Obama To Fill Key Posts In Weeks, Hagel On Pentagon Short List

President Barack Obama is expected to announce his nominees for secretaries of state and defense in the next two weeks, with former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel on the short list of potential choices to head the Pentagon, senior administration officials said on Tuesday. Hagel, whose appointment would give Obama’s reshuffled second-term Cabinet a bipartisan cast, […]

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Obama’s Moment

In foreign affairs, the central challenge now facing President Barack Obama is how to regain some of the ground lost in recent years in shaping U.S. national security policy. Historically and politically, in America’s system of separation of powers, it is the president who has the greatest leeway for decisive action in foreign affairs. He […]

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China and the Awkward Embrace

After a first term and a reelection campaign that dwelled on the ills China has caused the U.S. economy, President Barack Obama now must turn to the more difficult business of engaging with China’s new leadership and translating rhetoric into policy. Given the weak economy of the past four years, a preoccupation with harmful Chinese […]

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Obama Said Set to Name National Security Team in Weeks

President Barack Obama may announce his nominees for secretaries of state and defense and head of the CIA in the coming weeks, according to an administration official. Former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican, is among Obama’s top candidates to head the Pentagon, replacing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. […]

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An American President in the Age of Globalization

The announcement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in October 2009 that Barack Obama had won the Peace Prize came as a surprise to just about everyone, including the recipient. The president, barely nine months into his new job, knew that the award was an encouragement of his aspirations, not recognition of his accomplishments. He said […]

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The Exorcist

After a hard campaign against Hillary Clinton, Bobby Jindal has emerged as America’s next president in 2016. An essay from the future. The date is November 8th, 2016. Polling stations have closed and the outcome of the US presidential election is becoming increasingly clear: the first African-American president isn’t succeeded by the first female president, […]

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Kerry Is the Right Choice to Lead U.S. Diplomacy

For all the talk of tax increases and debt-cutting, President Barack Obama’s biggest and most- revealing decision this year may be which candidate he chooses to be his new secretary of state. It will tell us whether the president allows comfort to trump qualification. The two candidates are Susan Rice, the U.S. envoy to the United […]

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Strategy in a Time of Austerity

Over the next decade, the U.S. military will need to undertake the most dramatic shift in its strategy since the introduction of nuclear weapons more than 60 years ago. Just as defense budgets are declining, the price of projecting and sustaining military power is increasing and the range of interests requiring protection is expanding. This […]

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Predicting the Future Is Easier Than It Looks

Before Billy Bean and the sabermetric revolution upended baseball and ushered in a new era of statistically driven baseball analysis, old-timers insisted that the young eggheads and their spreadsheets were no match for a time-worn scout. Experience, gut feeling, and a sense of the intangible qualities that make up a quality prospect — these were […]

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