Foreign Policy & War

States, United States: America’s James Bond Complex

by Sheldon Richman February 4, 2015

Today, American politicians of both major parties — conservatives, “moderates,” and so-called liberals alike — insist that the United States is an “exceptional,” even “indispensable” nation. In practice, this means that for the United States alone the rules are different. Particularly in international affairs, it — the government and its personnel — can do whatever deemed necessary to carry ...

The Libertarian Angle: American Sniper Revisited

by Future of Freedom Foundation February 2, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the debate continues over the smash hit movie American Sniper. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

The American Sniper Was No Hero

by Sheldon Richman January 28, 2015

Portuguese Despite what some people think, hero is not a synonym for competent government-hired killer. If Clint Eastwood’s record-breaking movie, American Sniper, launches a frank public conversation about war and heroism, the great director will have performed a badly needed service for the country and the world. This is neither ...

The Libertarian Angle: American Sniper

by Future of Freedom Foundation January 26, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the hit movie American Sniper. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

TGIF: The Open Society and Its Worst Enemies

by Sheldon Richman January 16, 2015

Last week’s bloody events in Paris demonstrate yet again that a noninterventionist foreign policy, far from being a luxury, is an urgent necessity -- literally a matter of life and death. A government that repeatedly wages wars of aggression — the most extreme form of extremism — endangers the society it ostensibly protects by gratuitously making enemies, some of whom will seek revenge against ...

Understanding the Paris Violence

by Sheldon Richman January 14, 2015

Contrary to American officialdom and its stalwart “manufacturers of consent” — the intelligentsia and mainstream media — we will never comprehend the reasons for the slaughter of 17 innocent people in Paris as long as we ignore the history of Western violence against the Muslim world. Perpetrators and cheerleaders of Western violence stifle discussion of what motivates young Muslims to ...

L’affaire Charlie Hebdo and Western Colonialism

by John V. Walsh January 14, 2015

To understand the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week, we need only invert George W. Bush’s 2005 mantra*, thus: “They will continue to attack us over here so long as we slaughter them by the millions over there.” In a word, this is one more instance of blowback, as Ron Paul tells us in his perceptive essay, “

The Libertarian Angle: The War in Afghanistan

by Future of Freedom Foundation January 5, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the continuing saga that is Afghanistan. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

The Libertarian Angle: Foreign Policy Blowback and Police Tyranny

by Future of Freedom Foundation December 8, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: foreign blowback and police tyranny . The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.  

Familiar Bedfellows

by Sheldon Richman November 19, 2014

Hillary and Henry sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G-E-R! It says a lot about former secretary of state and presumed presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton that she’s a member of the Henry Kissinger Fan Club. Progressives who despised George W. Bush might want to examine any warm, fuzzy feelings they harbor for Clinton. She has made no effort to hide her admiration for ...

An Individualistic Foreign Policy

by Laurence M. Vance October 28, 2014

Two Americans were killed this past summer fighting for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in its ground offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Both were young men, and both were U.S. citizens. One had dual citizenship and the other joined the Israeli army after visiting the country in 2012. It turns out that there is a long ...

Liberty.me: The Antimilitarist Libertarian Tradition with Sheldon Richman

by Sheldon Richman October 23, 2014

FFF vice-president Sheldon Richman's monthly webinar at Liberty.me. It is not possible to favor both freedom and war. War goes with tyranny, despotism, and socialism, which is why the liberal tradition has been unflinching in its support of peace. Strangely, there are periods in which this truth has been forgotten or suppressed: 19th century British ...