This piece originally appeared in Politico. Effective security cooperation means responsibilities for both sides. The Mexican government has the bulk of the work when it comes to fighting the drug runners threatening their country. They look to be taking this seriously. U.S. policymakers need to match that seriousness: both by following through on past commitments and by laying the groundwork for a successful bilateral relationship with Mexico in the future.

This piece originally appeared in Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel: Recent polls showing pessimism about U.S. prospects in Afghanistan seem to suggest that Barack Obama has lost the United States’ support for the war there. However, general exhaustion from years of war and specific support for Obama’s Afghanistan strategy should not be so easily conflated. A careful reading of the polling data on Afghanistan shows that while the public is weary, they haven’t yet given up on the mission or Obama’s redefined strategy…yet. The U.S. public has significant doubts about...

It’s a strange time for national security politics. Right now, US forces are waging a difficult counter-insurgency war in Afghanistan and a special forces war against Taliban leaders in Pakistan, American troops are drawing down from Iraq, Chinese hackers are launching cyber attacks in the US, and Iran is increasingly belligerent on the nuclear issue. With all that, the only thing conservatives want to talk about on national security is whether terrorists should be arrested, held, and tried in the criminal civilian court system. This should be a simple legal question. If a terrorist breaks a US...