Ted Galen Carpenter | The Libertarian Institute

Ukraine and the Pretense of Democracy

by Ted Galen Carpenter | Mar 5, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

When Russian forces expanded their military presence in Ukraine in February 2022, U.S. officials and most of the Western news media portrayed the development as a brazen act of aggression by a dictatorship against a peaceful democracy. The reality was much more complex. Ukraine had allowed itself to become NATO’s pawn in Russia’s security zone. Such a move was bound to create severe tensions, not only between Russia and Ukraine, but between Russia and NATO. In February 2022, regional tensions reached the point of being a full-fledged proxy war between the West and Russia. Moreover, the...

On Ethnic Cleansing, Washington DC Has Always Been the Hypocrite

by Ted Galen Carpenter | Oct 17, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

U.S. administrations have repeatedly condemned foreign adversaries for engaging in ethnic cleansing of minority populations. That has been an explicit grievance against the People’s Republic of China (PRC) because of Beijing’s treatment of its Uygur population in Xinjiang province, and against Syria and Iran because of their conduct toward Kurdish inhabitants. Serbian authorities in both Bosnia and Kosovo became high-profile targets of Washington’s outrage because of their alleged ethnic cleansing campaigns directed against Muslim populations. In the latter case, Bill Clinton’s...

One Western Official Finally Comes Clean About NATO Expansion

by Ted Galen Carpenter | Sep 21, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg likely surprised both factions in the ongoing debate about NATO expansion and its role in triggering the Russia-Ukraine War. He also undermined (perhaps fatally) the official cover story about the reasons for the Ukraine war. Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, Western officials and their allies in the corporate media have insisted vehemently that the alliance’s addition of Eastern European nations after the Cold War and giving a pledge to Ukraine that it would become a member someday had nothing to do with Vladimir Putin’s decision to attack his...

Nikki Haley, the Most Reckless Candidate for President

by Ted Galen Carpenter | Aug 28, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

After the initial debate among GOP presidential aspirants, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is clearly the darling of the hawks who have given us debacles in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine. Indeed, the laudatory assessments of her debate performance among conservatives in the pro-war news media seemed to be a sophisticated, highly coordinated propaganda campaign. The key feature that Haley and her cheerleaders have in common is an unwillingness to consider any alternatives to the policies that have brought America and the world so much grief. Congenitally hawkish New...

Desperate U.S. Hawks Face Tough Choice in Ukraine

by Ted Galen Carpenter | Aug 22, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Even during the period of wild optimism in the United States during 2022 and early 2023 about Ukraine’s chances of defeating Russian forces, there was a small, dark cloud of doubt about what the Joe Biden administration would do if the prospects of victory unraveled. That question has now become more pertinent and urgent as Kiev’s vaunted offensive clearly is faltering. Territorial gains in Russian-occupied regions are minimal, and they have occurred only with great cost in the lives of Ukrainian troops. For Ukraine’s forces, the war has become a meat grinder reminiscent of the fighting in...

Seoul Needs to Divorce Washington

by Ted Galen Carpenter | Aug 3, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

The bilateral military alliance between South Korea and the United States has become increasingly unproductive and needlessly perilous for both countries. Astute American analysts have argued for decades that the arrangement is not a good deal for the United States. The Republic of Korea (ROK) has been one of the most blatant security free-riders among Washington’s roster of “allies”—or more accurately, Washington’s clients and dependents. U.S. officials have repeatedly pressed South Korea to spend more on its defense and pay a greater share of costs for U.S. forces stationed on the...

Is the United States Pursuing a Permanent Cold War with Russia?

by Ted Galen Carpenter | Jul 11, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

There is growing speculation about how the Russia-Ukraine war might eventually end. Three competing scenarios are strong possibilities. The most likely outcome is a definitive Russian victory after a grinding, bloody struggle lasting several more years. As time drags on, Russia’s larger population and military will confer greater and greater advantages in the fighting, despite the lumbering, inefficient nature of the Kremlin’s forces. The second most likely outcome is a frozen conflict roughly along the current battle lines. Fighting would end with an armistice rather than a formal peace...

By Gambling on Deterrence, Washington Must Prepare for Failure in the Pacific

by Ted Galen Carpenter | Jun 19, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

It has become increasingly apparent that any notion of U.S. “strategic ambiguity” with respect to Taiwan is dead. Both the Joe Biden administration’s rhetoric and U.S. military deployments in the western Pacific indicate that the United States will come to Taiwan’s defense if the People’s Republic of China (PRC) uses force against the island. The logic underlying this more confrontational stance is that it will deter Beijing from taking rash actions. It is far more likely to produce a potentially catastrophic military collision between the United States and China. The reliability and...