US Foreign Policy

US Foreign Policy

Optimism and Fear

September 2013
Phyllis Bennis

If I was really optimistic, I’d say that President Obama is hoping that Congress will follow the example of the British parliament – and vote against his proposed military strike on Syria.

The Checkered History of Humanitarian Intervention

September 2013
Walden Bello

The impending US strike on Syria is justified as necessary to punish the Assad regime for using chemical weapons on its citizens and prevent it from further employing them. The situation, says Washington, calls for “humanitarian intervention.”

The Syrian Civil War, Chemical Weapons, & the Rush to Regional and Global Disaster

August 2013
Tom Reifer

The US, Saudis and Qatar who seek to take sides in fuelling sectarianism and violence in the Middle East, should remember how a similar discourse of preventative war and promotion of sectarian forces in Europe led to World War I.

 

Syria crisis demands tough diplomacy

August 2013
Phyllis Bennis
David Wildman

The threat of a reckless, dangerous, and illegal US or US-led assault on Syria is looking closer than ever. However any attack will not protect civilians—it will mean taking sides once again in a bloody, complicated civil war.

Grounding of Bolivian presidential jet and treatment of Snowden shames European Union

July 2013

Over 50 international lawyers, human rights, civil rights and civil society groups and networks say the actions of certain EU member states in response to Snowden's revelations contradict the EU’s stated commitment to democracy, human rights and international law.

Egypt's still-unfinished Revolution: Celebration & Danger

July 2013
Phyllis Bennis

Whether or not the day’s events in Egypt constitute a military coup d’etat, the removal from office of President Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian military portends great excitement but even greater dangers.

After PRISM: on Power, Trust and Accountability

June 2013
Ben Hayes

Multinational corporations who dominate large parts of the internet have provided USA’s National Security Agency with massive amounts of their users’ intimately personal data. This is simply unacceptable in any democracy worthy of the name.

Way worse than a dumb war: Iraq ten years later

March 2013
John Cavanagh
Phyllis Bennis

The US war in Iraq may be over, but we owe an apology grounded in the recognition of our enormous debt to the people of Iraq, a debt for which compensation and reparations are only a start.

Zero Dark Thirty & the Question of Torture

January 2013
Tom Reifer

It is high time Americans recognize that: “If torture is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”

Will Chuck Hagel's Appointment Actually Help the Anti-War Left?

January 2013
Phyllis Bennis

Hagel’s nomination engendered bitter, angry opposition from the moment it was floated as a trial balloon. And the fact that Obama went ahead with the nomination is a good indication that on at least some critical foreign policy issues, Obama is not prepared to allow either the pro-Israeli lobbies or the hard-core neoconservatives, in and outside of Washington, to determine whom he could and could not choose as Secretary of Defense.