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President Obama promised a powerful speech on national-security policy on Wednesday to the graduates of the United States Military Academy. Instead, the chief executive reinforced the notion that in an increasingly dangerous world, he is in over his head.

<p>Yesterday’s speech to the graduating class of West Point by President Obama may be remembered as the signal that his presidency has entered a crisis of confidence, much as Jimmy Carter’s infamous “malaise” speech has gone down in history as marking a failed presidency.</p>

Politics and Policy Obama Defends U.S. Policy Based Less on Military Might At West Point Commencement, President Lays Out New Criteria for Military Deployment By Carol E. Lee connect Updated May 28, 2014 8:49 p.m. ET WEST POINT, N.Y.—President Barack Obama sought on Wednesday to define how to project American power: Not necessarily by major deployments of American forces, but rather through targeted operations, diplomacy and aid. Mr. Obama's address to graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point marked the start of his campaign to counter critics of his foreign policy doctrine and blunt charges, chiefly by...

It was billed as President Obama's comeback speech on foreign policy, a response to mounting criticism — both foreign and domestic — that his international leadership has been a failure. A "big picture" address, it would outline the president's foreign policy vision as it stands five-and-a-half years since he entered the White House. Yet the commencement address yesterday at West Point failed to deliver on either count. Instead, it reinforced the impression of a lackluster commander-in-chief with an empty foreign policy vision. In many respects this was a highly defensive speech, one that will do little to allay growing fears,...

Confused about Obama's foreign policy? With Clinton's foreign policy? You are likely familiar with the "Hierarchy of Needs" - Things a human MUST have in order survive: for a minute, for an hour, for a day, for a week, for a year, etc. Until those needs are met, he or she cannot look for less important things. Air, water, food, clothing, shelter, etc .. All can get ranked according to a human's most important priorities. Now consider every foreign policy decision, speech, foreign leader, foreign trip (well - except vacations), and foreign award or recognition Obama has chosen since 2008....

Let's dispense with the notion that criticism of the president's rudderless foreign policy at home is based on political animosity, or, as some Democrats charge, racism. The fact is, it's America's closest allies that have viewed with increasing alarm Barack Obama's timidity and indecisiveness overseas as cause for fear and worry. The Financial Times - no friend of conservatives to be sure - summarizes the dilemma of our allies: Mr Obama’s election in 2008 reflected a widespread belief at home and abroad that there was “too much America” in the world. Although he still seems to be in tune with...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stung by criticism, President Barack Obama will use a speech on Wednesday to launch a sweeping defense of his approach to foreign policy, one that he will say is reliant on multilateral diplomacy instead of military interventions. Obama is to deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, the first in a series of speeches that he and top advisers will use to explain U.S. foreign policy in the aftermath of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and lay out a broad vision for the rest of his presidency. Obama has come...

Obama’s military contracting with Taliban Heroin smugglers in Afghanistan By Randall Stevens TCS NEWS Qatar, NATO, and the NLC Given the Qatari connections to al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, terrorism, and the Arab Spring (which was a deliberate program to empower the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda), it is disturbing enough that the American military presence in the Gulf has been adopted by the ruling al-Thanis. But the clear line from Qatar to al Qaeda and the Taliban, and the incredible manifestation of corruption within the US military and NATO is even more glaring. The NLC, the same Taliban heroin...

Serhiy Lefter, a Ukrainian journalist working for a Polish NGO, spent nearly three weeks in captivity by pro-Russian militants in the city of Slovyansk in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. Shortly after his release on May 6, Lefter spoke with RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Dmitry Volchek about his ordeal. RFE/RL: Tell us about the people who were holding you. Did they really think you were a spy? Serhiy Lefter: At first they really suspected me. They suspected all of us -- that some of us were from the nationalist political movement Right Sector or were 'Banderovtsy" [eds: a reference to...

At this point most people are aware that 276 girls were abducted in Nigeria last month. Boko Haram, a Muslim group, has claimed responsibility. Boko Haram has ties to al Qaeda, though when given the opportunity to label them a terrorist group Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed to do so. Her boss, President Obama, failed to overrule her. Despite the failure of our government to label Boko Haram a terrorist group, Michelle Obama sat for a dramatic posed picture of her with a hashtag sign declaring “bring back our girls.” This is what counts for diplomacy in the Obama...

Chris Matthews mocked Republicans on Friday's Hardball over their hawkish stance towards Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist group that recently kidnapped hundreds of girls. Matthews made a thinly-veiled racial attack on the GOP during a panel discussion on the terrorist organization: " By the way, when did the Republican Party take this keen interest in Africa? I may have missed that one."

Exactly a century ago, the leading lights of Europe seemed to believe that war was impossible. One of the era’s most successful books, “The Great Illusion” by journalist Norman Angell, asserted that trade, not violence, was the way of the future. He was wrong, but not completely wrong. Yes, in 1914 the Western world mobilized in August. World War I killed some 15 million people, and would be followed by World War II and a series of skirmishes during the Cold War. More than 100 million people were killed in conflicts during the 20th century. Ian Morris, a professor at...

The Justice Department is pressing the State Department to designate Boko Haram, a Nigerian militant group alleged to be responsible for hundreds of deaths, as a "foreign terrorist organization," according to a document obtained by Reuters. Lisa Monaco, head of the Justice Department's national security division, sent a letter in January to State Department counter-terrorism chief Daniel Benjamin requesting that Boko Haram, also known as the "Nigerian Taliban," be put on the list. A Congressional source said that in the last few days, State Department representatives have lobbied Congress to try to stop legislation which would force the administration to...

Tommy Vietor started working for Barack Obama when he was still Senator Obama--well before he became a presidential candidate--and until Friday, the 32-year-old Vietor hadn't stopped. His first job for Obama was as the driver of a press van, and he rose up the ranks through the 2008 campaign, and then the White House press office, to become the National Security Council spokesman. Now leaving the White House to open a political communications firm with the president's departing speechwriter Jon Favreau, Vietor says it's been the privilege of a lifetime to work for the president. "It's been kind of a...

If a single word could sum up the goal of Barack Obama's Asia tour, it would be "reassurance." Obama went to Tokyo to reassure Japan that, should China attempt to seize its Senkaku Islands, America will fight at her side. He reassured Seoul of our commitment to defend South Korea. He went to Manila to reassure the Filipinos, who threw our Navy out of Subic Bay at the end of the Cold War, that America will be there in any clash with Beijing in the South China Sea. Yet, as Clyde Prestowitz writes in the Financial Times, while we are...

For a president who hasn't enjoyed many foreign policy successes lately, Barack Obama did pretty well on his just completed trip to Asia. In Japan, he reiterated in no uncertain terms the American defense commitment, including on the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, which China also claims and calls the Diaoyus. "Historically, they have been administered by Japan, and we do not believe they should be subject to change unilaterally," Obama said. "What is a consistent part of the alliance is that the treaty covers all territories administered by Japan." In the Philippines, Obama signed a new agreement...

Abstract On February 28, Russian troops, aided by pro-Russian local militia, occupied important sites across the Crimean Peninsula under the pretext of “protecting Russian people.” Now Crimea is under Moscow’s de facto control and the Russian parliament has voted to annex the region into the Russian Federation. The failure of the Obama Administration’s Russian “reset,” the unilateral disarming of Europe, and the U.S. reduction of forces and disengagement from Europe have led Russia to calculate that the West will not respond in any significant way. The Administration can demonstrate America’s commitment to its NATO allies and support for the Ukrainian...

In an article published in the London Review of Books, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Seymour Hersh (of My Lai and, more recently, Abu Ghraib fame), explains recent two foreign policy mysteries to American readers. The piece, The Red Line and the Rat Line is based on interviews with intelligence sources and consultants, and it connects the dots between between these two mysteries, and explains how they are related. What emerges is a clear picture of American cooperation, at the highest levels, with Turkey and Qatar, the foremost sponsors of the Arab Spring (see links). For example, NATO, as of December,...

".............This is a good example of punditry in its purest, most useless form. Dowd doesn’t actually say how Obama should apply the lesson of the NBA commissioner banning a bigoted old coot. She just says Obama should do that. Because it’s right. And leadership, or something. Also, if you’re familiar with Dowd’s writing from years past, you know that the big, brash, swing-for-the-fences attitude she wants Obama to embrace was precisely what she disliked about George W. Bush. On the day of Obama’s first inaugural, Dowd wrote a column explicitly differentiating the two on that point: “The optimism was tempered...

You know things are bad when you can't wait for the return of a TV character to demonstrate what resolve and leadership really look like. Yes, after a four-year hiatus, the show "24," featuring Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland), returns May 5 to the Fox network. Bauer displays many of the traits once found in, or at least expected of, American presidents and top military leaders. He doesn't waffle or wiggle; neither does he negotiate. He wins. If you think I am about to draw a contrast between Bauer and the current president of the United States you are...