In his famous 1882 lecture "What is a Nation?" the French historian and philosopher Ernest Renan emphasized the role of collective memory and even fictitious or selective historical narratives in the creation and maintenance of national identity, writing "Forgetting,...
Latest Articles
Three Paths to a Wider War in the Middle East
by Ted Snider | Oct 17, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
“We’re going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out,” U.S. President Joe Biden promised when war erupted in Gaza. But that foreign policy legacy is in tatters. War has spread from Gaza to Lebanon and has arrived at the doorstep of Iran. There is...
Madisonian Liberalism Has Utterly Failed (But It Can Be Fixed)
by Thomas Eddlem | Oct 16, 2024 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism
“I had no hesitation to declare that I had but one Gentleman in my Mind for that important command, and that was a Gentleman from Virginia who was among Us and very well known to all of Us, a Gentleman whose Skill and Experience as an Officer, whose independent...
FEMA Still Paying $9,000 For COVID Funerals, Billions On Pandemic Payouts
by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Oct 16, 2024 | Featured Articles
As the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) carries out widely-criticized responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, officials say the agency’s Disaster Recovery Fund is incapable of handling a third major storm. While some are circulating false accusations that...
Hollywood Hasbara
by Kym Robinson | Oct 15, 2024 | Featured Articles
With its Ernest Gold score enhancing its cinematic majesty, the 1960 film Exodus tells you point blank that it’s an epic motion picture, a religious story of great myth and significance and a cast who depict historical figures in a dramatic way that transcends flesh...
Hurricanes Are Not Going Away; How Can We Adapt?
by Connor O'Keeffe | Oct 15, 2024 | Featured Articles
Two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene slammed into the Deep South and parts of Appalachia, bringing devastating floods to a region often spared from strong hurricanes. A variety of factors combined to make Helene an especially dangerous storm. First, it formed over the Gulf...
Americans Must End Israel’s Serial Slaughter of Gaza’s Children
by Connor Freeman | Oct 14, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
It's time for the American people to stand up to Washington and demand an immediate end to the endless support the United States has provided to apartheid Israel for its killing spree during the past year. For fifty-seven years, Israel has subjected millions of...
Do They Want American Troops to Die?
by Dan McAdams | Oct 14, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
Biden administration mismanagement—or worse—from day one of the latest Israeli multi-front war in the Middle East has led us to where we are today, at the brink of an all-out regional war with some 40,000 U.S. troops and multiple U.S. military bases in the region with...
TGIF: Full versus Shrunken Liberalism
by Sheldon Richman | Oct 11, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, History, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Language, like the old common law and other customs, is a decentralized, undesigned, spontaneous institution. It serves humanity well. Nothing is perfect, of course, but no alternative—if one were conceivable—could hold a candle to it. One of the downsides is that...
Kamala Harris Isn’t Listening to U.S. Intelligence on Iran
by Ted Snider | Oct 10, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics
Who is “America’s greatest adversary?” That is the question 60 Minutes asked Vice President Kamala Harris. “I think there’s an obvious one in mind, which is Iran,” was her answer. She gave two reasons for her verdict: "Iran has American blood on their hands" and "what...
We Must Reject the Failed Hawkish Consensus on Iran
by Daniel Larison | Oct 10, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
No matter who wins the presidential election next month, American policy towards Iran seems likely to remain extremely hostile and confrontational. Both campaigns seem determined to out-hawk each other. The Iran policy debate in Washington, such as it is, is focused...
Government by Sortition
by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Oct 10, 2024 | Featured Articles, Politics
From Plato to Acton, Thomas Jefferson to Bertrand Russell, it was regarded as a truism to many great thinkers that those who desire power are the least to be trusted with it. As such, it is unsurprising that from the first experiments in representative government,...
Join the Newsletter
Get the latest news and updates from The Institute, straight to your inbox.
News
NATO Kicks Off Military Drills Simulating Nuclear War
The North Atlantic Alliance has kicked off its yearly war games that simulate a nuclear conflict with Russia. The Kremlin denounced the drills, which Moscow views as an annual provocation. On Monday, NATO began the war games - dubbed Steadfast Noon - involving 13...
North Korea Threatens War With South Korea Over Drone Flights to Pyongyang
Tensions are soaring on the Korean Peninsula as North Korea is threatening war with the South over drone flights near Pyongyang. Seoul says it is prepared for war should conflict break out. On Monday, a spokesman for North Korea said tensions have reached a “grave...
Israel To Seize UN Agency’s Headquarters for New Settlement Housing
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be in an open war with the United Nations. Along with targeting UN aid workers in Gaza and peacekeepers in Lebanon, Tel Aviv is now seizing the headquarters of the UN aid agency for Palestinians. Dan Iloz, a member...
General: Long-Range Cruise Missiles Essential for Ukraine
The top US military commander in Europe said that long-range cruise missiles were among the weapons systems that are crucial to send to Ukraine. CNN obtained an annex from a classified report compiled by Commander of European Command, Gen. Chris Cavoli, that lists...
Hungary May Delay G7’s $50 Billion Loan to Ukraine Until After US Election
The Hungarian government announced it will seek to prevent a vote on the European Union’s participation in a $50 billion Group of Seven (G7) loan to Ukraine. The G7 will use frozen Russian funds to pay off the loans. Finance Minister Mihaly Varga explained that...
US To Loan Poland $3 Billion To Purchase Helicopters
Washington has agreed to give Warsaw a $3 billion loan to buy American-made Apache Helicopters. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the White House has lavished Poland with military assistance, loans to buy weapons, and billions in arms sales. The US is set to use...
Blog
Pegasus Down: The Refueler Follies March On
The KC46A is the replacement for the renowned KC135 refueling bird which had the last production aircraft rolled out in 1965. The KC46A is plagued with problems to include the bone-headed notion to put the refueling crew in the cockpit instead of the rear of the...
Blaming Freedom
Freedom is nearly always blamed for the bad consequences of unfreedom, that is, of government intervention. Take immigration. We hear these days that migrant gangs are killing, terrorizing, and stealing from Americans. Some immigrants without government papers have...
Insurrection of the Mind.
Star Trek Insurrection is not one of the better films in the series, but it seeks to address issues of humanity that sometimes only science fiction can. Immortality, the value of life and human relationships with technology. It is fitting that the film starts with the...
They Know the Truth
Cut from the book. After catching Woodward faking that Lavrov quote, I had to cut all the citations from that book out of mine. But I'll leave this here at least because it's funny: Insider journalist Bob Woodward wrote in 2024 that the administration recognized...
Bob Woodward Badly Misquotes Russian FM Lavrov
I emailed Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward: Dear Bob, It appears that you have misquoted FM Lavrov on page 88 of your new book. Lavrov’s full quote was: “Those who mechanically repeat the points made in Bucharest and insist that ‘third countries’ have no right to...
NZ Ocean Floor Survey Naval Vessel Runs Aground Off Samoa
That New Zealand naval ship that ran aground, foundered, caught fire and capsized with the DEI Captain commanding was an ocean survey and mapping ship. HMNZS Manawanui was a dive and hydrographic vessel of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN). It was one of five vessels...