US Foreign Policy

To Fear or Love Multipolarity?

by Van Jackson | Aug 13, 2022 | Security, Theory & Methods, US Foreign Policy

The global distribution of material power changes from time to time. It’s something that happens, not something we should spend any amount of time pursuing or avoiding. I say this as someone who thinks the United States has done questionable good and much unquestionable harm with its former status as a unipolar power, so this is not a proxy argument about US foreign policy. You might be wondering who wants multipolarity, and the answer is lots of folks. ...

Geopolitical Rivalry: Great for Princes, Bad for Paupers

by Van Jackson | Jul 17, 2022 | Race, US Foreign Policy, Various and Sundry

If you’ve spent any amount of time in Washington, there’s a good chance you’ve internalized a rosier narrative of the Cold War than the actual history warrants (I certainly had). To correct...

Talking Great-Power Competition in the Heart of Empires Past

by Dan Nexon | Jul 17, 2022 | Academia, Featured, Security, Theory & Methods, US Foreign Policy

It turns out that it’s hard to write a roundup of happenings at the Duck of Minerva when there aren’t many to speak of. Much of that’s on me. What’s my excuse? Well, the kid finally contracted...

The Real Conservative Foreign Policy Debate

by Van Jackson | Jun 8, 2022 | Security, US Foreign Policy

There’s a battle going down inside the Republican party for what conservative foreign policy ought to be. The problem is that stakeholders in the debate are misrepresenting its terms, and...

More US Foreign Policy Posts

Patriots Eat Nuclear War for Breakfast

by Van Jackson | May 19, 2022 | Security, US Foreign Policy

I am not supposed to be worried about nuclear war with Russia. With North Korea maybe. I am told Kim Jong Un isn’t rational and can’t be trusted, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Or perhaps China. It’s ten feet tall, after all. Never mind that our nuclear arsenal vastly exceeds theirs. But Russia? Nah. Mutually assured destruction, baby. We both have enough nuclear warheads to destroy each other (and the world) several times over. Nuclear war would be MAD. Plus, I have it on good authority that the core insight of the nuclear revolution still...

Ukraine, Progressive Internationalism, and the Restraint Coalition

by Dan Nexon | May 13, 2022 | Security, US Foreign Policy

The US needs a more restrained approach to its national security, but not all arguments for restraint – and not all policies of restraint – rest on solid foundations.

Japan’s Strange Golf-Buddy Theory of Deterrence

by Van Jackson | Apr 20, 2022 | Security, US Foreign Policy

So Japan’s former Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, was very friendly with Donald Trump while he was president. The two leaders even played several rounds of golf when they were both in power, despite Trump’s anti-Asian, anti-alliance (and occasionally anti-Japan) disposition. Abe was quoted recently explaining himself, noting that “golf was for deterrence.” Abe claimed that other countries wouldn’t attack Japan if he was close enough to Trump that the two played golf together. This is fascinating because if we take Abe’s words literally, then in most respects his...

Do Realists and Leftists Want the Same Thing?

by Van Jackson | Mar 30, 2022 | Theory & Methods, US Foreign Policy

Most versions of the left gain little and sacrifice much in accepting a realist epistemology. Theories of international relations are just tools for making sense of patterns and puzzles in the world; they don’t need groupies.

The Korea Analogy

by Dan Nexon | Mar 15, 2022 | Security, States & Regions, US Foreign Policy

Recent chatter about David Remnick's interview of Stephen Kotkin reminds me of another interview that Kotkin recorded in February. Kotkin draws an analogy between Putin's decision to invade Ukraine and Stalin's decision to give Kim Il-sung the "green light" to invade South Korea in 1950. The comparison not only highlights the dysfunctions of personalist regimes, but the (potential) effects of the Russo-Ukraine War on U.S. foreign policy. Back in January, Gregory Mitrovich published an excellent piece about that in The Washington Post. Though the Cold War had begun several years before the...

The Invasion of Ukraine is Russia’s Fault

by J. Patrick Rhamey Jr. | Mar 7, 2022 | Academia, Security, States & Regions, Theory & Methods, US Foreign Policy

For Mearsheimer “freedom” and “prosperity” are simply weapons of great power politics rather than aspirations sought by the Ukrainian people.

The Threat to Economic Hegemony is Economic Hegemony: Part II

by Van Jackson | Feb 12, 2022 | Political Economy, US Foreign Policy

This piece is the second in a three-part series grappling with the role of political economy in making a just, sustainable international order. Writing about America’s economic strategy deficit got me pondering why the United States had such a stunted economic imagination. How could the government that many consider to be the global economic hegemon be inept at economic statecraft? For one thing, I think the popular impression of America as the world’s economic hegemon is overstated. Yes, the United States has many economic advantages. Its domestic market is still the destination of choice...

Phill Scott demonstrates what’s wrong with Biden’s Democracy Summit

by Peter Henne | Dec 13, 2021 | US Foreign Policy

Joe Biden's "Summit for Democracy" was held last week. This summit meant to bring together the world's democracies, strengthening them and pro-democratic global norms. The hope is that this would reverse the growing trend of authoritarianism around the world. Some were hopeful. In his opening address, President Biden called on the "global community for democracy" to "stand up for the values that unite us." Some agree this gathering may be beneficial. Max Bergman of the Center for American Progress argues the United States should be gathering democracies, even if the "what next" aspect of the...

The Duck of Minerva