Research Library

By Zoe Russell

Following the legalization of retail marijuana sales in Colorado and Washington, and medical marijuana in…

President Obama’s commencement address at West Point on Wednesday was clearly aimed at deflecting rising criticism of his administration’s foreign policy. In particular, the speech was designed to address complaints that U.S. foreign policy under Obama has lacked strategic coherence and signaled a U.S. retreat from the international arena. The administration promoted the address as a platform for the president to describe his “vision” for U.S. foreign policy during the remainder of his term. To the extent that the speech did present a vision, it was not a particularly new one.

Joe Barnes, the institute's Bonner Means Baker Fellow, blogs on concern in Kyiv, Washington and European capitals — not too far-fetched, given Russia’s seizure of Crimea last month — that Moscow might invade Eastern Ukraine on the pretext of protecting Russian speakers.

By Rehman Bhalesha

Jury nullification — when a jury disagrees with the law and acquits a defendant they believe to be…

By Gilbert G. Garcia

Jury nullification — when a jury disagrees with the law and acquits a defendant they believe to be…

In this installment of Baker Institute Viewpoints, experts discuss the question, "What does jury nullification of marijuana cases in Texas indicate about the possibility of marijuana legalization?"

By Clay S. Conrad

Jury nullification — when a jury disagrees with the law and acquits a defendant they believe to be…

While much media attention recently has focused on the geopolitical fault lines that connect Syria’s violence to wider region-wide trends, the plight of individual women, men, and children displaced within Syria or living in camps beyond its borders shows no sign of ending. As Secretary of State John Kerry has stated, the humanitarian situation in Syria is "an outrage" but the violence only looks set to worsen as opposition groups turn on each other and radical trans-national elements feed off the resulting vacuum of authority and control. This is the task as the international community prepares to reconvene in Switzerland on January 22, writes Baker Institute fellow Kristian Coates Ulrichsen in the Baker Institute Blog.

Two cheers for the interim agreement over Iran’s nuclear program. It is welcome, if not earth-shattering news.