US Diplomacy and Development Aid: Death by a Thousand Cuts

by Diana Ohlbaum When President Trump submitted his preliminary budget request for 2018, which outlined foreign aid and diplomacy cuts of nearly one-third, the rebuke was fast and furious. Members of Congress declared the president’s budget “dead on arrival.” Hearings… Continue Reading

Why Haven’t We Defeated al-Shabaab?

by Diana Ohlbaum “We’ve been fighting al-Shabaab for a decade, why haven’t we won?” the Trump transition team asked the State Department. To foreign policy professionals, such questions may sound naïve and uninformed. They may reflect “an overwhelmingly negative and… Continue Reading

Four Principles for a Progressive Foreign Policy in the Trump Era

by Diana Ohlbaum If there is one thing for which progressives can thank American voters in the 2016 election, it is shaking foreign policy elites from their smug consensus. The basic tenets of the free-trade and military-interventionist orthodoxy, endorsed by… Continue Reading