Letters to the Editor

Arming Teachers: A Misguided ‘Solution’

Arming Teachers: A Misguided ‘Solution’ is my latest opinion letter posting today and being printed in Sunday’s New York Times.

UKRAINE: THE KEY TO UNLOCKING THE RUSSIAN-AMERICAN STALEMATE

Alexander Vindman, the former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, provided testimony to the Congress in 2019 that framed the charge of abuse of power in the impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump.  In doing so, Vindman displayed a political courage that is far different from courage on the battlefield.  He is an American hero on various levels.  Nevertheless, his policy positions on Ukraine, if adopted, would pose a danger to U.S. national security policy, risking an unnecessary confrontation with Russia and a divided transatlantic alliance.

Bombast in the Black Sea: the Latest British Provocation

Post-World War II British foreign policy has included a number of provocative steps that have weakened British standing; created complications in the international arena; and raised the possibility of serious confrontation.

Biden administration’s approach to Russia and China unproductive | COMMENTARY

President Biden’s national security strategy was on display this month, and the picture was mostly unimpressive.

Recent News and Latest Book

Israel, an Apartheid Nation? Of Course!

First of all, let’s deal with the issue of Israel as an apartheid nation, which Israeli information policy strongly denies.  When serious human rights violations are committed by one racial group to maintain a system of prolonged oppression of another racial group, as in South Africa from the 1940s to the 1990s, international law refers to this as a crime against humanity or a policy of apartheid.  South Africa’s apartheid sparked intense international and domestic opposition to that country.  This hasn’t been the case with regard to Israel. Nevertheless, the fifty-years of apartheid in South Africa is echoed by the fifty-year period in Israel, starting with the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the wake of the Six-Day War in 1967.

The United States of Hypocrisy: Revisiting the Monroe Doctrine 

There is no doctrinal statement in American diplomatic history that is more fundamental than the Monroe Doctrine.  It was designed to draw a strategic line between the New World and the Old, and to alert the European powers that their political influence and presence was no longer welcome in the Western Hemisphere.  No doctrinal statement has been enforced as often as the Monroe Doctrine, which has been used to justify U.S. intervention throughout Central America and the Caribbean.  The Monroe Doctrine was cited in the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, a perfect failure, as well as the Cuban missile crisis, a diplomatic triumph.

Containing the National Security State

Containing the National Security State