Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va.) has long been on almost everyone's short list for the Republican vice presidential nomination. But now McDonnell's national security credentials have come into question, thanks to his mishandling of a bill passed by the Virginia General Assembly.

2012 looks to be an interesting year for the already complex political triangle among the United States, Taiwan and China, what with each country undergoing political transitions. Should we expect policy continuity from President Ma Ying-jeou and the likely new Chinese leader Xi Jinping? What about continuity in the United States?

Gagging Grenell was a bad play for the Romney team because it guaranteed the issue wouldn't go away. The only way to dispel concerns about the man's fitness for the job was to let him do his job. Muzzling him until he resigned was the worst possible way to handle it because all it did was feed crocodiles like Fischer.

Pat Moyinihan was without a doubt, as Michael Barone once said, the nation's best thinker among politicians since Lincoln and its best politician among thinkers since Jefferson.

Pakistani cricketing hero-turned politician Imran Khan made a splash on October 30 with a rally that attracted hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis. It remains to be seen whether his populist platform will bring the public to the ballot box in 2013.

Roger Scruton discusses why the environmental movement fits well under the umbrella of conservatism through his new book,  How to Think Seriously About the Planet.

Any short analysis of Barack Obama's successes and failures in foreign policy must necessarily be incomplete. Is it enough to weigh his undeniable good judgment in ordering Navy SEALS to take out Osama bin Laden against his vacillation when faced with the Arab Spring?