Ted Galen Carpenter

Former FBI director James Comey has provoked a First Amendment firestorm with a display of sea shells that included the sequence: “86 47.”  Many supporters of President Donald Trump note that in popular culture “86” frequently is used as slang for eliminating (killing) someone.  “47,” they conclude, obviously refers to Trump, the 47th president of … Continue reading “James Comey Should be Shunned, Not Prosecuted”

We often hear U.S. and NATO spokesmen claim that they believe in a rules-based international order. They don’t. The United States and its NATO allies have stressed repeatedly that Russia’s use of force to seize portions of Ukraine is reprehensible. They were emphatic on that point in 2014 when the Kremlin responded to the West’s … Continue reading “Turkey: A Rogue US Ally’s Territorial Conquests”

April 30, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of the final, definitive defeat of the U.S. military crusade in Vietnam.  The images of U.S. helicopters desperately flying American diplomats and Washington’s high-level South Vietnamese collaborators from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon effectively captured not only the chaotic environment, but also the extent of … Continue reading “50 Years On: US Elites Learned Nothing From the Vietnam Defeat”

For Americans who still think that Donald Trump is an advocate of realism and restraint in foreign policy, the events in Yemen should come as a rude awakening.  Unfortunately, the most prominent indicator enabled the president’s political opponents to evade their own share of the blame for the tragic events in that country.  Revelations that … Continue reading “Trump’s Unconstitutional, Presidential War Against Yemen”

President Trump should avoid a snare of his own making and extricate the United States from the war between Russia and Ukraine. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly indicated that he expected the war between Ukraine and Russia to end quickly once he entered the oval office. He even boasted that he could … Continue reading “Trump Must Cut the Ukraine Albatross Loose”

Appeasement was a bad idea in 1938, but it’s often a good idea. Ukraine would be wise to appease Russia. Ukraine’s supporters in the United States and Europe insist that any agreement ending Kyiv’s war with Russia must not involve Ukrainian territorial concessions, or Russia will profit from an inexcusable act of aggression against its … Continue reading “Sometimes, Appeasement Is the Best Option”

Supporters of the U.S.-NATO proxy war in Ukraine employ a range of dubious justifications.  One is a refurbished version of the old domino theory used during the Cold War – if the United States and its allies don’t help Ukraine expel Russian occupation forces, the victorious Kremlin will then launch offensives against other European countries … Continue reading “Moral Bankruptcy: Justifying the Ukraine War as Good for the US Economy”

The commitment of Washington’s European allies to democracy is increasingly fragile, if not hypocritical, as Vice President J D Vance highlighted in his speech to the Munich Security Conference last month. That problem is most acute in Romania. In the first round of the country’s presidential election on November 24, 2024, Calin Georgescu, the candidate … Continue reading “Canary in the Coal Mine: Romania’s Dying Democracy”

U.S. officials have a long history of portraying Washington’s allies and clients as democratic, even when their behavior is blatantly authoritarian.  Such cynical hypocrisy was at its zenith during the Cold War, but it is surging again.  A similar trend is evident with respect to U.S. interference in the internal political affairs of other countries … Continue reading “US ‘Democratic’ Allies Are Becoming Increasingly Authoritarian”

One of the earliest points to become apparent about Donald Trump’s second term as president is that there is a significant difference in foreign policy priorities and a vast change in style from his predecessors over the past 8 or 9 decades.  Blather about the United States promoting or defending democracy around the world has … Continue reading “Will There Be a Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine?”