe to hamper its business with Iran. "Turkey will act in line with UN decisions. But decisions ...

  • September 28, 2010

    China blames US for dispute with Japan

    Though the Chinese fishing boat captain detained by Japan after ramming two coast guard boats returned home over the weekend, tensions remain high between Beijing and Tokyo. The underlying dispute over the islands called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku b...

  • September 27, 2010

    Ignore China's partners

    In an early draft of his Farewell Address, President George Washington wrote, "we would guard against the Intregues [sic] of any and every foreign Nation who shall intermeddle (however indirectly and covertly) in the internal concerns of our cou...

  • September 23, 2010

    A Belated Reaction To China's Rare Earth Threat

    Beijing denied reports Thursday that it was blocking exports to Japan of  "rare earth" minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines, computers, and aircraft, but the raising of the issue was itself a form of pressure on To...

  • September 20, 2010

    Anglo-American Influence Threatened

    Last week's issue of Defense News ran a front page story headlined "Big Firms Hunker Down, Cut Jobs and Costs" in anticipation of reduced military production that will be promoted by the Obama administration supposed effort to reduce govern...

  • September 15, 2010

    China vs. UN goals in Africa

    United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited world leaders to attend a summit at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 20-22 to assess progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals set out in 2000. The MDG are to ...

  • September 9, 2010

    China asserts need for a 'carrier killer'

    The 2010 annual report from the Secretary of Defense to the Congress on the "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China" was released in late August. One of the more controversial findings in the report w...

  • September 1, 2010

    Withdrawal or Redeployment? China Fears the Latter

    In his speech to the nation Tuesday night, President Barack Obama raised concerns that America is not just withdrawing combat troops from Iraq, but is withdrawing from world affairs and turning inward. He said, Unfortunately, over the last decade, we...

  • August 26, 2010

    China's Cold War mentality

    Chinese officials and the state-run media constantly accuse the United States of exhibiting an outdated "Cold War Mentality" in regard to Asian security issues. Two editorials this week in the ruling Communist Party's publication Global ...

  • August 17, 2010

    China Cheers as Russia Fuels Iran's Reactor

    Attempts by the Obama administration to "reset" relations with Russia have included the unilateral suspension of near-term plans to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe; the signing of the bilateral START arms control agreement;...

  • August 11, 2010

    Navy backs Clinton diplomacy

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sparked strong Chinese protests when she told month's meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that America has "a national interest in freedom of navigation, open acces...

  • August 9, 2010

    Tories to cut military spending

    There is no question that the economy of the United Kingdom is in trouble and that excessive government spending and debt have tipped the country in the direction of Greece and Spain. Last month, the International Monetary Fund lowered its 2011 ...

  • August 4, 2010

    Looking for Copenhagen repeat, climate conference opens in Bonn

    The third round of UN "climate change" negotiations this year kicked off on Monday with representatives from 178 governments meeting in Bonn, Germany. The conference runs August 2-6 and is being attended by over 3,000 government delegate...

  • August 2, 2010

    Two Priorities: Fiscal Responsibility and National Security

    As European governments try to reduce their budget deficits under pressure from financial markets, it is not just the social programs responsible for runaway spending that are being cut. Defense programs are also being reduced. In America, a push ...

  • July 24, 2010

    Tensions in Asia still include Taiwan

    A new report indicates that China may increase the missiles it has deployed against Taiwan from 1,600 to 1,900 by year's end, a sign of continuing tensions stemming from Beijing's goal of capturing the island. While Americans were celebrating th...

  • July 21, 2010

    Downsizing the Navy's Industrial Base

    Northrop Grumman announced July 13 that it will close Avondale Shipbuilding in New Orleans and wants to sell its other two naval shipyards, Newport News in Virginia and Ingalls in Mississippi. The United States only has eight naval shipyards and Nort...

  • July 14, 2010

    Google surrenders to China

    China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology confirmed over the weekend that the license for Google to operate in the country had been renewed for one year. The renewal was granted to Beijing Guxiang Information Technology Co. Ltd., ...

  • July 9, 2010

    Russia flexes its muscles while swapping spies

    The mainstream media has reflected the Obama administration line that the Russian spy swap is a sign of improving relations between Washington and Moscow. The New York Times on July 9 reported the espionage caseEvoked memories of ...

  • July 8, 2010

    China Winning a Victory at Sea

    China is flexing its muscles at sea in Northeast Asia, taking advantage of perceived US weakness. So far, the US response has reinforced the Chinese view. Tensions have been rising in the region. The issue is not just North Korea's nuclear weapons pr...

  • June 14, 2010

    UN Amb. Rice unaware that Security Council approved Brazil-Turkey Iran deal

    Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was on Fox News Sunday to defend the Obama administration against the charge that the sanctions resolution against Iran passed on June 9 is tougher than reports have alleged. Her discussion ...

  • June 11, 2010

    Chinese oppose US carrier deployment

    In a speech to the Asia Society June 9, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed dismay over China's failure to support U.S. and allied calls for punishing North Korea over its sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean ...

  • June 10, 2010

    Western liberals help radicalize Turkey

    Israel and Turkey had been considered regional allies since the two signed a military cooperation accord in 1998. Israeli companies upgraded Turkish fighters and tanks. Ankara ordered rockets, electronic equipment, and unmanned aircraft from Is...

  • June 6, 2010

    Tech Cooperation With India, Not China

    The joint statement issued at the end of the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue on June 3 did not mention China as a mutual security concern. Direct references to conflict situations were limited to countering terrorism and restoring stability to Afghanis...

  • June 2, 2010

    First U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue June 1-3

    The latest round of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue was held in Beijing, May 24-25. President Barack Obama added the State Department as co-chair with the Treasury for the biannual meetings which started in 2006. The broadened fra...

  • May 28, 2010

    Chinese desire a 'soft landing' for Korean crisis

    In an exclusive interview with the BBC aired Thursday, China's new ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming commented on the mounting tensions following North Korea's sinking of a South Korean warship. When asked if he thought the situation...

  • May 22, 2010

    Taiwan's President seeks closer economic ties with Beijing

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  • May 13, 2010

    Tory Euro-skeptics' time has come

    The "Draft letter from Foreign Secretary to Prime Minister" leaked to the British media sets out the timely change in United Kingdom policy towards the European Union that the new Conservative government intends to implement even though its...

  • May 7, 2010

    White House knows illegal immigration fuels unemployment

    In the expectation that the unemployment rate won't change much from the 9.7 percent March figure when new April numbers are released Friday, David Wessel wrote a pessimistic column that appeared in The Wall Street Journal on May 5. In it he a...

  • May 2, 2010

    Economic Policy Protests: U.S. versus Greece

    May Day protests in Greece turned violent, with rioters throwing Molotov cocktails and stones at police, who responded with tear gas. Leftists and who the press called "anarchists" smashed shop windows and set up burning barricades in Athen...

  • April 27, 2010

    China Asserts Its Naval Ambitions

    Last week, warships of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) sailed through what Chinese strategists call "the first island chain" that links Japan to Taiwan, the Philippines, and Malaysia. The units from the East Sea Fleet included the ...

  • April 21, 2010

    China and Iran not intimidated

    China has preferred to let other governments take the public lead in resisting U.S. pressure for new sanctions on Iran. At times Germany and Russia have served that purpose. So, President Hu Jintao was happy to let Brazilian President Luiz Ina...

  • April 14, 2010

    UN Climate battle resumes

    Bad ideas can be beaten back, but they never truly go away, especially if they have deep-pocket backers and an institutional structure as massive as the United Nations. Those who breathed a sigh of relief when the UN Climate Conference in Copenh...

  • April 8, 2010

    China thinks it has the winning hand

    The collapse of the Soviet Union led many in the 1990s to proclaim the unassailable superiority of the democratic-capitalism model. The financial crisis that threw the Western economies into recession, with high unemployment and mounting fiscal defic...

  • April 2, 2010

    China wants US and Russia to disarm

    When President Barack Obama announced a new nuclear arms limitation treaty with Russia March 26, he opened his remarks by saying, "Since taking office, one of my highest priorities has been addressing the threat posed by nuclear weapons to the ...

  • March 25, 2010

    Don't blame Teddy Roosevelt for nationalized health care

    President Barack Obama's attempt to blame Teddy Roosevelt for the massive Federal health care program adopted last week, over a century after TR left office, does not hold water. The allegation is an attempt by a Democratic President to find a Republ...

  • March 18, 2010

    China's hard line on economics

    On March 15, a bi-partisan group of 130 House members sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke urging them to immediately address the growing problems associated with China's fixed exchange rate. Accordi...

  • March 14, 2010

    Global Warming and Cold War Thinking

    China sees climate change as another opportunity to help topple the United States from global preeminence, which remains its primary strategic goal in world politics.On March 7, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi held a press conference at the 3rd ...

  • March 6, 2010

    Levin a better choice than Stark for Ways and Means

    The passing over of Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) in favor of Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) as chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee has policy implications during a time of high unemployment. Stark had seniority over Levin and was also chair o...

  • March 2, 2010

    Legalizing Chinese espionage?

    For its first segment Sunday night, CBS's "60 Minutes" looked at Chinese spying in America. Correspondent Scott Pelley asked Michelle Van Cleave ,"When it comes to espionage against the United States, is China now the number one thr...

  • February 24, 2010

    US-China relations souring over Taiwan, Dalai Lama

    On Feb. 23, China's Foreign Ministry held a longer than usual press conference that concentrated on the growing diplomatic tension with the United States. The Chinese attitude expressed on a number of issues indicates that relations are not going...

  • February 15, 2010

    Does Obama finally understand Bush?

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen are touring the Middle East to build support for stronger action against Iran in the wake of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Feb. 11 proclamation that his country ...

  • February 1, 2010

    Obama administration green lights Taiwan arms sale

    On January 29, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) released Congressional notifications for arms sales to Taiwan worth $6.4 billion. The list of weapons systems included in the package is a legacy from the Bush administration. The...

  • January 24, 2010

    Obama plotting a domestic counterinsurgency strategy?

    In The New York Times Saturday, Jeff Zeleny and Peter Baker reported on how President Barack Obama is moving to centralize control over Democratic party strategy in the wake of Senator-elect Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts. What was striking w...

  • January 18, 2010

    Haiti's problem isn't imperialism

    Left-wingers around the world are claiming that the reason the earthquake did so much damage to Haiti is because "Western imperialism" kept the island poor and saddled with corrupt and incompetent rulers. Rather than cite the hundreds of ne...

  • January 6, 2010

    While US disarms, Russia and China build up their military

    In this week's issue of Defense News , Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, warns, "Stagnation threatens U.S. arms superiority." After noting recent tests by Russia and China of new nuclear-armed missiles, ...

  • December 29, 2009

    The left embraces 'Avatar'

    Anyone who thinks I may have overstated the left-wing message in the movie "Avatar," which grossed another $75 million over the Christmas weekend, should read the column by David Swanson posted at the "progressive" website OpEdNe...

  • December 24, 2009

    Avatar: Cameron's Contradictions Loom Large

    Filmmaker James Cameron is famous for blockbusters like Titanic and The Terminator. His latest movie, Avatar, just opened after a massive media blitz during which Cameron himself hit the talk show circuit, along with his on-screen stars. Since the hi...

  • December 22, 2009

    Climate change row breaks out between UK and China

    A public dispute has erupted between the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China over who is to blame for the general failure of the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen. Ed Miliband, who is Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change i...

  • December 17, 2009

    China defends human progress in Copenhagen

    The Green campaign for imposing a drastic reduction in human economic activity and energy use has always relied on extreme rhetoric threatening Armageddon if certain proposals are not adopted. The UN Climate Conference has been no exception. As th...

  • December 9, 2009

    'While there is a Rupee left...'

    On a surprise visit to Kabul Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the United States "will never turn our back" from Afghanistan. Gate's trip to the war zone came only a week after President Barack ...

  • December 6, 2009

    Sudan Despot Embraces 'Climate Justice' in Copenhagen

    Villains are flocking to climb on the fraudulent global warming bandwagon. On November 23, Stephen Sackur interviewed Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad on his BBC television show "Hardtalk." Mohamad is Sudan's ambassador at the United Nation...

  • November 17, 2009

    Obama's Copenhagen Suicide Pact

    In their joint message on climate change negotiations released Nov. 13, President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pledged "to reduce our own emissions by 80% by 2050 and endorse a global goal of reducing emissions by 50% ...

  • October 23, 2009

    China-India Accord to Scuttle UN Climate Treaty

    On October 22, an accord was signed by Xie Zhenhua, China's vice minister at the National Development and Reform Commission, and Jairam Ramesh, India's environment minister, in New Delhi. The memorandum provides an alternative framework to counter pr...

  • October 1, 2009

    World Rejects Planetary Panic

    President Barack Obama resorted to the same tactic at the United Nations last week that he has been using at home in the health care debate. He has escalated the rhetoric as political support has collapsed. At the UN Climate summit Sept. 22, Presiden...

  • July 15, 2009

    The Green Suicide of the G-8

    Chinese President Hu Jintao left the G-8 summit before the international conference had tackled the issue of climate change. He was needed at home as violence raged in Xinjiang province as the Uighur protested against being made a minority in their o...