Diana Ohlbaum
The Hill
Washington, DC, United States
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Past articles by Diana:
No, Mr. President, we haven't turned the page on war
Ultimately, Congress will need to repeal the law that allows these endless and ever-expanding wars: the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. → Read More
An "Emergency" Arms Deal: Will Congress Acquiesce in Another Blow to Its Authority?
The Trump administration is claiming that the situation with Iran is so tense, there is no time for Congress to review these controversial sales. → Read More
Schizophrenia on North Korea and Venezuela?
In this year’s State of the Union Address, the president asserted, “Great nations do not fight endless wars.” If he hopes to make that aspiration a reality, he must ensure the United States stops endlessly threatening war. → Read More
Learning the lessons of Iraq
Sixteen years ago, the House and Senate paved the way for the military invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. They did not actually declare war. → Read More
It’s long past time to tie the president’s hands
Diana Ohlbaum and Anthony Wier say if the framers had wanted a new American king with unlimited powers, they could have written the Constitution that way. Luckily, they didn’t. → Read More
UN Vote Buying: A Bad Idea That Never Dies –
by Diana Ohlbaum The Trump administration is agitating for a “sweeping reassessment” of the way foreign aid is distributed. Rather than making decisions based on where it is needed most or how it c… → Read More
The NATO We Have and the NATO We Seek –
by Diana Ohlbaum Donald Trump has thrown the “free world” into a tizzy with his ultimatum to European allies to increase their defense spending, his public questioning of why America should have to… → Read More
Mattis, Pompeo, Kelly, Bolton, Coats: Resign Now –
by Diana Ohlbaum Every elected and appointed U.S. official, other than the president, must take the following oath: I, ____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constit… → Read More
Stabilization of Afghanistan: The Little Engine That Couldn’t –
by Diana Ohlbaum “Between 2001 and 2017, U.S. government efforts to stabilize insecure and contested areas in Afghanistan mostly failed.” Those are not my words. They’re not from some partisan pund… → Read More
Narcissus on the World Stage –
by Diana Ohlbaum Narcissus? No, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. In fact, I don’t want to talk about Trump any more. Frankly, I don’t even want to hear about Trump any more. My outrage meter is … → Read More
State Department Reform: How to Avoid a Train Wreck
by Diana Ohlbaum If nothing else, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seems determined to retool the mechanics of the State Department, a process he calls “redesign. There’s a full head of steam behin… → Read More
Loving USAID to Death
by Diana Ohlbaum For those who recall the relentless attacks on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the recent outpouring of support for the … → Read More
And the Foreign Affairs Reorganization Fight is On!
by Diana Ohlbaum Buffeted by a double whammy of restructuring proposals—one from the White House recommending a transfer of the State Department’s Population, Refugees, and Migration Bureau (PRM) t… → Read More
A Bevy of Good Ideas on Foreign Aid Reform….If Anyone’s Listening
by Diana Ohlbaum There are lots of difficult problems with no good solutions. Foreign aid isn’t one of them. For starters, the system works, even if it’s not particularly efficient, or popular with… → Read More
Where is the Opening for Aid Reform?
by Diana Ohlbaum It’s hard to reconcile the optimism of the development community with the signals coming from the Trump administration. Sensing an opening for reform, think tanks and aid advocates… → Read More
Redesigning the Foreign Aid Architecture
by Diana Ohlbaum Donald Trump is hardly the first U.S. president to call for bureaucratic reorganization to improve government efficiency and effectiveness. But his demand for crippling and disprop… → Read More
Good News, Bad News in Trump’s International Affairs Budget
by Diana Ohlbaum Expert reviews of President Trump’s proposed budget for international affairs have been almost uniformly negative—and for good reason. Severe and disproportionate cuts for the Stat… → Read More
Foreign Aid Reform: Opportunity or Threat?
by Diana Ohlbaum It would be difficult, inside or outside the Beltway, to find someone who doesn’t think that U.S. foreign assistance needs to be reformed. The people most familiar with the current… → Read More
Disparaging Diplomacy
by Diana Ohlbaum The Trump administration’s steady stream of assaults on diplomacy has become a raging river. It started during the campaign, with Trump’s tirades against the Iran nuclear deal, the… → Read More
Dismantling USAID
by Diana Ohlbaum It comes as little surprise that the Trump Administration is preparing plans to eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), whose mission is to “end extreme po… → Read More