Curtis Bowman

Barry Rubin on the "New" Arab Politics

Barry Rubin looks on as Arab politics goes forward into the past.

"He's merely the fifth worst"

Michael Lind of The New America Foundation makes the case that President Bush is only the fifth worst president in U.S. history.

A couple of months ago Lind published the most interesting article on the future of U.S. foreign policy that I've read in the past year or so. I've been meaning to link to it, but I just haven't gotten around to doing so until now. "The world after Bush" (as the article is called) appeared in the November 2006 issue of the U.K. Prospect.

You Can't Have a Foreign Policy If You Can't Pay For It

E. J. Dionne Jr. and Robert Samuelson look at some of the ways that the federal budget situation, among other things, is frustrating U.S. foreign policy.

Samuelson's column is mostly devoted to waning U.S. influence, but you'll see towards the end that he makes an interesting point about the size of Social Security and Medicare spending in comparison to military spending.

Greg Anrig on the Mess That Conservatives are Leaving Behind

Greg Anrig looks at the damage that conservatives have intentionally inflicted on the federal government during the past six years.

Fouad Ajami on the Old Order in the Middle East

Fouad Ajami reminds us that it was not naive idealism that motivated President Bush's Middle East policies. The old order, he says, was hardly inspiring and certainly not especially friendly to the United States.

Owen Matthews on Turkey's Bid to Join the EU

Owen Matthews of Newsweek reports on what seems to be the approaching collapse of Turkey's efforts to join the European Union.