So much for the “bold and aggressive diplomacy” with Iran that presidential candidate Barack Obama promised. Eight months after Tehran unleashed a murderous repression of anti-regime protesters — to a mostly timid response from Washington — Team Obama now believes that Iran is becoming a military dictatorship. So says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, currently touring the... 

By Patrick Buchanan Republicans already counting the seats they will pick up this fall should keep in mind Obama has a big card yet to play. Should the president declare he has gone the last mile for a negotiated end to Iran’s nuclear program and impose the “crippling” sanctions he promised in 2008, America would be on an escalator to confrontation that could lead straight to war. And... 

By Catherine Philp Gasps echoed through the Nobel Hall in Oslo yesterday as Barack Obama was unveiled as the winner of the 2009 Peace Prize, sparking a global outpouring of incredulity and praise in unequal measure. Mr Obama was sound asleep in the White House when the Norwegian Nobel Committee made the shock announcement. It said that he was being honoured for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen... 

By Holly Bailey Big news from the West Wing: Mark Lippert, one of President Obama’s closest foreign-policy advisers, is leaving to rejoin the Navy. Lippert, who is deputy national-security adviser and chief of staff of the National Security Council, has worked for Obama since his first days in the Senate and later advised him during the campaign. Perhaps no one on the foreign-policy team, save... 

// < ![CDATA[ NG_AddEvent(window, 'load', NG_Localize); // ]]>The only way to deter Iran’s quest for regional dominance should diplomacy fail is the threat of force. Mr. Gates essentially took that off the table when he told CNN that “there is no military option that does anything more than buy time.” If Tehran does not think diplomacy is backed by the threat of force, ... 

By Michael Ledeen  The Obama administration's talks with Iran—set to take place tomorrow in Geneva—are accompanied by an almost universally accepted misconception: that previous American administrations refused to negotiate with Iranian leaders. The truth, as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said last October at the National Defense University, is that "every administration... 

President Barack Obama isn't interested in 'victory' when it comes to the Iran nuclear issue: Share/Save Read More →

President Obama recently shared sensitive intelligence with Russia and China about Iran's newly unveiled nuclear facility to get the two countries' leaders on board with new sanctions against Tehran, senior U.S. officials revealed Friday. President Obama speaks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, left, at the Group of 20 plenary session Friday. Share/Save Read More →

By Stephen F. Hayes Perhaps the most discussed passage in Barack Obama's Inaugural Address was his peace offering to dictators and leaders of rogue states. "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent," he said, "know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." Share/Save Read More →

Poles and Czechs voiced deep concern Friday at President Barack Obama's decision to scrap a Bush-era missile defense shield planned for their countries. "Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back," the Polish tabloid Fakt declared on its front page. Share/Save Read More →

I blogged a couple of weeks ago that the Obama administration was about to abandon its plans for Third Site missile defence installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. I wrote then that “if enacted, this would represent a huge turnaround in American strategic thinking on a global missile defence system, and a massive betrayal of two key US allies in eastern and central Europe. Such a move...