Benjamin H. Friedman

Benjamin H. Friedman is a research fellow in defense and homeland security studies at the Cato Institute, and blogs for The Skeptics at The National Interest.

Commentary

Economics

How to Pay for Wars

| 03.06.12

The White House's proposal to discipline war spending is legislatively doomed and full of holes.

Security

Overwrought on START

| 12.01.10

Opponents and supporters of the New START agreement are exaggerating their cases. Actually, the treaty doesn't matter that much.

Security

The Pentagon on Defense

| 10.31.08

Our politicians are delirious when it comes to defense spending—we need to rein in expenditures, and the Pentagon’s budget should be on the chopping block.

Blog Posts

Politics

Drones, Special Operations and Whimsical Wars

| 06.18.12

Congress should spend less time policing leaks about the president's unilateral exercise of war powers and more time restraining them.

Security

MANPADS Myths in Libya

| 05.29.12

Society

Why Americans Are Less Hawkish than Their Leaders

| 05.15.12

The origins and consequences of the public-elite opinion gap on foreign policy.

Society

Washington Post Defines Worst Fears Down

| 05.10.12

Giving undue credit to terrorists such as Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri only furthers their cause.

Society

Intervention in Libya and Syria Isn’t Humanitarian or Liberal

| 04.05.12

Assad's fall, like Qaddafi's, is likely to produce extended illiberal chaos or a new set of autocrats.