National Interest

As next month's deadline nears for the Obama administration to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, interest groups on both sides have launched aggressive campaigns aimed at swaying public opinion. The American Petroleum Institute, the nation's largest oil lobby, has launched a television advertising blitz in the Midwest and in the District urging voters to tell the White House they support the plan to transport crude oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast. Environmentalists are...

"President Obama has arguably established the authority of the president to intervene militarily virtually anywhere without the consent or the approval of Congress, at his own discretion and for as long as he wishes. " — Jim Webb As America tiptoes toward a fourth intervention in an opaque and uncontrollable conflict — now Syria, after Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya — Webb's words require two minor modifications: Obama has demonstrated a power , not an authority ; only the Constitution authorizes.

Barring a last-minute surprise in the U.S. Senate, the well-qualified diplomat President Obama sent to serve as ambassador to Azerbaijan will have to come home in less than a month. In the great modern novel of Washington dysfunction, this is a small subplot. But the failing nomination of Matthew Bryza, out of public view and without so much as a committee vote, offers a vivid example of how the larger U.S. national interest can fall victim to special-interest jockeying and political accommodation.

The Post [" Syria's bloody anniversary ," editorial, March 15] and Rep. Mike Rogers [" A red line we can't let Assad cross ," op-ed, March 16] have both urged increased U.S. military action to help halt the carnage in Syria. Are we not doing enough? Are we ignoring our responsibility? No. There is plenty of power and money in the Middle East to bring order to Syria, if only countries there would take more responsibility for their own neighborhood. Nor should we supply the leadership.

For most of the past decade, baseball fans averted their eyes from Washington in July. Even the team's natural fan base sometimes found it difficult to pay attention to a losing team and its half-empty ballpark. Wilson High assistant baseball coach Shellie Bowers Jr. couldn't interest his players in free tickets. Jordan Mercer, a high school freshman from Luray, Va., didn't bother staying up for the team's late-night West Coast trips. David Sheinfeld, a 25-year-old from Rockville, would watch ESPN for...

The change sweeping the Arab world has brought to the forefront a controversy dating to the early days of our Republic. Should American military might be used for idealistic reasons or as an expression of a vital national interest? Or both? Having served four U.S. presidents during a variety of international crises, we view the choice between "idealism" and "realism" as a false one. Just as ideals must be applied in concrete circumstances, realism requires context for our nation's values to be meaningful.

The Arab Spring is generally discussed in terms of the prospects for democracy. Equally significant is the increasing appeal — most recently in Syria — of outside intervention to bring about regime change, overturning prevalent notions of international order. The modern concept of world order arose in 1648 from the Treaty of Westphalia , which ended the Thirty Years' War. In that conflict, competing dynasties sent armies across political borders to impose their...

A stunning report in the New York Times depicted President Obama poring over the equivalent of terrorist baseball cards, deciding who on a "kill list" would be targeted for elimination by drone attack. The revelations — as well as those in Daniel Klaidman 's recent book — sparked public outrage and calls for congressional inquiry. Yet bizarrely, the fury is targeted at the messengers, not the message. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) expressed dismay that presidential aides were...

Regarding the Obama administration's position urging the Supreme Court to continue allowing universities "to take race into account" in admissions [ "Justices to hear affirmative- action admissions case," news story, Aug. 14]: The high court should not be misled by euphemism and obfuscation. Promoting "diversity" by "taking race into account," even as only "one factor in a holistic review" of each application, has the purpose and effect of admitting some students and rejecting others...

Not the least significant aspect of the Arab Spring is the redefinition of heretofore prevalent principles of foreign policy. As the United States is withdrawing from military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan undertaken on the basis (however disputed) of American national security, it is reengaging in several other states in the region (albeit uncertainly) in the name of humanitarian intervention. Will democratic reconstruction replace national interest as the lodestar of Middle East policy?

A CHINESE GOVERNMENT spokesman expressed shock at comments Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made during a recent interview with The Washington Post regarding China's motivations. A reading of Mr. Abe's full remarks ( available on our Web site ) would show that shock is not called for. Mr. Abe, on the eve of his Friday visit with President Obama, delivered a cogent explanation of China's growing assertiveness — and also of why he believes there is reason to hope for Chinese restraint.

Virginia is virtually alone among the states in blocking those from beyond its borders from using its Freedom of Information Act to get state documents and records. The question before the Supreme Court on Wednesday was: So what? The court spent a spirited hour debating whether Virginia had a good reason for making a distinction between its residents and out-of-staters, or whether the state even needed one. Two men — Mark McBurney of Rhode Island, who wanted to examine...

I t is to be hoped that the forthcoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Armed Services Committee hearings regarding the president's nominations for secretary of state and secretary of defense produce a wide-ranging debate regarding this country's role in today's very unsettled world. The hearings almost certainly will provoke searching questions regarding the strategic wisdom of potential U.S. military action against Iran. Recent Israeli media reports have cited a former member of President Obama's National Security...

YOUR POLITICAL rival has miscalculated and left town with his tail tucked between his legs. What do you do? The normal Washington response: exult while pretending not to, tut-tut at your rival's irresponsibility and press your advantage as much as you can. What if President Obama chose a different way? Having beaten the Republicans in the election and thrashed them in the post-election, what if he were to use his political advantage to serve the national interest? What might that look like?

The lobby of McDonough Gymnasium is a shrine to Georgetown University's athletic achievement: Boxing gloves, faded pink, from 1965. A 1941 Orange Bowl pennant. A half-deflated, yellowing football. A plaque listing every Olympian. The twine and box score from the 1984 men's basketball championship game. A sailing compass. Lost among the dozens of running trophies, commemorative baseballs and glass golf cups, soccer boasts two ornaments: a prune-like...

Put Social Security on the table — clearly and irrevocably. Protecting retiree benefits is the left's political equivalent of the right's "no new taxes" pledge. Congressional Republicans are abandoning their untenable position. Now it is time for President Obama and congressional Democrats to do the same. As long as they don't, they aren't bargaining in good faith, or in the national interest. Supporting retirees is now the federal government's main activity. There's a huge redistribution from young to old — a...

"President Obama has arguably established the authority of the president to intervene militarily virtually anywhere without the consent or the approval of Congress, at his own discretion and for as long as he wishes. " — Jim Webb As America tiptoes toward a fourth intervention in an opaque and uncontrollable conflict — now Syria, after Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya — Webb's words require two minor modifications: Obama has demonstrated a power , not an authority ; only the Constitution authorizes.

THE INITIAL EUPHORIA in Tripoli and Benghazi represents the beginning of a chapter for Libya, and many dangers lie ahead. But before focusing on those, it's worth reflecting on what has been achieved. "I know there has been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years, and much of this controversy is connected to the war in Iraq," President Obama said in his Cairo speech two years ago. "So let me be clear: No system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other.

I don't know whether Emily Post has any tips for breaking the ice over lunch with your just-vanquished foe .  But I have just the thing if President Obama was serious about asking Mitt Romney to "work together to move this country forward. " Romney was once a world-class management consultant with a legendary appetite for "the data. " His private-equity success was due partly to his knack for identifying and purging inefficiencies from bloated, underperforming enterprises. It's time, therefore, to set him loose (analytically speaking)

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Tuesday for early parliamentary elections after failing to agree with coalition partners on a national budget for the coming year. In a brief televised statement, Netanyahu said elections should be held as "early as possible," which political analysts said meant they would come nine months early, in January. Netanyahu — a popular leader who has overseen a solid economy and four years of relative stability in a turbulent region — is expected to win...