Journal of International Studies

Whether we Americans like it or not, there is a profound struggle for control over our nation’s foreign policy in the Middle East. Push has finally come to shove, with the unseemly sight of Israeli government officials and AIPAC lobbyists  fanning out on Capitol Hill  to actively discredit the Obama’s administration’s attempt to craft a deal with Iran to bring the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program back under comprehensive international safeguards. After being supported for decades by tens of billions in American taxpayer dollars, free defense equipment, and unquestioning and limitless political support on countless occasions, Israel has shown its gratitude by biting the hand of its principal benefactor. All Americans both in and out of government would do well to consider an abiding truth in the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program: there is no military solution to this problem. Iran has the money, technical capability, and the infrastructure to build a nuc...

In 1972, Duke University professor James David Barber brought out a book that immediately was heralded as a seminal study of presidential character. Titled   The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House , the book looked at qualities of temperament and personality in assessing how the country’s chief executives approached the presidency—and how that in turn contributed to their success or failure in the office. Although there were flaws in Barber’s approach, particularly in his efforts to typecast the personalities of various presidents, it does indeed lay before us an interesting and worthy matrix for assessing how various presidents approach the job and the ultimate quality of their leadership. So let’s apply the Barber matrix to the presidential incumbent, Barack Obama. Barber, who died in 2004, assessed presidents based on two indices: first, whether they were "positive" or "negative"; and, second, whether they were "ac...

Much is being said and written about the impact of the government closure and debt crisis on everything from workers’ salaries, to the availability of statistics that are critical for the management of businesses and farms, to the slowing of economic growth, to the weakening of America’s overall financial position at home and abroad. There has been far less focus on effect of the Washington stalemate on American national security, not merely in terms of the size, shape and composition of the defense budget, but, more generally, on international perceptions of American stability and reliability in light of the scorched earth policies of the Tea Party and its Congressional sympathizers. It is not just that foreign diplomats, officials and analysts echo a common question and a uniform manta about what has been going on in Washington, the question being, “what is wrong with you people” and the mantra, “you have all gone mad.” It is that the ability of the military to engage with its co...