Kim R. Holmes

HOLMES: Iran does not fear President Obama

What is the Obama administration's response to the Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador in Washington?

October 19, 2011

HOLMES: America’s waning influence in the Middle East

President Obama thought that if he reached out to the Muslim world, American influence in the Middle East would rise.

September 21, 2011

HOLMES: Next big war won’t be like current ones

History shows not just that wars are inevitable but that we do a poor job of predicting them.

September 7, 2011

HOLMES: Taking defense hostage

Amid the fog surrounding the recently enacted Budget Control Act and the new Joint Select "super" Committee on Deficit Reduction, one thing is clear: National defense spending has been taken hostage. Policymakers from both parties think threatening draconian defense cuts can protect their positions on taxes and entitlement spending.

August 24, 2011

HOLMES: South China Sea isn’t Beijing’s lake

China is flexing its maritime muscles again. Last week, the state newspaper People's Daily darkly warned of "due consequences" if Beijing is challenged in the South China Sea. A few weeks earlier, China's top military officer called U.S. naval exercises in the South China Sea "inappropriate" and chided America for spending too much on defense.

August 10, 2011

HOLMES: Muslim world still anti-Western despite Obama

President Obama entered office promising a new dawn in America's relations with Muslim nations. He reached out to the Muslim world, offering apologies and a warm embrace. The theory was that, by showing more understanding of Muslim grievances, they would respond in kind.

July 27, 2011

HOLMES: U.N. sea treaty still a bad deal for U.S.

UNCLOS is back. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (aka, the Law of the Sea Treaty) was first hammered out in 1982. Twelve years later, U.S. negotiators signed an amended agreement, but it was never ratified. Now Sen. John F. Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, is pressing for Senate approval, claiming the treaty would give the United States new rights and advantages.

July 13, 2011

HOLMES: Riding the Chinese tiger

Everyone knows about China's economic "miracle." High economic growth rates and rising incomes have given many parts of the country all the trappings of a "nouveau riche" society — from luxury-car traffic jams to stylish tourists traveling the world.

June 29, 2011

HOLMES: Prejudices, double standards in Libya rationales

I've been reading blogs that try to list all the ways President Obama's intervention in Libya is not like former President George W. Bush's Iraq operation in 2003. There are differences, of course, but most of the explanations presented are transparent attempts to demonstrate that Mr. Obama's intervention is legitimate but Mr. Bush's wasn't. It's essentially a double standard.

May 4, 2011

HOLMES: Whose ‘responsibility to protect’?

"There is only one justification for military intervention [in Libya]: protecting people being murdered by Gadhafi." So says Gareth Evans, father of the "responsibility to protect" doctrine that some say is behind President Obama's decision to intervene in Libya.

April 6, 2011

HOLMES: What could cause America’s decline?

Are America's best days over?

March 9, 2011

HOLMES: Defense budget cop-out

Want to defend the status quo of deficit-ridden budgets? Set up a straw man to divert attention from social entitlements, where most federal spending goes.

February 23, 2011

HOLMES: Economic reforms a must for democratic Egypt

The protesters agree that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must go, but there does not seem to be a unifying vision of what should happen next.

February 9, 2011

HOLMES: What would Reagan do?

More than any other leader, Ronald Reagan is responsible for making national security a pillar of the conservative movement. He understood that all of America's freedoms are contingent on the presence of a strong military to defend them. But what does that mean today?

January 26, 2011

HOLMES: U.S. is land of the ‘mostly free’ economy

America's free and open economy is the key to our unparalleled prosperity. It's why we have the world's largest economy and why so many people around the world want to come here. Without economic freedom, there would be no American dream. Alas, that dream is fading.

January 12, 2011

HOLMES: A puzzling case of ‘resetting’ Russian relations

"Conventional wisdom" too often means that otherwise smart people have stopped thinking. You can tell when it takes hold: Buzzwords get repeated. Obvious truths are denied. And the critical faculties, so essential for serious thought, are met with derision.

December 15, 2010

HOLMES: START over with the Russians to ratify treaty

The New START treaty has faced more opposition than the Obama administration expected. If it fails to win Senate approval, the administration has no one to blame but itself.

December 1, 2010

HOLMES: Freedom trumps China’s economic model

Will a rising China supplant the United States as the world's leading economic light? Joshua Ramo, a former Time magazine editor, maintains that Beijing's system of authoritarian "market socialism" — or "Beijing Consensus" — is a better model for developing countries.

November 17, 2010