Section: Cato Institute (USA)
Washington Must Stop Challenging Other Major Powers in Their Neighborhoods
Ted Galen Carpenter Every reasonable person understandably cheered the demise of the Soviet Union (a true “evil empire”) in 1991. But one unfortunate effect was to free the United States to meddle around the world in regions that previously were well outside Washington’s security perimeter. Not only did the absence of a powerful adversary...
Will Britain Depart the European Union? Should America Care?
Doug Bandow Donald Trump’s success in the U.S. is not unique. Europe is being buffeted by similar populist currents. Illiberal, nationalist governments rule Hungary and Poland. Austria nearly elected a right-wing nationalist as president. Anti-EU leftists share power in Portugal. Swiss voters have targeted immigration and Islam. The Dutch...
NATO Assesses Ukraine and Invites Montenegro: Who’s Afraid of Vladimir Putin?
Doug Bandow NATO’s foreign ministers met last week to assess current security threats. They discussed Afghanistan and North Africa, considered the Russian challenge, and invited Montenegro to join. Alas, the meeting illustrated how NATO has become an expensive burden for America, reducing U.S. security. The North Atlantic Treaty...
Realism Restrained: the Washington Playbook Strikes Back
Emma Ashford In Washington, D.C., where calls for the United States to do more abroad are incessant — whether in Syria, Libya, Ukraine, or the South China Sea — it can be unexpected and even jarring to hear speakers say that America should do less. So last week’s Advancing American Security conference, hosted by the Charles Koch Institute,...
Trump on U.S. Foreign and Economic Policy
Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr. and Tyrus W. Cobb Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump laid out a foreign policy approach that—not surprisingly—“would put America first”. In his carefully scripted (and read) first serious foray into American global issues, Trump called for a major build-up of the military, a rejection of...
Russia and NATO Meet: Time for Allies to Call off Mini-Cold War with Moscow
Doug Bandow The NATO-Russia Council met in Brussels for the first time in nearly two years. “We are not afraid of dialogue,” announced alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Alas, the talks didn’t get very far. Afterward he explained: “it was reconfirmed that we disagree on the facts, on the narrative and the responsibilities in and...
Stuck in the Ukrainian Conundrum: U.S. And Europe Need to Drop Sanctions and Negotiate a Way Out
Doug Bandow Many Ukrainians expect America and Europe to save them. Suggest that they are living a fantasy gets you tarred as a blatant fool and Russian stooge. Yet Ukraine shouldn’t waste time posing as a fairy tale maiden in distress waiting for rescue by the Western knight in shining armor. Kiev risks ending up as a failed state. Ukraine...
No, ‘We’ Aren’t Responsible for Chibok Girls: Political Proclamations Won’t Solve World’s Problems
Doug Bandow What do you do after you brought your party’s control of government to a dramatic end? You become an international scold and blowhard, blaming the world’s problems on everyone else—who have no ability to solve any of them. In fact, has-beens and once-weres often are brought in as decorations for international gatherings,...
Does Europe Need a New Warsaw Pact?
Christopher A. Preble and Marian L. Tupy Late last month, GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump caused considerable controversy by arguing that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was “obsolete” in dealing with the threat of terrorism and a drain on U.S. finances. Speaking to Jonathan Karl of ABC News, Trump also noted that the fate of...
Donald Trump Challenges Washington’s Bipartisan War Lobby: Developing a Foreign Policy for America
Doug Bandow Donald Trump has become this season’s campaign phenomenon. He’s broken all the rules. Yet he could become the Republican presidential nominee and maybe even president. GOP elites are in a frenzy. The Neoconservatives and ultra-hawks who have dominated Republican foreign policy for more than a decade are considering...
