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Empire is not like the weather, which is sometimes said to be the subject of much talk and little action. Generally, Americans don’t even talk about empire, so they’re not likely to do anything for or against it. That is a shame, since the existence of a world-saving and world-straddling American empire surely does things … Continue reading “Truth or Consequences in an Age of Empire”

My old friend – or at least acquaintance of (shudder!) more than 30 years – Rep. Dana Rohrabacher came to the Orange County Register last week and I got a little more insight into just how difficult our job of keeping the United States out of foreign entanglements is likely to be. Dana assured me … Continue reading “THE NEED FOR ENEMIES,”

FELIX MORLEY (1894-1981) Felix Morley served the cause we now call the Old Right for many years. His thought was a well-wrought synthesis of classical republicanism and classical liberalism. This led people to see him as a "conservative" – but let’s not argue labels just now. Born in Pennsylvania in 1894 to English parents, Morley … Continue reading “Felix Morley: An Old-fashioned Republican”

In war, goes the old saw, the first casualty is truth. That was certainly the case in the Kosovo war/bombardment/whatever, but it is important to remind ourselves and others of the fact. Lies will certainly be told during the next conflict – and who among us can doubt that there will be a next conflict. … Continue reading “The First Casualty”

The Betrayal of Democracy in Post-Soviet Georgia by Chad Nagle British Helsinki Human Rights Group Special to Antiwar.com 11/30/99 Maybe, when the Soviet Union collapsed, it was infeasible for the West to hold Nuremberg trials for all the Communist Party nomenklatura members who had hounded, arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed dissidents and political prisoners for … Continue reading “The Betrayal of Democracy In Post-Soviet Georgia”

LIBERTARIAN AND GEORGIST Frank Chodorov (1887-1966) could well be called a libertarian’s libertarian. The eleventh child of Russian immigrants on the Lower West Side of New York, he was named Fishel Chodorowsky but was "always known as Frank Chodorov."1 A 1907 graduate of Columbia University, he had a textile business, followed by a mail-order clothing … Continue reading “Frank Chodorov: A Libertarian’s Libertarian”

I wrote last week about the disappointment Steve Forbes has been in his foreign policy statements – essentially embracing Cold War nostalgia and Great Power clichés about the continuing need for the United States to be wary of enemies and especially to pursue a needlessly provocative policy toward China. Last week George Dubya weighed in … Continue reading “DUBYA’S EXPANSIVE VISION”

A Policeman’s Lot Is Not a Happy One – at Home and Abroad GOVERNOR EDWARD EYRE AND THE ‘JOYS AND SORROWS OF EMPIRE’ Edward John Eyre (1815-1901) was a great builder of the British Empire. After a career as a magistrate in Australia, where an occasional lake is named for him (occasionally there’s water in … Continue reading “A Policeman’s Lot Is Not a Happy One – at Home and Abroad”

While the war in Chechnya was preoccupying delegates to the OSCE summit in Istanbul last week another potential crisis was developing in the Balkans. On 14th November the small republic of Macedonia elected a new president, Boris Trajkovsky. But supporters of the losing candidate Tito Petkovsky – who led by a considerable margin in the … Continue reading “Macedonia: the Next Balkan Flashpoint”

Not so many years ago I really wanted to like Steve Forbes – and to tell the truth, I still can’t help liking him personally; I find his clumsy, crooked grin endearing and I think he’s one of the more substantive candidates American politics has coughed up in recent years. Before he started running for … Continue reading “THE FORBES DISAPPOINTMENT”