Section: The American Conservative (USA)
Peace Through Trump?
Donald Trump played a wily capitalistic trick on his Republican opponents in the primary fights this year—he served an underserved market. By now it’s a cliché that Trump, while on his way to the GOP nomination, tapped into an unnoticed reservoir of right-of-center opinion on domestic and economic concerns—namely, the populist-nationalists...
A World Gone Mad
The relentless drumbeat against Donald Trump continues. The Washington Post on October 14 endorsed Hillary Clinton for president while also including in the print edition nine articles, three op-eds, and three letters blasting the GOP candidate, including pieces in the Style and Metro sections of the paper. On the following day there were five...
A Clinton Win Means an Expanded War in Syria
Michael Brendan Dougherty hopes Clinton is lying about her Syria policy: And that is what is so nerve-wracking about the way that Clinton has now begun redefining America’s mission in Syria once again. At first, Obama went over the top of public opinion to avenge American honor against ISIS. Slowly, America’s mission has crept to...
More Allies, More War?
As the cynical Henry Kissinger so aptly noted, it’s often more dangerous being America’s ally than its enemy. Once defeated, America’s enemies often get large amounts of money and easy access to North America’s vast market, assuring they will stay within the U.S. co-prosperity sphere. Just look, for good example, at...
After Trump vs. Clinton
The 2016 election presents the starkest choice American voters have faced in at least 40 years. On one side is a nominee unlike any the country has seen before: a billionaire businessman and celebrity without a day’s experience in political office. On the other side is the first woman ever to be a major-party’s nominee: a woman with...
The Past and Future of War
The possibility that next January the country will have an anti-establishment president makes military reform again relevant. Two new books usefully address the subject in ways that update the reform agenda, one looking back at previous efforts and one looking forward at a new and deadly threat to military effectiveness. The first is Col. Douglas...
Is Nuclear War Becoming Thinkable?
People who make their living thinking about defense policy and national security like everything to fit into a nice framework, preferably one that can be visualized on a PowerPoint slide. If you are unfortunate enough to be standing next to two officials speaking Pentagonese during a reception, you will note that their language is full of...
The ‘Credibility’ Argument Is Nonsense
Dianne Pfundstein Chamberlain understandably wants to kill the shoddy “credibility” argument with fire: I found that the real world does not operate in the way that these critics of U.S. inaction seem to think it does. It is foolish for the United States to undertake military action for the primary purpose of reinforcing its reputation....
How the Obsession with American ‘Leadership’ Warps Foreign Policy Analysis
Ben Denison criticizes a familiar flaw in foreign policy commentary: When a surprising event occurs that threatens U.S. interests, many are quick to blame Washington’s lack of leadership and deride the administration for failing to anticipate and prevent the crisis. Recent examples from the continuing conflict in Syria, Russia’s...
We Have to Deal With Putin
Since Donald Trump said that if Vladimir Putin praised him, he would return the compliment, Republican outrage has not abated. Arriving on Capitol Hill to repair ties between Trump and party elites, Gov. Mike Pence was taken straight to the woodshed. John McCain told Pence that Putin was a “thug and a butcher,” and Trump’s embrace of him...
