All in all, I don’t think Barack Obama has been a very good president. In a new updated version of my book, Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, being published this fall, I rank him 34th of 41 presidents rated. His further...

The release of Glenn Greenwald’s new book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State, has been the occasion for a media storm: Greenwald is all over the place, from Colbert to "Democracy Now," and there is much new material...

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ad-Dawla al-Isl·miyya fi al-‘Ir·q wa-sh-Sh·m) claimed responsibility for several bombings in Baghdad today. Today is the anniversary of the birth of Imam Ali, who is a central figure in the schism between Sunnis and Shi’ites. At least 60 people were killed and 119 more were wounded in the capital and elsewhere.

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Make no mistake: it’s been the year of Edward Snowden.  Not since Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War has a trove of documents revealing the inner workings and thinking of the U.S. government...

Is overwhelming national military power a reliable source of influence in world affairs? If so, the United States should certainly have plenty of influence today. For decades, it has been the world’s Number 1 military spender. And it continues in this role. According...

As 2014 commenced, the media was awash in the events leading up to WWI a hundred years previously: the diplomatic miscalculations, power plays, honor pride, and other human frailties in an ineluctable march to hostilities; all with a vain conceit that it could not...

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) is now, according to reports, killing more Syrian rebels than is the Syrian army. This is the group that has taken over parts of Anbar province and is attempting to take over more or Iraq. They are also known as ad-Dawla al-Isl·miyya fi al-‘Ir·q wa-sh-Sh·m (DAASH). Although there were fewer reports from Anbar today, there were plenty from other provinces. At least 47 people were killed and 80 more were wounded.

As the Ukraine "crisis" captured the attention of the US public, a unique poll was taken by a team of political scientists: they wanted to know how many Americans could locate Ukraine on a map – and how this related to their view of what the US reaction...

In several eastern Ukrainian towns over the past week, the military opened fire on its own citizens. Dozens may have been killed in the violence. Although the US government generally condemns a country’s use of military force against its own population,...

It’s rare to hear a government official speak in contrite tones; rarer still if that official represents the National Security Agency.  Recently, however, Anne Neuberger, a special assistant to former NSA Director Keith Alexander, did just that. A year of...