The make-up of the new Congress might make it easier for President Obama to tack toward a more responsible foreign and defense policy, but that’s not likely to happen. The major flaws of American foreign policy arise from the White House—and the elections forced no change there. Read Here – The National Interest
Read Here – Pew Research
Math skills in America are falling and reading skills are weakening, writes David Edwards, and asks whether American children have become less literate than children in many developed countries as they learn within a system of educations devised for a world that increasingly does not exist. Read Here – Wired
Barack Obama has been more at ease waging wars than in waging peace. He has proved to be one of America’s most militarily assertive Presidents since World War II Read Here – The Hindu
Hillary Clinton is widely expected to run for president again in 2016, letting political observers move on from the usual will-she-or-won’t-she to another, more nuanced parlor game: When will she announce her candidacy? Read Here – Time
In the 13 years since 9/11, Americans have grown accustomed to the ambiguity of U.S. efforts to deter, disrupt, and preempt the threats posed by a shape-shifting cast of terrorist groups. The ebbs and flows of America’s inexorable counterterrorism campaigns have produced a tangled web of terminology. Read Here – The Atlantic
After six years in office, Obama broadcasts his world-weariness with wan gestures and pauses, with loose moments in the White House press room. The world has stubbornly denied him his ambition to transcend its cruelties, pivot smartly to the East, and “do some nation-building here at home.” Obama’s halting cool at the lectern now reads […]
From Word War I to Iraq, it has always been about the United States poking its nose into other people’s business… Read here – National Interest
Why would China fear a nation it could traumatize tomorrow by dumping its debt or shifting its iron ore, coal and copper orders elsewhere? That’s a good question for the United States to ask itself. Read Here – Bloomberg
President Obama’s instincts about Iraq and Syria have been sound from the beginning: Greater U.S. engagement probably cannot make things better but certainly can make them worse, both for the people of the region and for our national interests. Read Here – Washington Post
looking beyond borders 