Jed Babbin
Columns by Jed Babbin
Trump’s peace diplomacy
One of President Trump's greatest desires is to go down in history as a peacemaker. Published July 9, 2025
Abrego Garcia dominates headlines while Diego Garcia fades into strategic peril
Abrego Garcia and Diego Garcia are two very different problems. Published July 3, 2025
To win, we need to believe in American exceptionalism again
An element -- no, actually, an attitude -- has been missing from American foreign policy since President Reagan left office. Published June 25, 2025
No quarter can be given in the war against Iran’s deadly ambitions
President Trump gave Iran 60 days to negotiate a deal that would effectively end its nuclear weapons program. Published June 13, 2025
Will Israel attack Iran?
We often forget how small Israel is. It's about the size of New Jersey and half of its land is desert. At one point, Israel is only nine miles wide. Published June 10, 2025
Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ to Trump’s Golden Dome: The moral vision to save lives in a dangerous world
When President Reagan announced his Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983, he posed a moral question. Is it better, he asked, to protect lives or to avenge them? Published June 1, 2025
Putin is unserious about peace in Ukraine
When Russian ruler Vladimir Putin invited Ukraine to peace talks in Istanbul about two weeks ago, many believed peace could be near. Published May 22, 2025
Trump’s second 100 days
President Trump's first 100 days of his second term must be regarded as an overall success, with few exceptions, such as his tariff war and nuclear negotiations with Iran. Published May 6, 2025
Trump administration faces critical foreign policy crossroads
The Trump administration is doing things quickly and producing great results, but it sometimes seems that it doesn't think some things through before enacting policy. Published April 22, 2025
Throw Turkey out of NATO
Several empires didn't survive World War I, among them the Ottoman Empire, out of whose ashes arose the Turkish nation. Published April 8, 2025
Tren de Aragua deportations: Constitutional crisis or presidential authority?
The battle over the deportation of the members of the hyper-violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) threatens to become a constitutional crisis. Published March 25, 2025
Napolitano’s Moscow hallucination
Few remember Walter Duranty. Those who do recall that he was the Moscow bureau chief for the New York Times during the early 1930s. Published March 18, 2025
Falling behind: How acquisition bureaucracy cripples America’s military might
The technologies of warfare move at their own pace. Sometimes they walk and sometimes, such as now, they sprint. Published March 4, 2025
Trump has the opportunity to make a deal that will protect Ukraine’s sovereignty
When the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, the situation was very different from the situation Russian leader Vladimir Putin faces today in Ukraine. Published February 19, 2025
Superfluous International Criminal Court a challenge to U.S. and Israel sovereignty
On Sept. 2, 2020, President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, another ICC senior prosecutor and restricted US visas for ICC personnel. Published February 10, 2025
Biden’s legacy of failure
President Biden's two farewell speeches were what we should have expected from an "elderly man with a poor memory," as Special Counsel Robert Hur's report said of him. Published January 17, 2025
DOGE’s first targets to cut
President Biden is spending as fast as he can before he leaves office. The government's debt is already over $36 trillion. Published January 8, 2025
Trump, Panama, Greenland and Ukraine
Was President-elect Donald Trump serious when he said we should retake control of the Panama Canal and annex Greenland? Published December 27, 2024
Will Trump have a Reagan moment?
As this column has pointed out, President Biden has done absolutely nothing to free the at least 101 hostages believed to be still alive and held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Published December 18, 2024
Time to rebuild U.S. Air Force
Whenever a crisis occurs, every president looks to his military advisers for options to deal with it. Published November 30, 2024