Ivan Eland

With populism running wild in Europe and in the United States – the Brexit and American presidential candidate Donald Trump questioning U.S. alliances being just two obvious examples – suddenly people are asking the big questions about the future of Western institutions that should have been asked after the Cold War ended. Both the Brexit … Continue reading “How About an Amerexit from NATO and Other One-Sided Military Alliances?”

More than 50 U.S. mid-level diplomats have sent a memo through the State Department’s "dissent channel" to a likely sympathetic Secretary of State John Kerry, advocating an American bombing campaign to bring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the negotiating table in the bloody Syrian civil war. The memo concluded, "It is time that the United … Continue reading “The ‘Experts’ Are Wrong in Advocating Escalation in Syria”

The mass shooting in Orlando, Florida at a gay nightclub, by a man pledging a seemingly last-minute allegiance to the ISIS terror group, leads to questions about whether the U.S. government has been adequately protecting its citizens. Going back in time, the U.S. government inadvertently created al Qaeda by encouraging, funding, and arming radical Islamist … Continue reading “Given Orlando, Has the US Government Been Adequately Protecting the Public?”

Although it is customary to say nice things about a person who has died, Muhammad Ali has been rightly commended for not only his superb boxing career but also his principled opposition to the then-popular Vietnam War. Unlike later chairborne hawks, such as Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney, Ali did not try to evade the … Continue reading “Muhammad Ali’s Real Legacy: True Patriotism”

As the nation once again honors American war dead on Memorial Day, instead of spouting the usual nationalistic platitudes that U.S. soldiers fought to keep the country "safe and free," perhaps we should analyze whether that is really true. Since the 9/11 attacks, more than double the number of Americans killed in those terrorist attacks … Continue reading “Memorial Day Should Make Us Rethink Platitudes About the US Military”

As President Barack Obama’s visit to Vietnam and the lifting of the arms embargo to that country represents his "pivot to Asia," his simultaneous killing of Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, the Taliban leader in Pakistan, and the U.S.-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s announcement of an assault to free Fallujah in Iraq illustrate why the … Continue reading “Trajectory of US Policy in Vietnam Offers a Roadmap for the Mideast”

As President Obama visits still-communist Vietnam, a former American rival, in his "pivot to Asia" to recruit more countries to shelter against a rising China, the trip only serves to illustrate the global American Empire’s overextension. At the same time, he is opening missile defenses in Europe, quadrupling U.S. military spending there, and deploying more … Continue reading “Our Military Needs to Defend the Country, Not Undermine American Security”

With his proposals for a registry of Muslims, a ban on their entry into the country, building a wall to prevent illegal immigration, and the deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants, Donald Trump, if he were elected president, might trend the country domestically toward fascism. (His election is possible but still unlikely, because the Democrats … Continue reading “The World Through Trump’s Eyes”

Despite Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s reality show candidacy, his recent foreign policy speech put forth a realistic view of the world and a largely credible foreign policy to deal with it. Continuing his poke at the political establishment, the maverick candidate proposed a viable alternative to the bipartisan foreign policy consensus, which uses unneeded … Continue reading “Trump: Crazy Candidate Has Sensible Foreign Policy Views”

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has convincingly advocated a reassessment of U.S. alliances around the world. President Obama’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia should prompt such a reevaluation of the U.S.-Saudi relationship. The United States no longer needs to coddle the despotic monarchy and should end this alliance of convenience. The informal U.S.-Saudi alliance began … Continue reading “The US Should Quit Coddling Badly-Behaving Saudi Arabia”