Foreign Affairs

America Against the World
27
Mar
, , , , , , , , , ,

America Against the World

BY: Philip Giraldi PEJOURNAL - There are certainly a number of reasons why American government is now only viewed favorably by the Israelis, but totally tone deaf foreign and economic policies have to be right up there in how the world sees Washington. Rather than conform to how other nations are expected to behave, America has elevated “exceptionalism” and “leader of the free world” nonsense to a dogma where it believes itself allowed to behave without restraint in defense of what it claims to be its interests. As all countries act in support of interests, that would at least be…
Read More
The National Interest: The Case for Kissinger
22
Jul
, , , , , , , , , , ,

The National Interest: The Case for Kissinger

PEJOURNAL - HENRY KISSINGER, who recently turned ninety-seven, is America’s most celebrated living statesman. None of his successors has come close to matching the extraordinary blend of acclaim and notoriety, admiration and criticism that he attracted as national security adviser and secretary of state to Richard M. Nixon and secretary of state to Gerald Ford. The British Foreign Office referred to him at the time as “the Wizard of the Western World'” and Playboy Bunnies voted him the man they would prefer to date in 1972—no small accomplishments for an expert on the Congress of Vienna who spent much of…
Read More
Foreign Affairs: Democracy Versus the Pandemic
16
Jun
, , , ,

Foreign Affairs: Democracy Versus the Pandemic

The Coronavirus Is Emboldening Autocrats the World Over By Larry Diamond PEJOURNAL - In late March, Philippine strongman Rodrigo Duterte rammed a bill through his country’s parliament that granted him vastly expanded emergency powers, ostensibly to fight the novel coronavirus. The bill authorized Duterte to reallocate the national budget as he saw fit and to personally direct hospitals. “Do not challenge the government,” he bellowed in a menacing televised address. “You will lose.” Six days later, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban pushed even more expansive emergency legislation through his rubber-stamp parliament, enabling him to suspend existing laws, decree new ones,…
Read More
Foreign Affairs: America’s Opportunity in the Middle East; Diplomacy Could Succeed Where Military Force Has Failed
12
Jun
, , , ,

Foreign Affairs: America’s Opportunity in the Middle East; Diplomacy Could Succeed Where Military Force Has Failed

U.S. foreign policy hands are rightly grappling with how engaged the United States should be in the Middle East. Thought-provoking essays by Martin Indyk (in The Wall Street Journal) and Mara Karlin and Tamara Cofman Wittes (in Foreign Affairs) have argued that the United States has few remaining vital interests—those worth going to war over—in the region. Washington should “do less” in the Middle East, as Karlin and Wittes put it, and lighten the U.S. footprint because, as the headline of Indyk’s essay noted, it “isn’t worth it.” Gone are the days when 180,000 U.S. troops fought in Iraq or when spiking…
Read More