Foreign Policy & War

Nightfall on the American Empire

by Matthew Harwood April 1, 2018

In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power by Alfred W. McCoy (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2017). In August of 2007, David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States and director of the Government Accountability Office, delivered a speech remarkable for its plainspoken nature to the Federal Midwest Human Resources ...

The Libertarian Angle: Reject Foreign Interventionism

by Future of Freedom Foundation March 13, 2018

Special guest Doug Bandow, senior fellow a The Cato Institute, talks foreign intervention with Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling. Go to the podcast.

The Libertarian Angle: The Korea Olympics Brouhaha (video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation February 13, 2018

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling talking discuss the growing tensions on the Korean peninsula. Go to the podcast.

About Those “S***hole” Countries

by Scott McPherson January 18, 2018

President Trump caused a stir when he allegedly referred to some Third World countries as “shitholes” in a recent meeting on immigration reform with congressional leaders. The president used the term to label those countries whose emigrants we're apparently supposed to shun. Predictably, the president was called a racist for his remarks. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said the ...

The Founding Fathers’ “Great Rule” for U.S. Foreign Policy

by Elizabeth Cobbs January 1, 2018

People who don’t get heard have a tendency to shout. Eventually they get mad. For too long, foreign-policy experts have stuck their fingers in their ears when confronted by citizens ambivalent about playing global police officer. Republican Donald Trump is channeling their voices through his electric bullhorn, whipping up the crowd and questioning the validity of institutions like NATO. Regardless ...

“A Republic, If You Can Keep It”

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2017

James Madison, the father of the U.S. Constitution, wrote that of all the enemies to liberty, war is the greatest. What he meant by that is that governments inevitably use wars and other crises and emergencies to centralize and expand their powers over the citizenry. Thus, in the process of claiming to keep the citizenry safe from external threats, ...

A Morally Rudderless America

by Scott McPherson November 30, 2017

A U.S. Navy pilot flying over far north Okanogan County, Washington, is in hot water for leaving contrails in the sky in the shape of a penis. According to a report from CBS News affiliate KREM, people on the ground saw the image and complained. One mother was “upset because she might have to explain the ...

Another Bloody American Century

by Matthew Harwood November 1, 2017

The Violent American Century: War and Terror since World War II by John W. Dower (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2017; 184 pages) Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) was livid. “In the dead of night,” the California Democrat wrote on Twitter in July, House Speaker Paul Ryan did something “underhanded and undemocratic.” He stripped out her bipartisan amendment to repeal ...

The Libertarian Angle: The North Korea Crisis

by Future of Freedom Foundation August 15, 2017

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling discussing rising tensions with North Korea. Go to the podcast.

America’s Turn toward Empire

by Matthew Harwood August 1, 2017

The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire by Stephen Kinzer (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2017; 320 pages) Sen. Mark Hanna, a Republican from Ohio and President William McKinley’s campaign manager, couldn’t contain himself. How could the delegates to the Republican National Convention not see through the man wearing a ...

The Exit Strategy of Empire

by Wendy McElroy July 1, 2017

The Roman Empire never doubted that it was the defender of civilization. Its good intentions were peace, law and order. The Spanish Empire added salvation. The British Empire added the noble myth of the white man’s burden. We have added freedom and democracy. — Garet Garrett, Rise of Empire The first step in creating Empire is to morally justify ...

Come You Masters of War

by Matthew Harwood July 1, 2017

America’s War for the Greater Middle East by Andrew J. Bacevich (New York: Random House, 2016; 480 pages) America’s military involvement in the Middle East began in classic imperial fashion, according to military historian and retired Army colonel Andrew J. Bacevich. They had something we needed, and we made sure we had access to it. “Oil has ...