Ivan Eland

Recently, the world has focused on the fighting in Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine, all of which seem to be falling apart. Although the first two countries are in the Middle East and the last one is in the eastern part of Europe, they have the common problem that the state’s boundaries don’t correspond with linguistic, … Continue reading “Resolving Conflict in Artificial States”

The 100-year anniversary of the most important event in the 20th century passed recently with predictably scant notice in the American media. The anniversary can’t be that of the allied D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II, because that event happened only 70 years ago. And it’s not the anniversaries of the attack on … Continue reading “World War I, Rather than World War II, Is Key for Today’s Foreign Policy”

Unbelievably, former Vice President Dick Cheney, after being wrong on every foreign policy issue for more than a decade, has again crawled out of his Wyoming cave and begun outrageously sniping at Barack Obama’s performance in foreign policy. Although I am certainly no fan of Obama’s overall performance as president (in the second edition of … Continue reading “Dick Cheney’s Outrageous Statements”

Despite all of the hysteria surrounding the advances in northern Iraq of the brutal group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), no crisis exists for U.S. security, and the American people are wise in their skepticism of renewed U.S. military involvement in that country. Even if the gains of the group eventually lead to … Continue reading “In Iraq, Obama Needs To Have an Eisenhower Moment”

As prisoners are exchanged and the combat portion of the long and exhausting U.S. involvement in the war in Afghanistan winds down, the brazen lethal attack on the Karachi International airport by the Pakistani Taliban graphically highlights the principal unfortunate legacy of the needless nation-building Afghan conflict: the destabilization of neighboring Pakistan. Although few in … Continue reading “The Worst Effect of the Afghan War”

President Obama has announced that all U.S. forces will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2016, just before he leaves office. By taking this action, Obama is finally saying "touché" to a military brass that he believed sandbagged him in upping the quantity of forces needed for the troop surge in Afghanistan when … Continue reading “Messy Endgame in the Afghan War”

It took awhile to find the Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, and during that time officials from Western governments – likely the United States, Britain, and France – anonymously criticized the Nigerian government for being slow to accept foreign help and then being slothful and incompetent in the search. These … Continue reading “Imperialism and Nigerian Schoolgirls”

President Barack Obama’s "pivot" to Asia is directed at strengthening U.S. Cold War era alliances to tacitly contain a rising China. However, that means that even minor disputes between American allies and China could drag the United States into a shooting war with a nuclear weapons state. Unfortunately, those minor quarrels are occurring now. Among … Continue reading “US Alliances Lead Asian Allies to Be More Antagonistic Toward China”

Although the Nigerian radical Islamist group Boko Haram has long made even the al Qaeda groups look moderate – slaughtering entire villages and shooting or burning to death 59 school boys – it apparently took the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls to get the world’s attention, including that of America and Britain. And then … Continue reading “Public Hysteria Over Boko Haram Is Counterproductive”

All in all, I don’t think Barack Obama has been a very good president. In a new updated version of my book, Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, being published this fall, I rank him 34th of 41 presidents rated. His further injection of the government into the health care and … Continue reading “Obama’s Cautious Approach to Foreign Policy”