Section: Cato Institute (USA)
What If North Korea Makes an Offer Trump Can’t Refuse?
Doug Bandow North Korea has just reminded the United States that it is intent on negotiating with the United States, not accepting an administration diktat, especially one explicitly modeled after the Libya deal, which ultimately ended in the gruesome death of Muammar el-Qaddafi, who agreed to its terms. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently...
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly about the Korean Summits
Doug Bandow North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is different from his father. But will the result of Kim’s summits be different from those of his father? So far no one has lost money betting against reconciliation with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Kim stepped dramatically onto the world stage when he met South Korean...
The Iranian Rial Through the Eyes of the Black-Market Premium
Steve H. Hanke The Islamic Republic of Iran’s economy suffers internal, debilitating problems. Many anti-market seeds were sown by the last Shah. These seeds have been well tended and aggressively added to by Iran’s current theocratic regime. If these homemade economic problems weren’t enough, Iran’s foreign policy...
Too Many Foreign Policy Double Standards Hurt U.S. Credibility
Ted Galen Carpenter American leaders like to portray the United States as an exemplar of ethical conduct in the international system. The reality is far different, and it has been for decades. Throughout the Cold War, the United States embraced extremely repressive rulers, including the Shah of Iran, Nicaragua’s Somoza family,...
Here Are All the Reasons Striking Syria Was a Bad Idea
Ted Galen Carpenter The air and missile strikes that the United States and its British and French allies launched against Syrian government targets are reprehensible for so many reasons. First, Washington’s action is a flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution. Except in cases of responding to an attack on the United States, that document...
Goodbye Trumpian Promises; Hello Beltway Swamp
Ted Galen Carpenter President Trump’s appointment of John Bolton as national security advisor is his final betrayal of anything resembling a realist foreign policy. During the 2016 presidential run, Trump’s statements were a curious, contradictory mixture of realism and extreme nationalistic belligerence. In the former category were...
The Real Problem with Gina Haspel’s Cia Nomination
Ted Galen Carpenter An especially insidious snare for a liberal democracy in the conduct of its foreign policy is the temptation to adopt the strategies and tactics of one’s adversaries. President Donald Trump’s appointment of Gina Haspel as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency highlights that problem. A longtime CIA...
Syrian Kurds: the Other Woman in America’s Relationship with Turkey
Ted Galen Carpenter Tensions have existed for years between Washington and Ankara over the Kurdish population in both Iraq and Syria. U.S. officials regard the Kurds as able fighters and democratic secular allies in the struggle against Islamic extremism. Turkish leaders view them and their agenda for an independent Kurdish homeland as a menace...
The Cheap Assault on the Immigration Visa Lottery
Alex Nowrasteh Congress is in the thick of another intense debate on immigration reform, which comes to a head on Feb. 8, the deadline by which lawmakers must pass a spending bill or the government shuts down again. At center stage is what what happens to Dreamers, illegal immigrants brought here as children, but Republicans have also thrown into...
The Duplicitous Superpower
Ted Galen Carpenter For any country, the foundation of successful diplomacy is a reputation for credibility and reliability. Governments are wary of concluding agreements with a negotiating partner that violates existing commitments and has a record of duplicity. Recent U.S. administrations have ignored that principle, and their actions have...
