When the world's at stake,
go beyond the headlines.

Melanie, Chris, and guest host Claude Berube discuss the promise and pitfalls of exit strategies. When policymakers plan to embark on foreign wars, should they also prepare a plan for extricating the nation from these wars when they are completed? Is an exit strategy a vital component of strategy? Or do exit strategies create unreasonable expectations of easy victory? Can an exit strategy focus attention on a desired end state, and prevent mission creep? Or are prudent adjustments only possible when policymakers are not shackled to pre-war objectives? Chris congratulates New England Patriots’ coach Bill Bellichick on victory number 300, Melanie blasts Sean Duffy for questioning a decorated U.S. Army officer’s patriotism, and Claude delivers a Net Assessment first — a heartfelt attadog for his beloved four-legged companion, Reagan.

Links

• David Kampf, “When Are Exit Strategies Viable?” War on the Rocks, October 14, 2019
• Adam Wunische, “The Lost Art of Exiting a War,” War on the Rocks, October 21, 2019
• Devon Clements, “Bill Belichick Becomes 3^rd NFL Head Coach Ever to Accumulate 300 Career Wins,” Sports Illustrated, October 27, 2019
• Christopher Preble, “New Rules for U.S. Military Intervention,” War on the Rocks, September 20, 2016
• Richard Fontaine, “The Nonintervention Delusion: What War Is Good For,” Foreign Affairs, November-December 2019
• Spencer Ackerman, “Baghdadi Is Dead. The War on Terror Will Create Another,” Daily Beast, October 28, 2019
• Doug Bandow and Christopher Preble, “Lost in the Furor Over Syria: Alliances Are a Means, Not an End,” War on the Rocks, October 23, 2019
• Ashley Feinberg, “This Sure Looks Like Mitt Romney’s Secret Twitter Account,” Slate, October 20, 2019
• “Sean Duffy on CNN,” CNN, October 29, 2019
• Aaron Stein, “US Officials Ignored Trump on Syria and We are All Paying the Price,” War on the Rocks, October 22, 2019
• “The Weinberger Doctrine,” Washington Post, November 30, 1984
• Jason Whiteley, “No Exit, No Problem,” Small Wars Journal, April 21, 2011
• James Nolt, “Exit Strategy,” World Policy,” World Policy, February 23, 2017