CIA Director William Burns held “clandestine” meetings with Chinese intel agencies during an unannounced trip to Beijing last month, US officials told the Financial Times, suggesting the visit was intended to “stabilize” deteriorating relations with the People’s Republic.
Asia
Washington’s Never-Ending Love Affair with Sanctions
by Ted Galen Carpenter | Jun 1, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
One of the more puzzling features of the U.S. approach to world affairs is how officials persist in their enthusiasm for economic sanctions as a worthwhile policy tool despite massive evidence regarding their futility. More than three decades ago, Gary Hufbauer,...
Trying to Build Peace One BRICS At a Time
by Ted Snider | May 25, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was open to negotiating a peace. The United States was not. State Department spokesman Ned Price explained, oddly, that the midst of a war is not the time for diplomacy. “This is not real...
Peace Mission Led By 6 African Countries to Promote Russia-Ukraine Ceasefire
by Connor Freeman | May 23, 2023 | News
Six African leaders are seeking to bring Kiev to the negotiating table for peace talks with Moscow, even as Russian troops remain in annexed Ukrainian oblasts, Pretoria said on Monday. The peace mission is expected to visit both countries’ capitals early next month.
News Roundup 5/22/2023
by Kyle Anzalone | May 22, 2023 | News Roundup
Russia The US will allow its European partners to transfer F-16s to Kiev, according to the Washington Post. AWC A Russian official said Saturday that the Western plans to provide Ukraine with American-made F-16 fighter jets bring “colossal risks” after the US...
UN-Backed Black Sea Grain Export Deal Receives Two-Month Extension
by Connor Freeman | May 17, 2023 | News
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that the Black Sea grain export deal designed to keep goods flowing through Ukrainian ports has been extended for two more months.
News Roundup 5/15/2023
by Kyle Anzalone | May 15, 2023 | News Roundup
Russia The debate in Washington about ending the war in Ukraine has become “amorphous and paradoxical,” according to the New York Times. AWC British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace confirmed on Thursday that London is providing Ukraine with longer-range missiles,...
US, China Tentatively Agree to Restart Dialogue, as Washington Fears Allies Will View Policies As Too Aggressive
by Connor Freeman | May 13, 2023 | News
Renewed meetings between senior American and Chinese officials may suggest the fragile relations between the world’s two largest economies could begin to thaw with increased communication and diplomacy, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Pentagon to Expand US Air Defenses in Guam
by Kyle Anzalone | May 11, 2023 | News
A Defense Department official told Congress that the Pentagon is acting on plans to build a multi-layered air defense system in Guam, where Washington keeps several military bases. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is requesting $1.5 billion to begin stationing new radars and interceptors on the island next year.
After Deadly World Tour, NATO Turns Its Sights Toward China
by Ron Paul | May 9, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
NATO’s post-Cold War history is that of an organization far past its “sell-by” date. Desperate for a mission after the end of the Warsaw Pact, NATO in the late 1990s decided that it would become the muscle behind the militarization of “human rights” under the Clinton...
Sino-Japanese Relations Are Deteriorating, But Western Media Ignores It…
by Joseph Solis-Mullen | May 8, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
Apart from its well-practiced habit of uncritically repeating whatever the Pentagon, State Department, White House (or really any other government agency) have to say on a particular subject, of equal importance in any indictment of the so-called Fourth Estate is what...
News Roundup 5/8/2023
by Kyle Anzalone | May 8, 2023 | News Roundup
Assange Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has expressed frustration over the Biden administration’s efforts to convict WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, an Australian citizen. AWC Russia The Pentagon has ordered more Javelin anti-tank missiles manufactured by...
News Roundup 5/3/2023
by Kyle Anzalone | May 3, 2023 | News Roundup
US News Over the weekend, President Biden declared “journalism is not a crime” at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a statement that rings hollow as his Justice Department is seeking the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for exposing US war crimes....
The World Is Changing, But Is Washington Finally Noticing?
by Ted Snider | Apr 26, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
Recent statements by two Biden administration officials hint that the United States is finally noticing that the world around them is changing. On April 11, CIA Director William Burns spoke at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. In a somewhat stunning...
Blog
The Non-Existent Difference Between National Socialism and Democratic Socialism
Summary: National Socialism and Democratic Socialism both advocate institutionalized violence by the state against peaceful people only differing in rhetoric. The most popular self described Democratic Socialists in America today are Senator Bernie Sanders and...
A Response to My Memorial Day Critics
My article against Memorial Day drew a lot of ire and attention. This should not have been surprising; I was making a controversial statement. What did surprise me, however, was that many critics were self-described libertarians or former libertarians. There were many...
Ignoring Political Gossip & Sticking to Principle
https://youtu.be/ZwWHjYVY4tg In the private sector, firms must attract voluntary customers or they fail; and if they fail, investors lose their money, and managers and employees lose their jobs. The possibility of failure, therefore, is a powerful incentive to find...
The Myth of “Hyper-Rugged-Isolationist-Individualism”
Myth #1: Libertarians believe that each individual is an isolated, hermetically sealed atom, acting in a vacuum without influencing each other. This is a common charge, but a highly puzzling one. In a lifetime of reading libertarian and classical-liberal...
The Lesson From Germany and Korea
Institutions are, of course, in some sense the products of culture. But, because they formalize a set of norms, institutions are often the things that keep a culture honest, determining how far it is conducive to good behaviour rather than bad. To illustrate the...
Occupational Licensing Increases Prices and Deprives People of Options
When you shop online, vendors usually give you a bunch of different ways to sort your options. Take Amazon: One popular sorting option – especially for customers with low income – is “Price: Low to High.” You’ve probably used it yourself many times. This...
Shop Our Books
Voluntaryist Handbook
by Keith Knight
Hotter Than The Sun: Time To Abolish Nuclear Weapons
by Scott Horton
[playlist artists="false" images="false"...
Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism
by Scott Horton