The Obama administration has started off on the wrong foot with North Korea. In the wake of Pyongyang’s April rocket launch, the new administration decided to push a statement of condemnation through the UN Security Council. It has subsequently decided to largely ignore North Korea. According to one U.S. diplomat, the administration believes that it… Continue reading North Korea and Malign Neglect
St. Augustine fooled around a lot as a young man. At one point during his philandering, according to his Confessions, the future Church Father uttered the immortal lines: “Give me chastity. But not yet.” President Obama has taken a very Augustinian approach to nuclear weapons. He has identified a desired goal. But at the same… Continue reading Abolition Follies
Think about the term “money laundering” for a moment. It suggests that the more often dirty money changes hands, the cleaner it gets. Globalization operates according to the same imagined principle. If we tear down the barriers to the free flow of capital, our economies will cleanse themselves of protectionist impurities. The faster that money… Continue reading Capitalist Pigs
One hundred days isn’t enough to judge a presidency, the cautious pundits say. “It takes time for a president to put his team in place, formulate policy, steer legislation through Congress, and conduct foreign negotiations,” history professor Allan J. Lichtman writes in The Washington Post. Look instead, he says, to the next 100 days. But… Continue reading 100-Day Dash
Editor’s note: This article appears in Thirsting for Change: Obama’s First 100 Days, a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies. The Bush administration transformed the way the United States dealt with the world. It invaded two countries, began a war on terror that had no geographic or time limits, boosted military spending, acted… Continue reading Obama’s First Hundred Days: Foreign Policy
The current “war against piracy,” which is spilling into Kenyan and U.S. courthouses after months of simmering off the coast of Somalia, is only the latest in a long series of U.S. actions against non-state actors in the service of empire. The “Global War on Terror,” which the Obama administration recently replaced with the vaguer… Continue reading Piracy and Empire
It’s a time of war and depression, and populist leaders have emerged in Latin America. The U.S. president declares a new era of friendship and equality. The Monroe Doctrine appears to be on its last legs. Take your pick: the 1930s or today. In yet another parallel between Barack Obama and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the… Continue reading Great Neighbor Policy
North Korea’s recent rocket launch received few congratulations and many condemnations, including the recent UN censure. Although Pyongyang did not manage to put a satellite into orbit, it did succeed in getting the world’s attention. It has sustained this attention by kicking out nuclear inspectors, vowing to restart its plutonium processing program, and declaring an… Continue reading North Korea’s Sunshine Policy
He nicknamed himself “The Killer” because he was tired of all the stereotypes about the Balkans. “It was a reaction to the typical perception of internationals to the Balkans, to balkanization, and to the wars and the people here,” Ranko “The Killer” Milanović-Blank explains. “Wherever I went after the war, in Europe, in the United… Continue reading Balkan Myths
Institutions almost never vote themselves out of existence. They just plug along, inventing new missions if the old ones disappear. Last week, two summits tried to inject new life into fading institutions. At the NATO summit, defense ministers gathered to figure out how an institution tied so intimately to the Cold War could still function… Continue reading Mouth-to-Mouth Summitry