What Power Still Gets Wrong on Humanitarian Intervention: A Review of Samantha Power’s The Education of An Idealist
In “The Education of an Idealist,” Samantha Power comes across as a compassionate person with generous impulses. These attributes cannot by themselves determine policy on the question of humanitarian interventions.
David L. TubbsJuly 17, 2020
Obama and Trump’s Mistakes in Syria: Green Lights and Red Lines
As we continue to sift through the shrapnel of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull US troops out of Syria and green-light Turkey’s long-planned operations against Syria’s Kurds and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria, we need to keep in mind that what transpired in October represents only the short-term consequences.
Alan DowdNovember 6, 2019
Obama’s Internationalist Moment: Review of HBO’s The Final Year
HBO’s The Final Year traverses the globe, from Africa to the Arctic, Havana to Hanoi, but it is in Syria where the cockfight personified by Samantha Power and Ben Rhodes climaxes. Indeed, President Obama claims that “on no other issue was there such a split” between them.
Matt GobushMarch 12, 2018
Obama’s First Months as Commander in Chief and On the World Stage: A Retrospective As We Assess Trump’s Early Foreign Policy
As we assess Trump’s early foreign policy moves and first international tour, it helps to look back upon Obama’s. Here, then, are passages from A Perilous Path.
Anne R. PierceJune 5, 2017
The Obama Administration’s Feckless, Heartless North Korea Policy
It is past time to take North Korean crimes against humanity and the North Korean military threat very seriously.
Anne R. PierceApril 24, 2017
The Libya Intervention: A Just War Unjustly Disowned
It is said that victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. In the case of NATO’s military intervention in Libya six years ago, both sides of the adage seem to apply.
Matt GobushApril 19, 2017
Politics, Motives and Prisoners
I believe Obama’s motives in trying to close Gitmo were to improve America’s image abroad. It’s sad that, even after eight years in office, he never gave those who opposed the closure of Gitmo the same benefit of the doubt.
Alan DowdFebruary 3, 2017
Obama’s Farewell Address: Goodbye to All That
Despite his flowery promises about “hope and change,” Obama entered office embodying the most ambivalent view of American power since the end of the Vietnam War.
Joseph LoconteJanuary 9, 2017
Indicted by His Own Words
President Obama’s foreign policy would have been more understandable if he had never pretended to care, if he hadn’t talked like Vaclav Havel and then acted like Henry Kissinger.
Alan DowdDecember 30, 2016
