Scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the U.S. a more responsible global partner.
War & Peace
Liberals Back Dictator’s Ethnic War

Liberals Back Dictator’s Ethnic War

by | Jun 9, 2010

Human rights activists in the world’s most powerful country report that a mystical African is forcing children into his army and killing women who encourage men to leave it. They call his rebellion bizarre and inexplicable, and demand military intervention. Liberal legislators lay aside their usual criticism of their country’s bullying of Africa for economic and military gain, and support an attack on the madman on humanitarian grounds.

read more

Part 1-The Futility of Trying to Debate Our Way to Disarmament

by | Jun 9, 2010

You’re passionate about the abolition of nuclear weapons. But isn’t owning up to an uncompromising position on disarmament just a way of marginalizing yourself? Perhaps not. In the long run, those in the margins — grassroots types sprouting by the side of the road — may have a better chance of implementing disarmament than those steering policy limos down the middle of the road.

read more

Obama Shakes Pillars of US Security

by | Jun 3, 2010

In sharp contrast to the NSS released by president George W Bush six months before the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the 52-page document underlined the limits of military power and the kind of unilateralism that characterized Bush’s first term, in particular.

read more

American Denial: Living in a Can’t-Do Nation

by | Jun 3, 2010

Back in 1966, the world was in debt to us. We were the high-tech brand you wanted to own. Here’s what I didn’t doubt then: that I would get a job. I didn’t spend much time thinking about my working future, because American affluence and the global dominance that went with it left me unshakably confident that, when I was ready, I would land somewhere effortlessly. So much of daily life would be predicated on, and tied to, the country’s economic power, cheap oil, staggering productivity, and an ability to act imperially on a global stage without seeming (to us Americans at least) like an imperial entity.

read more

The Nuclear Posture Attack

by | Jun 3, 2010

In a May 11 Washington Times editorial, Frank Gaffney, Ed Meese, Clifford May, and four additional coauthors—all of whom represent institutions that form part of the hawkish extreme of the Republican Party establishment—called for a “renewed adherence to the national security philosophy of President Ronald Reagan: ‘Peace Through Strength.’”

read more

The Trillion-Dollar Question

by | Jun 1, 2010

The full-page ads in The Washington Post seem so reasonable. The military contractor Pratt & Whitney has been arguing that America doesn’t need to spend $485 million to develop a second engine for the F-35 jet fighter. It’s a compelling argument. We’re in a serious economic crisis, so why on earth would we build another jet engine when the first one is sufficient?

read more