By now most people are familiar with the ongoing debate about how far government should be able to go in monitoring Internet communications. Such was the topic of a recent discussion at the Voice of America building in Washington, D.C. Judging by the remarks of the event’s panelists, especially those of Ambassador Philip Verveer, the State Department’s Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, there seems to be a considerable diversity of opinion within the government itself on the issue of cyber security. There are some very good reasons for …
In the three months since President Barack Obama released his first National Security Strategy (NSS), the news has been dominated by his responses to domestic problems—from the economy to the Gulf oil spill to more stimulus spending. And that focus on traditionally domestic issues is reflected in the 2010 National Security Strategy. At 34,314 words, the document is nearly twice as long as Bush’s 2006 edition (19,731 words) and nearly three times as long as Bush’s 2002 edition (12,745 words). The 2010 NSS is notable in that it dramatically changes …
In 2001, Kiron Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson edited a superb book that all friends of freedom, and of President Ronald Reagan, should read. Titled Reagan in His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America, it published a selection of Reagan’s daily radio broadcasts between 1975 and 1979. Reagan composed and wrote these broadcasts himself, and the book reproduces them just as he wrote them. They provide indisputable proof that Reagan gave lengthy, serious thought to the major issues of the day, …
As the Internet is used increasingly in Russia, the Kremlin is fighting to maintain control of Russia’s new media. According to a poll conducted by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) one in four Russians go online daily and nearly half of these web users go online for the purpose of checking the daily news. According to Eurasian studies expert, Paul Goble, access to the Internet reduces the ability of the Russian powers-that-be to control the messages the citizenry receives. Therefore, Moscow is considering adopting draconian …
February 12th marks the 201st birthday of Abraham Lincoln. There is much that we can learn today from this great champion of the Constitution and of the principles of the American founding. This is especially true today, when our founding principles are under relentless attack. Even in Lincoln’s time, these principles were “denied, and evaded, with no small show of success,” as Lincoln himself put it . Lincoln dedicated all of his public life to the preservation of these principles, and we should aspire to live up to his example. …
President Barack Obama launched his Cuban policy with some carrots for Fidel Castro’s regime. In April, he moved to lift many of the restrictions which hamper Cuban Americans from visiting and communicating with their families, and to cut through obstacles preventing private telecommunications and satellite radio and television companies from providing services to Cuba. Only eight months after President Obama offered to lift the restrictions on private communications companies, the Cuban government arrested a 60-year-old social worker and contractor, Alan P. Gross, from the Washington-based firm Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), …
Yesterday, an Army General penned an op-ed about why the Army needs a new combat vehicle. Most Americans would be shocked to learn that many soldiers serving in the U.S. Army today are riding around in vehicles built in the 1980s based on technology from the 1970s. While the rest of us are used to a fast-paced, information-accessible real-time culture of i-Phones, Blue Ray, portable video games, tablets to read books, and GPS in our cars, Army soldiers are stuck in the era of Atari. “The State of the U.S. …
One year after taking office, President Obama has yet to usher in the new dawn in relations with Latin America he talked about during his campaign. It was a huge promise, given his predecessor’s visits to the region, free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama, the newly created Millennium Challenge Account directing more effective aid to countries there, the Merida Initiative for fighting drugs in Mexico, and the continuing success of the Clinton-era Plan Colombia. Thus far, the Administration’s involvement with the Americas has been more reactive than proactive, dominated …
Of the many influences that shaped the American concept of liberty, the first and most formative was faith. More than anything else, religion formed the backbone of colonial culture and defined its moral horizon. This religious character was largely a product of the fact that many came to the New World in search of religious liberty—to freely practice and spread their faith. As a whole, America’s Founders were strongly religious. Thanksgiving proclamations, as official statements of the American president, underscore the Founders’ faith. Some were more traditional, such as John …
Sometimes the best-known lines of famous speeches are only indicators of the rest of their content. “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” may be the best known excerpt from President Reagan’s speech in Berlin, but the whole is well worth a read. Several paragraphs near the end especially highlight the significance of faith, love, and virtue to free society, and the totalitarian world’s self-destructive antipathy for these. Like that most famous quotation, these prophetic lines show too that successful statesmen must be sober realists about men’s ideals: In a word, …
