Ted Galen Carpenter

U.S. leaders once understood and accepted that strong powers would insist on a security zone and broad sphere of influence in their immediate geographic region. An especially persistent feature of international affairs has been the existence of spheres of influence. Major powers routinely seek to shape the international system to their advantage and exclude, or … Continue reading “US Must Accept Spheres of Influence To Preserve Peace”

From its founding in 1949 until the start of NATO’s proxy war against Russia in 2022, the principal troublesome issue for the Alliance was Washington’s repeated calls for greater burden-sharing on the part of its allies.  Discontent on Washington’s part emerged early and often.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, warned … Continue reading “NATO’s New Burden-Sharing Objectives”

I am extremely proud to be a scholar with Antiwar.com. It has long been the most dedicated, principled, and unflinching opponent of the powerful bureaucratic war machine that continues to drag the American people into disastrous armed conflicts around the world. Antiwar.com’s role stands in marked contrast to most press outlets and think tanks, which … Continue reading “Antiwar.com’s Determined Struggle Against the War Machine”

An especially hot news item in 2024 has been the surge of drug-related violence in Ecuador.  Until recent years, Ecuador was hailed as an island of relative stability in the swirling violence of the illegal drug trade in the Western hemisphere.  The situation there contrasted with the level of chaos and violence in neighboring countries … Continue reading “Yet Another Drug War Failure”

It might seem premature to talk about ending the second cold war when it seems that it is barely underway.  Just a few years ago, populations were celebrating the end of the first cold war.  That era of animosity ended with dramatic suddenness.  General Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, observed waggishly … Continue reading “Ending the Second Cold War”

During the Cold War, world populations faced the ongoing nightmare of a nuclear attack coming out of the blue. All it would have taken was one miscalculation by either side. Such a trigger could even have taken the form of a false alert. We know that at least one such incident nearly led to catastrophe. … Continue reading “How Washington Killed the Nuclear Arms Control System”

When Russian forces expanded their military presence in Ukraine in February 2022, U.S. officials and most of the Western news media portrayed the development as a brazen act of aggression by a dictatorship against a peaceful democracy.  The reality was much more complex.  Ukraine had allowed itself to become NATO’s pawn in Russia’s security zone.  … Continue reading “NATO’s Undeniably Corrupt Ukrainian Client”

A recurring defect in US foreign policy is a refusal by elites to concede when they made a serious policy mistake.  This is not a new problem, but it has grown decidedly worse in the past few decades.  It characterized the intervention in Vietnam years after it should have become evident that Washington’s approach was … Continue reading “Refusing To Admit US Foreign Policy Blunders”

When Barack Obama implemented George W. Bush’s agreement to withdraw all U.S. military forces from Iraq by the end of 2011, most Americans likely concluded that Washington’s disastrous intervention had come to an end.  However, the administration reintroduced combat forces to Iraq and sent troops to Syria when ISIS launched its military offensive in 2013-2014 … Continue reading “Washington’s Continuing Contempt for Its Iraqi ‘Ally’”

There are multiple indications that members of the foreign policy establishment are increasingly worried that the American people are growing weary of Washington’s strategic overextension and the excessive costs in treasure and blood that role imposes.  Elites show their nervousness through desperate attempts to preserve the policy status quo.  One recent example was the effort … Continue reading “The Foreign Policy Blob’s Desperate Attempt To Preserve NATO”