Articles by: James W Carden

The U.S. Foreign Policy Establishment Proves in Ukraine That It Forgot the Lessons of Vietnam

The U.S. Foreign Policy Establishment Proves in Ukraine That It Forgot the Lessons of Vietnam

Friday, January 27th, marks 50 years since the signing of the Paris Peace Accords by representatives from the United States, North and South Vietnam effectively ending American participation in the Vietnamese civil conflict. What the Georgetown University international relations scholar Charles Kuphan calls an “isolationist impulse” made a “significant comeback in response to the Vietnam War, which severely strained the[Read More…]

by — 27/01/2023 — Comments are Disabled — World
How Do We Stop the Neocons From Starting Another Disaster in Ukraine?

How Do We Stop the Neocons From Starting Another Disaster in Ukraine?

If anything, Washington’s neoconservatives have an unerring instinct for survival. Having brought about multiple disasters in the two decades since 9/11—from the Iraq War to the twin debacles in Libya and Syria—the neoconservatives seem to have perfected the art of failing up. Harvard University’s Stephen Walt once quipped that “Being a Neocon Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry.” And in this[Read More…]

by — 15/12/2021 — Comments are Disabled — World
Annalena Baerbock

Change Is Coming to Berlin: What Col. Douglas Macgregor Thinks About Germany’s New Foreign Policy

Incoming German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has tapped Green Party co-leader Annalena Baerbock as foreign minister. Baerbock, a 40-year-old diplomatic novice, has consistently espoused liberal interventionist views that one left-wing American news site has described as a combination of “aloof complacency, ignorance and aggressiveness.” To help understand the implications of this appointment, I interviewed Douglas Macgregor, a retired U.S. Army colonel[Read More…]

by — 09/12/2021 — Comments are Disabled — World
‘Fascist’ Doesn’t Mean What It Used To

‘Fascist’ Doesn’t Mean What It Used To

The question of whether or not Russia is fascist rarely if ever gets asked nowadays because it seems so obvious: Why waste the time it takes to even ask the question? International relations scholars; major media organizations; non-scholarly yet high-profile shapers of the prevailing wisdom; and politicians on both sides of the aisle seem almost unanimous in their response to[Read More…]

by — 30/10/2021 — Comments are Disabled — Book Review
In U.S. Foreign Policy, Realists Are Finally on the Rise

In U.S. Foreign Policy, Realists Are Finally on the Rise

During the autumn of 2020, the United States lost one of its most brilliant, incisive, yet unheralded thinkers in Sherle R. Schwenninger. One of Schwenninger’s many gifts was his ability to anticipate far in advance trends that would shape U.S. foreign policy and the global political economy. He was also one of the first thinkers to promote an alternative to[Read More…]

by — 19/10/2021 — Comments are Disabled — World
What Kind of a Threat Is Russia?

What Kind of a Threat Is Russia?

On no subject is the bipartisan consensus more unshakable than on the Russian threat. In his latest book, The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency, American political scientist John Mueller demonstrates that since the end of World War II, American policymakers have developed a kind of addiction to threat inflation by “routinely elevating the problematic to[Read More…]

by — 14/10/2021 — Comments are Disabled — World
The UK Carrier Strike Group 2021, led by HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, departing the UK [Credit: Royal Navy/Flickr]

How AUKUS May Damage NATO

The fallout over the AUKUS deal, as we are now seeing, has been a severe rift in relations between two historic allies, the U.S. and France. And the collateral damage may also include NATO. Only weeks after U.S. President Joe Biden courageously ended the war in Afghanistan—in the face of bitter opposition from the media and Congress—came the announcement of the formation of AUKUS,[Read More…]

by — 23/09/2021 — 1 comment — World