American identity is key to understanding U.S. geopolitics

Go back to 2015. In the politically placid Obama years, the trends seemed logical, forwarding-looking, and strategic. America was pivoting to Asia, for China's rise was clearly a much greater threat to U.S. power than whatever might happen in the Middle East. It was signing a nuclear deal with Iran, for to have balance in …

The Many Scenarios of an (American) Republican Civil War

(This post originally appeared at American Politics Made Super) The Many Scenarios of a Republican Civil War In August 2016, I was penning an article titled “The Coming Republican Civil War.” The premise was simple: after a self-inflicted Trumpian defeat in November, the party of Lincoln would tear itself asunder assigning blame and shedding factions. But Hillary …

The World Without America

(Originally published in July 2013, this piece still feels relevant today as people debate whether the world would be better off, especially given President Trump, absent the United States.  It has been edited to reflect the more formal style the site has taken the past couple of years and includes both parts.  Enjoy!)   Let’s …

America Has No Deep State, And Egypt Helps Prove It

It's become the phrase of the week: the Deep State, a cabal of anti-Trump ideologues seeking a coup against a democratically-elected president hiding within the warrens of the CIA, State Department, and any other agency that can be labeled as "shadowy."  The reputed "Deep State" is the boogeyman of the Trumpistas frustrated that their president is …

The B+ Presidency of Barack Obama

The faded signs of "Hope and Change" still linger in the attics and closets of millions of Americans.  I still have my old campaign t-shirt; I worked the phone bank in 2008 in Arizona, where ubiquitous caller ID screens let people decide if they were going to thank me or shout at me before they even …

The Giant Awakes: The United States Begins to Reclaim Its Top Spot

The United States will not go quietly into the dark night. It has already started to fight back.

The Geopolitical Argument Against Gun Ownership

Guns don't make America more secure; its nukes and geography does.

The How To Guide of Defeating the Islamic State (Or: The Geopolitics of Defeating True Believers)

Defeating the Islamic State will require all the brutality of World War II and all the subtly of the Cold War. Here's how now the guide to the conditions that must be present before the Islamic State is defeated.

The Geopolitics of FIFA (Or: Dear Qatar and Russia, Money Can’t Buy You Power)

Both Qatar and Russia hoped to use the World Cup to build their up their soft power and shortcut development. But the international system headed by the United States was never going to make that easy.

The Baltic Republics, the Russians, And World War III (Or: What the Russians Can And Might Do To Estonia)

World War III is still remote, but that doesn't mean Putin won't skirt with it in the Baltic Republics.