Foreign Policy & War

War, Peace, and the Struggle for Liberty (video)

by Justin Raimondo August 24, 2007

On June 1, 2007, Justin Raimondo gave the following Speech at FFF's conference Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. The speech can viewed below in its entirety.

Casual Talk of War

by Sheldon Richman August 13, 2007

The opponents of the Bush wars and the accompanying expansion of government power have been disappointed countless times before. Just the other day the Democrats in Congress acquiesced in the Bush administration’s heavy-handed bid for the power to conduct warrantless eavesdropping on American citizens and residents in the name of ...

War and Leviathan: The Trick that Works Every Time (video)

by Robert Higgs August 10, 2007

Robert Higgs on "War and Leviathan: The Trick That Works Every Time" at the Future of Freedom Foundation's Restoring the Republic, 2007.

Losing and Restoring the Republic

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2007

It is impossible to overstate the fundamental differences between the foreign-policy philosophy of our American ancestors and the foreign-policy mindset that guides our country today. The philosophy of our ancestors was nicely summed up in the Fourth of July address to Congress in 1821 by John Quincy Adams. In essence Adams said, There are lots of bad things all over ...

War Is a Government Program

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2007

It is always amusing to hear conservatives complain — as they are complaining now and used to complain during the Vietnam War — that if it weren’t for the politicians, the generals could win America’s wars. Those with this mindset believe the politicians are always getting in the way by subordinating military considerations to — ugh! — political considerations. ...

The Good and Bad News about the Bush Wars

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2007

There’s good and bad news about the two American-initiated wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The good news is the American people are largely disengaged from them. The bad news is the American people are largely disengaged from them. How can the same piece of news be both good and bad? Let’s see. New York Times foreign-affairs columnist Thomas Friedman laments that most Americans ...

An Imperial Presidency, Part 2

by Gregory Bresiger July 1, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 Republicans and Democrats have, at times, criticized the imperial presidency. Both are, to a certain extent, correct. Both are also hypocritical. It isn’t only politics that has driven these royal presidents. It is a lust for American power in the world — the desire to be “great” or to lead a crusade for democracy ...

The Constitution and Foreign Policy

by Bart Frazier July 1, 2007

Protecting the country from invasion and securing individual rights are two of the vital functions of the federal government. At the same time the government is the greatest threat to our freedom. This was the subject of FFF’s June conference, “Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties.” An underlying theme, touched on by every ...

The Diagnosis of a Dying Republic, Part 2

by Anthony Gregory July 1, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006), 368 pages; $26. The full extent of the American Empire is shown in great clarity throughout Nemesis. In terms of the imperial, hyperpowerful executive branch, perhaps nothing better exemplifies the problem than the CIA, or “the ...

Conservatives Flunk Logic

by Sheldon Richman June 4, 2007

“Hello. I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” Conservatives love to use this line to mock the idea that government can do constructive things for you. Nothing gets a bigger laugh at conservative gatherings. The sentence has two meanings. First, it makes fun of the notion that politicians have ...

Saving the Republic, Resisting the Imperial Temptation (video)

by Doug Bandow June 2, 2007

Doug Bandow is a Washington-based political writer and policy analyst and Robert A. Taft Fellow with the American Conservative Defense Alliance. He served as a special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and as a senior policy analyst in the 1980 Reagan for President campaign. He has been widely published in leading newspapers and periodicals and has appeared on numerous radio ...

An Imperial Presidency, Part 1

by Gregory Bresiger June 1, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2   Congress has the power “To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water....”   — U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8 The doctrine of energy in government, as I said before, ...