The lumbering aircraft carrier known as the United States should be executing a pivot that lives up to its name: a shift from the martial to the pacific.
The Asia-Pacific Pivot: More Smoke Than Firepower
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military spending
Reasons To Be Cheerful
Before we get cynical about 2014, let’s recount the good news from 2013: declining U.S. militarism, a resurgence of diplomacy, and a more forceful global discussion about inequality.
In What World Does Spending 3/4 of a Billion Dollars on One Bomber Make Sense?
The more state-of-the-art military technology is the more can go wrong with it ― especially during war-time.
America’s Orphaned Diplomacy
Thanks to some well-timed diplomacy this September, the world narrowly escaped another U.S. intervention in the Middle East. But military action in Syria was not prevented by a professional diplomatic strategy on the part of the Obama administration—that part was...
The Jellification of Politics
The world will not end with bang or a whimper. It will end with the silent slither of jellyfish. Literally. And figuratively. On the literal level, jellyfish are indeed taking over. As a result of global warming, overfishing, and fertilizer runoff, these surprisingly...
Retiring the American Empire
As people near retirement age, they enter the twilight years. Sometimes, they rebel against retirement. They want to keep working. They’re not interested in shuffling out of their office never to return. And if they’re in fact the owner of the workplace, conflicts...
Trade-Offs Needed to Enhance U.S. Soft Power
Retired Gen. David Petraeus and Michael O’Hanlon are correct that we should protect funding for the State Department and the Agency for International Development (“Fund — Don’t Cut — U.S. Soft Power” POLITICO, May 1) because doing so enhances our national security. Their comments are in line with those of former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who made this point several times during his time in office.
Sequestering American Exceptionalism
The political debate over sequestration has thus far focused on tradeoffs between domestic and military spending, tax cuts and deficits. Left out are questions about whether the United States should be responsible for policing the world or whether international agencies might address terrorism, aggression, and political instability in a more consistent, comprehensive, and internationally acceptable manner.
Sequestration: Our Military is Due for Downsizing
In fact, sequestration will not “gut” our military. Sequestration will take our military budget back to the level it was in 2007, when we were still fighting two wars.
Four More Years: Europe’s Meltdown
Back in the 1960s, the U.S. peace movement came up with a catchy phrase: “What if the schools got all the money they needed and the Navy had to hold a bake sale to buy an aircraft carrier?” Well, the Italian Navy has a line of clothing, and is taking a cut from a soft drink called “Forza Blu” in order to make up for budget cuts. It plans to market energy snacks and mineral water. Things are a little rocky in Europe these days.