Stephen Wayne, a Georgetown University expert on the American presidency, has written 11 books, including “The Road to the White House.” He discussed with McClatchy-Tribune foreign-affairs columnist John C. Bersia the firing of Afghanistan war commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal because of statements critical of the Obama administration that he and others made in Rolling Stone [...]

As the Obama administration enters its second year, evaluations range from the extremely positive to the exceedingly negative. Looking for a balanced, informed perspective from a veteran presidential-studies specialist, I turned to Georgetown University’s Stephen J. Wayne, the author of “The Road to the White House 2008″ and a forthcoming book on President Barack Obama.

The uninvited-guest problem at President Barack Obama’s recent White House state dinner strikes me as more than a mere security lapse. If we were living in a perfect world and no existential threat to the United States presented itself, a publicity-seeking party-crasher at such an event might be dismissed as a minor concern, even an [...]

President Barack Obama’s ominous warning about climate change stayed in my mind long after his historic address to Ghana’s Parliament was over. He was correct in noting that a warming planet will spread disease, shrink water resources and deplete crops, creating conditions that contribute to the spread of famine and conflict. Still, as he optimistically [...]

WASHINGTON — Instead of looking for what the Obama administration accomplished in the first 100 days or what it might achieve in the next 100, we should focus on the longer term. The 1,000-day mark interests me far more than the sprouts of the administration’s early seeds.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Facing the old slave market from the sea, you can try to imagine what it was like to arrive here as a captive in the 1500s, with a future of forced servitude as your fate. You can try, but you can never grasp the totality of the horror. In those long-gone [...]

Peter W. Galbraith, the author of The End of Iraq and Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America’s Enemies, formerly served as a U.S. ambassador to Croatia. He discussed global challenges for the United States with foreign-affairs columnist John C. Bersia.

The future of the United States and India, in broad terms, beckons largely from the same direction. Thus, it was encouraging to learn that a substantive meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India in London recently went well. Obama called India a critical partner, and Singh described the president as [...]

Why is the Obama administration’s plan to revamp the U.S. approach to national security drawing criticism before it even gains momentum?
If anything, the overhaul – which National Security Adviser James Jones will supervise – is past due. The global realm continues to evolve in major and often unanticipated ways; strategies must keep pace. As Jones [...]

As President Obama takes America’s helm, I recall a poignant, recent cover of The Economist that featured him, striding with determination, underneath a simple headline: “It’s time.”
Indeed, it is. And, with this nation confronting one of the most chaotic and dangerous periods in history, it is also time for critics, naysayers, pessimists and other purveyors [...]