US foreign policy

Want to Start a National Security Think Tank?

by Van Jackson | Oct 22, 2021 | US Foreign Policy, Various and Sundry

You're going to need some help. Since 2017, when I departed the Beltway in favor of (literally) greener pastures, I've been trying to figure out how to create an institutional presence for alternative (ok, progressive) voices on foreign policy. Why? Although I don't like the "Blob" epithet, there is a lot of consensus thinking in Washington — especially circa 2017 — and it's historically really difficult to promote competing perspectives without your invitation to the cocktail party getting...

Misreading the post-9/11 consensus: the dangerous allure of emergency politics

by Adam B. Lerner | Sep 14, 2021 | Featured, Human Rights, Security, US Foreign Policy

Numerous pundits have lamented the that Americans have not responded to the Covid pandemic with the unanimity they demonstrated after 9/11. But do we really want to return to the post-9/11 era of emergency consensus?

Reparations in the Wake of the US Withdrawal from Afghanistan

by Adam B. Lerner | Sep 5, 2021 | Featured, Human Rights, Security, States & Regions, US Foreign Policy

Though unlikely to happen any time soon, recent calls for the US to pay reparations to the Afghan people provide an opportunity to reflect on the complexities of reparations and global justice.

Restraint requires more than “ending endless wars”

by Peter Henne | Dec 1, 2020 | Featured, US Foreign Policy

Voices calling for restraint in US foreign policy are getting louder. A bipartisan community has grown tired of the tired consensus on America's role in the world and--thanks partly to the excesses...

More US foreign policy Posts

Mind the Power Gap

by Dan Nexon | Jan 31, 2017 | Featured

I have new online piece, co-authored with Dani Nedal, at Foreign Affairs: President Donald Trump believes that America makes terrible deals—from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Why, according to Trump, do other countries take such advantage of the United States? Because our leaders and officials are stupid and incompetent and are terrible negotiators. “Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have people that are stupid,” said Trump when he announced his decision to run for president. On immigration, he...

Party Trumped Policy in 2016

by Steve Saideman | Jan 30, 2017 | Featured, US Foreign Policy

This is a guest post by Christopher Gelpi and Elias Assaf. Christopher Gelpi is Chair of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and Professor of Political Science and Elias Assaf is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at The Ohio State University, both at The Ohio State University President Donald Trump adopted a variety of controversial and unorthodox foreign policy stances during the 2016 presidential campaign. Since taking office, Mr. Trump has moved quickly to begin implementing many of these policies – including a border wall...

Trump and the Fall of Númenor—a comment from a sad political scientist

by Steve Saideman | Nov 14, 2016 | Featured, Nerdblogging, US Foreign Policy

This is a guest post by Eric Grynaviski, an Associate Professor of Political Science at International Affairs at George Washington University. He is the author of Constructive Illusions (Cornell, 2014) .He studies sociological approaches to cooperation and conflict, and international ethics. Over the last few days, protestors have taken to the streets to combat what they believe is an evil power that will soon occupy the White House. The problem of evil has featured in rhetoric about this election, in fact, for months, as featured in the Washington Post commentary on the election. The tropes...

Ben Rhodes, Part the Second: Or, Journalistic Interpolations are Not Evidence

by Dan Nexon | May 6, 2016 | Featured

For those of you not on Twitter. FWIW, Samuels' appears to be walking a very fine line in the piece. /1 — Daniel Nexon (@dhnexon) May 6, 2016 Here's his inference from the 'grand deception' of focusing on the 2013-2015 round & critics are seizing upon: 2/ pic.twitter.com/HZeUSEoggj — Daniel Nexon (@dhnexon) May 6, 2016 Here's the *only* supporting evidence he offers from Rhodes — which is not actually from the interview: 3/ pic.twitter.com/CIyRwOEzvC — Daniel Nexon (@dhnexon) May 6, 2016 These are NOT the same argument. One is about trying to 'end cycles of conflict,' the other is about...

The White House Pushes for its Policies, and Other Surprises from Ben Rhodes

by Dan Nexon | May 6, 2016 | Featured

It seems that everyone (at least on the political right) is in a tizzy about the "revelations" in David Samuels' New York Times Magazine story on Ben Rhodes. For example, Lee Smith, at the Weekly Standard, headlines "Obama's Foreign Policy Guru Boasts of How the Administration Lied to Sell the Iran Deal." As I'll explain below, that's, at best, massive hyperbole. But what we really learned is that Ben Rhodes has a massive ego—Thomas Ricks is less kind in his assessment. We also learned that Samuels—like any reporter—wants to break big stories. Put the two together, and you come away less,...

Interventionism and Restraint in Democratic Foreign Policy

by Dan Nexon | Feb 25, 2016 | Featured, US Foreign Policy

At War on the Rocks, Mieke Eoyong intervenes in the Sanders-Clinton foreign-policy debate. Although the case made for Sanders' foreign policy by those she critiques—including Sean Kay—is much broader, she focuses on three arguments: that "Sanders has superior judgment because he opposed the Iraq War and Clinton didn’t; Sanders would exercise restraint in intervention, where Clinton is on record supporting U.S. intervention in a number of cases; [and] Sanders would restrain defense spending." I'm going to respond to the first two. I do so as a recovering liberal hawk. In the 1990s, my views...

Why Foreign Intervention in Nigeria is a Bad Idea

by Adrienne LeBas | May 15, 2014 | Featured

This is the first of two posts about Boko Haram & possible US involvement in Nigerian counterterrorism operations. For the second, see "What is to be done in Nigeria?". Note: two sentences added shortly after publication to clarify that my concerns encompass the full range of foreign intervention, from direct intervention to operational support to limited strikes to an expanded role in shaping Nigerian policy. Yesterday, American drones began flights over northern Nigeria in hopes of locating the 276 girls abducted a month ago from a school in Borno State. American and British...

Reporters and Foreign Affairs Analysis: Ukraine Edition

by Dan Nexon | Mar 2, 2014 | Featured

This is a guest post by former Duck of Minerva blogger Dan Nexon. It is cross-posted at his personal blog, Hylaean Flow. One of the ongoing rationales for The Monkey Cage is that journalists do a poor job of covering US electoral politics. They focus on personality and style. They downplay the role of fundamentals, such as economic forces and the nature of the electoral system. The same is too often true in foreign-affairs reporting. Consider a recent piece by multi-award-winning reporter, Scott Wilson: "Ukraine crisis tests Obama’s foreign policy focus on diplomacy over military force."...

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