Source:Wikimedia Commons-Satellite pictures, from NASA World Wind Globe

A new Heritage Foundation report paints a grim picture of America’s national security interests in Asia in the wake of proposed defense cuts.

If the defense cuts are not reversed, we will be severely limited in our ability to ensure the region’s stability, Dean Cheng and Bruce Klingner argue:

The United States is the only nation with both the capabilities and the historical record needed to assume the role of regional balancer and “honest broker.” Consequently, the United States is the hub of a “wagon wheel” of bilateral alliances that undergirds regional security. Where Japan and South Korea have only recently agreed to undertake staff talks with each other, both sides have long maintained channels of communication through their respective alliances with the United States and the attendant U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) and U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ). Even then, historical animosities continue to hinder the improvement of Korean–Japanese relations.

Klingner and Cheng list several reasons for maintaining a strong presence in the Pacific, including: Continue Reading »

Photo: Wikimedia

How do you threaten an enemy who isn’t afraid to die as long as he takes as many people with him as he can? In the age of suicide bombings and nuclear proliferation, will America and Russia’s Cold-War nuclear strategic policies, based on the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction keep either country safe against an opponent with no national borders and no regard for human life?

Nuclear proliferation is inevitable. When the weapons become available to more countries, the chances of a terrorist getting their hands on one becomes far more likely. Both America and Russia should recognize that it is in their best interests to develop missile defense technologies, rather than relying solely on MAD’s threat of equal nuclear devestation to both sides of a nuclear conflict.

Today, Russia and America find themselves in a nuclear environment fundamentally different from the Cold War, Heritage Foundation defense expert Baker Spring explains: Continue Reading »

Proposals to enact a National Popular Vote compact and make an “end run” around the Electoral College for choosing presidents is a serious threat to America, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said during a speech today at The Heritage Foundation.

Watch a video of McConnell’s remarks (3:06-21:50): Continue Reading »

Heritage Commentary

• Cully Stimson and David Rivkin’s op-ed on the America’s handling of terrorist Ali Musa Daqduq appears in the Wall Street Journal.
• Israel Ortega notes that Latinos should resist big government in the Huffington Post.
• Hans von Spakovsky’s post regarding the Stimson/Rivkin op-ed appears in PJMedia’s “Tatler”. Continue Reading »

Photo: Wikimedia

This week, Congress may reassert its authority over runaway bureaucrats through the Regulations from the Executive in need of Scrutiny (REINS) act.

Over the last century, unaccountable regulatory agencies have taken on an extra-constitutional life of their own. Today they wield enormous power to create, enforce and judge rules that have the force of law.

America needs legislation like the REINS act to reverse this destructive trend and restore accountability in Washington, The Heritage Foundation’s Julia Shaw says:

Continue Reading »

Should government planners decide where and how you should live? Photo: Flickr/hotdogger13

In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted Agenda 21, an initiative that seeks to preserve the environment by regulating where individuals can live and what they can produce. Though it is a non-binding plan, its policies are harmful to prosperity and freedom.

The driving force behind Agenda 21 is a form of government central planning called “smart growth.” The idea is that by condensing the population into more compact urban areas, humanity can reduce its impact on the environment.

Advocates of these policies ”work to impose land use regulations that would force Americans into denser living arrangements, curtail freedom of choice in housing, discriminate against lower-income Americans, and compel people to pay more for their houses and give up their cars in favor of subways, trolleys, buses, and bicycles,” according to a new Heritage Foundation report. Continue Reading »

Heritage Commentary

• J.D. Foster writes on the need to cut spending (not hike taxes) in Savannah Morning News and Tulsa World.
• Brian Darling describes various Washington doings in Human Events.
• Ted Bromund describes the political difficulties of deficit reduction in the Yorkshire Post. Continue Reading »

Heritage Commentary

• Ariel Cohen’s op-ed on Russia 20 years after the Soviet crack-up appears in International Herald Tribune.
• J.D. Foster’s post on the EU financial crisis makes an appearance in NRO’s “The Corner”. Continue Reading »

Many liberals still believe that regulation has little or no impact on our country’s employment rate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) recently went so far as to call the idea that regulation costs jobs a myth, citing a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics finding that one third of one percent of employers listed “governmental regulations/intervention” as the reason for layoffs.

A new report by  Heritage Foundation expert James Gattuso clearly illustrates how these numbers are woefully skewed. Continue Reading »

A new fuel efficiency regulation intended to promote energy independence and reduce fossil fuel emissions could prove costly to consumers, the auto industry and even the environment, a Heritage Foundation expert says.

The EPA’s revised Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard requires auto manufacturers to achieve a minimum fuel-economy average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

“Whether the standard is achievable remains to be seen,” Heritage’s Diane Katz says, “but the effort would cost tens of billions of dollars, untold numbers of manufacturing jobs, and—most inexcusable—the loss of lives.”

Continue Reading »