Ted Galen Carpenter

It might seem premature to talk about ending the second cold war when it seems that it is barely underway.  Just a few years ago, populations were celebrating the end of the first cold war.  That era of animosity ended with dramatic suddenness.  General Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, observed waggishly … Continue reading “Ending the Second Cold War”

During the Cold War, world populations faced the ongoing nightmare of a nuclear attack coming out of the blue. All it would have taken was one miscalculation by either side. Such a trigger could even have taken the form of a false alert. We know that at least one such incident nearly led to catastrophe. … Continue reading “How Washington Killed the Nuclear Arms Control System”

When Russian forces expanded their military presence in Ukraine in February 2022, U.S. officials and most of the Western news media portrayed the development as a brazen act of aggression by a dictatorship against a peaceful democracy.  The reality was much more complex.  Ukraine had allowed itself to become NATO’s pawn in Russia’s security zone.  … Continue reading “NATO’s Undeniably Corrupt Ukrainian Client”

A recurring defect in US foreign policy is a refusal by elites to concede when they made a serious policy mistake.  This is not a new problem, but it has grown decidedly worse in the past few decades.  It characterized the intervention in Vietnam years after it should have become evident that Washington’s approach was … Continue reading “Refusing To Admit US Foreign Policy Blunders”

When Barack Obama implemented George W. Bush’s agreement to withdraw all U.S. military forces from Iraq by the end of 2011, most Americans likely concluded that Washington’s disastrous intervention had come to an end.  However, the administration reintroduced combat forces to Iraq and sent troops to Syria when ISIS launched its military offensive in 2013-2014 … Continue reading “Washington’s Continuing Contempt for Its Iraqi ‘Ally’”

There are multiple indications that members of the foreign policy establishment are increasingly worried that the American people are growing weary of Washington’s strategic overextension and the excessive costs in treasure and blood that role imposes.  Elites show their nervousness through desperate attempts to preserve the policy status quo.  One recent example was the effort … Continue reading “The Foreign Policy Blob’s Desperate Attempt To Preserve NATO”

Many readers of Antiwar.com have wondered why they have seen no new articles from me in more than 6 weeks.  The answer is that I was battling heart and other health issues that nearly took my life.  At one point, my principal cardiologist told my wife that I was unlikely to make it out of … Continue reading “My Own Brush with Death Has Intensified My Opposition to U.S. Imperialism”

Advocates of a less interventionist U.S. foreign policy are understandably eager to identify and work with potential political and ideological allies.  That desire causes them to reach out to promising prospects among both liberals and conservatives under the more general banner of foreign policy “restrainers.”  In some cases, the outreach has achieved significant results.  Analysts … Continue reading “Some Alleged Restrainers Are Just Selective Ultra-Hawks”

Joe Biden’s approach to international issues increasingly resembles George W. Bush’s disastrous foreign policy.  One key tendency in common is that both men view complex world affairs in dangerously simplistic terms as an existential struggle between good and evil.  In Bush’s case, the bitter fruit of that perspective became apparent with the seemingly endless armed … Continue reading “Biden Revives Axis of Evil Propaganda Ploy”

Reprinted from The Libertarian Institute. U.S. administrations have repeatedly condemned foreign adversaries for engaging in ethnic cleansing of minority populations. That has been an explicit grievance against the People’s Republic of China (PRC) because of Beijing’s treatment of its Uygur population in Xinjiang province, and against Syria and Iran because of their conduct toward Kurdish … Continue reading “On Ethnic Cleansing, Washington DC Has Always Been the Hypocrite”