Having led seminars on strategy at the National War College, I would have failed any student who produced President Trump’s new National Security Strategy. It is unworthy of a democracy, particularly one that has so successfully allied with other democratic states to bolster collective security and advance shared interests. Until Trump, America’s security strategy has […]
DATE-TIME GROUP: 071800ZDECEMBER25 FROM: EMBASSY OF FREDONIA, WASHINGTON, D.C. TO: MFA NAGADOCHES CLASSIFICATION: CONEOFSILENCE // FREDONIAN EYES ONLY SUBJECT: SITREP 020 “THE FREDONIA PROJECT” – OBSERVATIONAL DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA IN CRISIS 1-07 DECEMBER 2025 SUMMARY: IN ACCORDANCE WITH MFA DIRECTIVE 1826-APRIL-1, THIS EMBASSY HAS INITIATED A REGULAR SERIES OF ANALYTICAL DISPATCHES REGARDING THE INTERNAL DYNAMICS […]
“(T)he Secretary’s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.” As a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in charge of Security and Information Operations, I can attest to the fact that in our nation’s history, never has a more damning […]
My colleague Charles Ray, commenting on the dire condition of the U.S. Foreign Service reflected in the December 3 2025 report by the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), rightly emphasized that the current hostile Administration’s savaging of the Service is a self-inflicted wound, damaging the United States. But what is this Foreign Service? How does […]
At first glance, the December 5 announcement that national parks will be “free to honor the President on his birthday” may seem trivial — a bit of political theater, perhaps, or an unserious flourish meant to provoke. It is easy to shrug and move on. We should not. In the long and saddening record of […]
Diplomacy as we know it is fading fast if Congress doesn’t act. During Donald Trump’s first term as president (2017-2021), he was in constant conflict with what he termed the ‘Deep State,’ one component of which was the U.S. Department of State. His ‘art of the deal,’ impulse-driven approach to foreign policy was often at […]
Over the weekend of November 8-9, the New York Times published an article examining the Trump administration’s latest personnel purge, without explanation, of almost two dozen senior uniformed military officers. This represented significant negative implications for democracy, civil-military relations, and a non-political uniformed military. However, there is another negative consequence of such purges — the […]
Soldiers in uniform on a Moscow street. ()Photo by Sergey Beschastnykh on Unsplash) Until just recently, Washington, DC was always one of my favorite places to visit. When in the nation’s capital, it was hard not to think about the concept of democracy. I mean, after all, this city is sort of the ‘cradle of […]
A report prepared by the American Foreign Service Association, released December 3, 2025. “America’s global leadership depends on a strong, professional diplomatic workforce. But in 2025, the U.S. Foreign Service faces an unprecedented crisis. Personnel losses, political interference, and the erosion of America’s soft power have pushed the diplomatic corps to a breaking point—just as […]
Now that Trump and Musk’s “foreign aid replacement” has been shuttered, it’s time to tally the damage. The official end of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was as abrupt as its creation. Born from a presidential signature, amplified by a Musk tweet and justified with vague claims about “saving billions,” the operation has been […]