This originally appeared at the Future of Freedom Foundation. Recent news reports indicate that the Biden administration is orchestrating an agreement between two insurgent groups in northeastern Syria to continue preventing the national government of Bashar al-Assad...
The Big Lie That Won’t Die: Trump as Putin’s Puppet
Some foreign policy myths are so entrenched and tenacious that no amount of evidence seems able to dislodge them. An especially prominent one in recent years is that Donald Trump was Vladimir Putin’s puppet and adopted shameful policies that appeased Moscow. The...
The Biden Administration’s Latest Tone-Deaf Foreign Policy Positions
U.S. leaders rarely have been noted for being able to gauge changing sentiment in the international arena and adjusting their foreign policy accordingly. The Biden administration, however, may be setting new records for the tone-deaf quality of its policies. Three...
No, It Is Not Possible to be an Imperial Libertarian
This originally appeared at the Future of Freedom Foundation. There have been a distressing number of occasions in which someone has said to me that they embrace libertarian principles and positions—“except for foreign policy.” That stance has usually translated into...
Libertarian Apologists for Ukraine’s Authoritarianism
It should not come as a surprise that U.S. officials and members of the foreign policy establishment have falsely portrayed Ukraine as a noble democracy. Such deceptions in pursuit of assorted US foreign policy objectives around the globe are nothing new. Throughout...
Is NATO Crowding the Russian Bear Into a Nuclear Corner?
Western officials who salivate over the prospect of inflicting a decisive, humiliating defeat on Russia in its war with Ukraine remain oblivious to the dangers entailed in that scenario. As I pointed out early in the conflict, Russian leaders consider Ukraine to be...
Bogus Foreign Policy Narratives Go Unchallenged
One maddening feature of foreign policy debates in the United States is how frequently journalists and policy experts fail to challenge dominant narratives even when those narratives have glaring defects. Such malfeasance has facilitated a growing list of Washington’s...
The Zombie Domino Theory Returns
An especially damaging development in the history of U.S. foreign policy was President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s promulgation of the domino theory. Adoption of its assumptions led directly to America’s disastrous military intervention in Vietnam. Although the simplistic...
Washington’s Egregious Deceptions About the Russia-Ukraine War
All governments produce deceptive propaganda about aspects of their foreign policy. However, Joe Biden’s administration seems intent on setting some kind of record for both the number of falsehoods and their brazenness. Three of them stand out with respect to the...
A Bad Idea Resurfaces: Using the US Military Against Mexico’s Drug Cartels
There has been a recent flurry of proposals to have the U.S. military launch a full-scale war against Mexican drug cartels – primarily to stem the alleged fentanyl crisis. Former Attorney General William P. Barr initiated the latest campaign with an op-ed in the March...