President Obama’s push for lame-duck Senate ratification of his New START arms treaty ran into a brick wall when Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, a GOP arms-treaty expert, announced that he opposes a floor vote before the new Congress is seated in January 2011, when a more extensive, detailed exploration of treaty issues can be conducted. Sen. John Kerry intends to press Read More ›
This article, published by Blogger News Network, references Bruce Chapman of Discovery Institute: Bruce Chapman of the Discovery Institute in Seattle has asked all the right questions about a recent Russian media report suggesting that Russian killers have been dispatched to the United States to execute a former Russian spy. The rest of the article can be found here.
The most infuriating argument made on behalf of those (mostly Democrats) pushing for the Senate to ratify the New START Treaty signed by President Obama last April is on verification. The argument is that because existing verification provisions under prior START treaties lapsed December 5, 2009, senators should ratify New START to restore verification, else there will be no verification at Read More ›
Discovery Institute Fellow Claire Berlinski is featured this week on National Review’s Uncommon Knowledge. Check back to National Review’s website daily to catch each segment. The program’s website is linked below. http://tv.nationalreview.com/uncommonknowledge/
Earlier this summer tensions exploded in the Middle East as Israel defied a flotilla sent from Turkey to Gaza to break Israel’s shipping blockade. Some think Turkey’s political atmosphere is shifting from one of established secularism to one in step with the Islamism of its neighbors, notably Iran. New Discovery Institute international relations fellow Claire Berlinski provides a revealing look at the Read More ›
With the help of prognosticator John R. Miller — former U.S. ambassador-at-large on modern slavery, visiting scholar at the Institute for Government Studies at UC-Berkeley, and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute — we present this memo from the year 2016, which explains what misfortunes might have befallen the Middle East by then. SBU (Sensitive but Unclassified) February 20, 2016 Read More ›
Istanbul — I moved here five years ago. In the beginning, I was sympathetic to the argument that Turkey’s ban on headscarves in universities and public institutions was grossly discriminatory. I spoke to many women who described veiling themselves as an uncoerced act of faith. One businesswoman in her mid-30s told me that she began veiling in high school, defying her Read More ›
Pew Research has come out with its latest sampling of international public opinion, espousing the prevailing establishment view: that people in foreign countries like Obama and as a result like the United States — although perhaps not as much as a year ago — and that such opinion benefits us, especially in comparison with the era of George W. Bush. Read More ›
The world is not yet paying much attention, but ships apparently departed Khorramshahr, Iran on June 12, bound for Gaza. Iran is threatening to retaliate if Americans, or, presumably, Israelis, attempt to stop them on international waters. That is likely to spark a new crisis at sea. Lebanese ships, possibly linked to the Iran-sponsored terrorists, Hezbollah, also appear to be headed to Gaza. Israel Read More ›
In the euphoria the Obama administration feels upon attaining final agreement with Russia on the New START Treaty, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke of how American and Russian strategic arms reductions have set an example for others to follow. Yet shortly after that announcement, Iran aired one of its own: The regime plans to build additional nuclear plants. Our Read More ›
This article, published by the State Department, thanks Discovery Institute: I want to thank the Discovery Institute and the American University in Moscow, and Ed Lozansky in particular, for the opportunity to reflect on U.S.-Russian relations with you today. The rest of the article can be found here.