Doug Bandow

The Republican Party once claimed to oppose wasteful government spending. Republicans criticized Democrats for pushing ever more money for foreign aid and welfare, irrespective of results. When GOP candidates advocated increased military outlays during the Cold War, they pointed to genuine threats as justification. Republicans are now the party of spend, spend, spend. Under a … Continue reading “The Great Defense Budget Black Hole”

Gao Wenqian, Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary (New York: Public Affairs, 2007) 345 pp. Mao Zedong became the symbol of the communist revolution in China. Leading the famed Long March, proclaiming the new People’s Republic of China, sending forth Red Guards waving a little red book of his quotations, meeting Richard Nixon when the … Continue reading “Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary“

For years the U.S. has attempted to mold Pakistan. The result is not pretty: an unstable, undemocratic state which possesses nuclear weapons, border provinces which offer safe haven to Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, and people who loath the American government. The murder of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is merely the latest blow to Washington’s plans. … Continue reading “Misguided Meddling in Pakistan”

For a time former Arkansas Gov. Michael Huckabee appeared to be among the craziest of the GOP candidates, gung-ho for the Iraq war, disdainful of Congress’ role in declaring war, and enthusiastic about torturing U.S. captives. But when he deviated slightly from neocon orthodoxy in his article in Foreign Affairs, which criticized President George Bush, … Continue reading “Michael Huckabee: Foreign Policy Moderate?”

Amity Shlaes, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (New York: Harper Collins, 2007), 464 pp. Franklin Delano Roosevelt has two principal legacies: the New Deal and World War II. The latter would have occurred even had he never been elected president, though America might not have intervened in the conflict, or … Continue reading “The Forgotten Man“

I‘m off in Norway today, the guest of some folks interested in U.S. foreign policy. They want me to explain what Americans think of international events and how policymakers formulate foreign policy. It’s a daunting, or perhaps more accurately, an embarrassing, task. Americans know very little about the world. Their ignorance is almost charming. In … Continue reading “Embarrassed to Explain US Foreign Policy”

The Bush administration has made quite a botch of U.S. foreign policy. Initiating an unnecessary and needlessly bloody war in Iraq. Pushing a now discredited belligerent campaign against Iran. Creating more Islamic hostility and additional terrorists around the world. Ignoring a worsening situation in Afghanistan. Delaying negotiations with North Korea. Wrecking relations with Russia. Fulminating … Continue reading “Creating Crisis: Another War in the Balkans?”

Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War (New York: Norton paperback, 2007), 670 pp. Überhawks carelessly toss around the Hitler comparison – Ho Chi Minh was Hitler. Slobodan Milosevic was Hitler. Saddam Hussein was Hitler. Now Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is Hitler. Yet it is nonsense to compare the leaders of small, poor, and underdeveloped Third … Continue reading “Khrushchev’s Cold War“

Capitol Hill was recently roiled by an issue of no obvious concern to America: the World War I genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire against its Armenian population. But the tendency of Washington policymakers to concoct foreign policy to satisfy influential interest groups has become quite common, from Haiti to Israel to Eastern Europe to … Continue reading “Interest Group Foreign Policy”

On much of the Right the U.S. military has become sacrosanct. Those most enthused about making war around the globe while never donning a uniform seem most determined to turn the Pentagon into a national idol. But if we are to have a national idol, it should be our system of ordered liberty, which the … Continue reading “Worshipping the Military, or the Society it Defends?”