Page 3 - Hal Brands News Today

This chapter demonstrates how and why scholars and think tanks have had an uneven influence in the policymaking process.

What the debate about the US presence in the Middle East boils down to is opportunity cost. An American soldier standing guard at Tower 22 in the Jordanian desert cannot simultaneously watch over the NATO border in Estonia, the demilitarized zone on the Korean peninsula or Philippine shoals in the South China Sea. Captain America has a shield that’s big but not global. To keep holding it over Europe and East Asia, he must withdraw it from the Middle East

In the complex debate over the substantial US military presence in the Middle East, one strategic question persists...

The United States, a nation historically entangled in wars, finds itself grappling with a peculiar affliction – an insatiable appetite for conflict.

Here are some of the convictions that Republicans had to assent to in order to do what they did last week.

I thought I was beyond shockable, but this week has been profoundly shocking for me. I spent the bulk of my adult life on the right-wing side of things, generally rooting for the Republican Party, because I thought that party best served America. People like Sarah Palin and Donald Trump chased me out of the Republican orbit (gradually and then all at once), but I have still held out the hope that my many friends on the right are kind of like an occupied country. They have to mouth the Trumpian p...

The US has struggled with a congenital defect – its addiction to wars. The cackle of American think tanks and corporate media are clamoring for a delusional hot war against China. The narrative against China can only be described as psychological projection.

Government action may not be able to stop slipping public confidence in the economy.

But the United States vowed to continue targeting Iran-backed militias linked to the deadly Jan. 28 drone strike.

Hal Brands repeats a very popular lie about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East: Every recent president gets their Middle Eastern war, whether they want it or not. Since Ronald Reagan’s time, each administration has engaged in at least one significant military conflict in the region. Even presidents who…