It's hot here in DC, but that hasn't slowed down our scholars, who this week produced a bracing critique of President Joe Biden's approach to withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, a strong defense of the appropriate separation of powers of our three branches of government, and sharp responses to harmful trends in education.

In The New York Times, Frederick W. Kagan argues that the president's decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan has led to the "disastrous Taliban takeover" we're witnessing today. He outlines what a "more judicious approach" would have entailed and asks: "Is this really the type of fearful, defeatist message a global leader should be sending out to the world?"

Also in The New York Times, Gregory S. Weiner argues that Biden's eviction mortarium signals a broader "constitutional derangement" in which our political leaders show little concern for the separation of powers and the legislative branch in particular fails to guard its own authority. The result is that our government has "become a de facto parliamentary system in which competing parties battle for executive power" — but with only the vices, not the virtues, of such a system.

Desmond Lachman sounds the alarm in The Hill that the United States could be setting itself up to experience the same economic woes that haunted Japan in the 1990s. Lachman contends that policies before the pandemic cursed us "with a record budget deficit" and "unsustainable public debt"; this economic situation could be worsened by the remarkable spending spree of the past year. In short, Lachman warns, we could be facing "a lost economic decade" of our own.

Writing in The Dispatch, Frederick M. Hess blasts Oregon lawmakers' decision to water down high-school graduation requirements. Lawmakers claim the changes will help minority students, but Hess sees it as another manifestation of the soft bigotry of low expectations and an indication that "too many grownups on the American left have thrown in the towel."