President Obama caught a lot of flak earlier this year for ordering the U.S. military to carry out airstrikes against Libya without securing congressional authorization, even after the ninety-day clo…

Americans like to imagine that in days long past politics stopped at the water’s edge and America spoke with one voice to the world. More often than not, however, our foreign policy debates have been…

“I think that I shall never see / A poem as lovely as a tree.” Most Americans know the opening lines of the poem “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer. What they probably don’t know is that Kilmer was a war hero—t…

President Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on May 20, 2011. (Jim Young/courtesy Reuters) Last week’s Friday File noted that Congress has not acted either…

As 2014 comes to a close, here are ten notable historical anniversaries to mark in 2015.