Foreign Policy & War

Disaster Relief and Foreign Aid

by Laurence M. Vance November 4, 2024

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season (June 1 through November 30) has so far resulted in 15 tropical storms, 10 of which became hurricanes (winds exceeding 73 mph), and four of which were classified as major hurricanes (category 3, 4, or 5 — with winds over 110 mph). Many residents of North Carolina, Florida, and other southern states are still ...

The Liberal Ideal for Peace and Against War

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2024

Wars, conquest, mass killings, occupation, and plunder have plagued the world for all of recorded history. Primitive tribes fighting over waterholes and hunting grounds. Kings and princes claiming divine right to rule over all those they conquer and impose their violent will upon. Nation-states asserting rights and claims to lands and peoples based on racial, ethnic, linguistic, or cultural ...

What Trump Didn’t Say about NATO

by Laurence M. Vance June 1, 2024

During his first presidential campaign in 2016, former president and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump berated NATO member counties for failing to increase their defense spending to 2 percent of GDP. He took some heat for his remarks but never seriously questioned the existence of the military alliance. Now Trump has done it again — and then some. At ...

The Case for Libertarian Internationalism

by Laurence M. Vance March 1, 2024

Libertarians and conservatives share a common enemy. Whether it is described as liberalism, progressivism, collectivism, or socialism; whether its adherents term themselves liberals, progressives, Democrats, or democratic socialists — the agenda is the same: paternalism, universal health care, free college tuition, more gun-control laws, social justice, green energy, environmentalism, climate-change alarmism, affirmative action, government-mandated family leave, government-funded child care, ...

Foreign Aid Shows True Nature of Conservatism

by Laurence M. Vance November 1, 2023

After the horrific attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, conservatives wasted no time in denouncing U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinians. Although it was not their intention in doing so, they showed the true nature of conservatism. Advancing American Freedom, an “organization advocating for Conservative values and policy proposals” founded by former vice president ...

You’re Not Allowed to Say That NATO Caused the War, Unless You Are NATO’s Secretary General

by Benjamin Abelow October 17, 2023

There are two competing narratives about the origins of the Ukraine War. According to one narrative, Vladimir Putin is a Hitler-like aggressor. He wants to reestablish the Soviet empire by swallowing Ukraine and threatening the Baltic countries, Poland, and the nations further west. This narrative was created by Washington and Brussels. It has been repeated by European leaders and echoed ...

Congressional and Media Hypocrisy on Cluster Bombs

by Ted Galen Carpenter September 29, 2023

The U.S. elite’s alleged commitment to human rights and opposition to war crimes was just put to the test in an especially clear fashion. Not surprisingly, both Congress and the American news media failed that test. On September 27, 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives voted down an amendment to the appropriations bill funding the Pentagon that Rep. Matt ...

Disaster Relief, Foreign Aid, and Ukraine

by Laurence M. Vance September 5, 2023

The deadly fire in Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui is the fire seen round the world. The death toll is in the hundreds, with hundreds more still missing and thousands of people evacuated. There is a lot of blame to go around. Progressives are blaming the severity of the fire on climate change. Some people are questioning why ...

America’s Forever Wars Are Not the Problem

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2023

Ever since it became clear that the U.S. invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq were turning into disasters, a common refrain has been to end America’s “forever wars.” Politicians of all political stripes, commentators in the mainstream press, and various conservative and libertarian think tanks and educational foundations have embraced the refrain, thinking that if only America can ...

There Is No America First Case for Supporting Ukraine

by Laurence M. Vance September 1, 2023

After the United States foolishly and unnecessarily intervened in World War One — against the warnings of the Founding Fathers about getting involved in European wars — and lost over 116,000 of its young men, American sentiment underwent a shift toward neutrality and nonintervention. With Europe once again embroiled in war beginning in the late 1930s, the America First Committee ...

The Myth of NATO as a Defensive Alliance

by Ted Galen Carpenter August 31, 2023

Western leaders have long fostered the self-serving myth that NATO is an organization solely for the mutual defense of its members. The corollary is that other nations therefore have no legitimate reason to fear the most powerful military alliance in history. After all, it is an association of peace-loving democracies. The operational expression of the myth is ...

A Pox on Many Houses in Ukraine

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2023

When Russia invaded Ukraine, it immediately became an easy decision for today’s interventionists. Their position was both simple and simplistic: Ukraine is a sovereign and independent country. Russia initiated a war against Ukraine by invading the country. Therefore, Russia is bad and should be condemned. Moreover, the U.S. government, as well as NATO, should come to Ukraine’s defense by ...