Within the past few months the Pentagon has announced the deployment of new combat power in Norway, Poland, Lithuania, Syria and Africa. This extends (and accelerates) a trend expanding the deployment of military power abroad. This alarming development is not in response to any expanding military threat. In fact, there is little observable rationale at all. The incoming administration and new Congress have a chance to rectify this dangerous tendency. If they fail to do so, then the risks to American national security will rise to dangerous levels. There is no grand strategy discernible in...
Is the Battle for Mosul Doomed?
Since the battle to retake Mosul began in mid-October, Iraqi and coalition spokesmen have touted the significant number of villages retaken around the periphery of Mosul by the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and the fact that they reportedly recaptured Mosul’s al-Salam hospital, barely a mile from the Tigris. Yet an examination of the battlefield reveals that from the perspective of ISIS, it could be argued that the fight is going better than expected. Such a belief is not without substance. Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi claimed last week that he was very pleased with his troops’...
Here’s The Foreign Policy Stance That Should Displace Neocons
Liberal interventionism and neoconservatism offer us the same militaristic approaches. It's time for a new, more thoughtful approach to our foreign policy. For the past few decades, there have been two dominant schools of thought on foreign policy: the liberal interventionist camp, and the neoconservative interventionist group. The intellectual foundation for these two schools of thought was always thin, but both have failed to create positive outcomes for U.S. global interests. If America’s vital national interests are to be safeguarded, we need new ways of thinking and acting international...