‘How much money do you need to get off the ground?’ Herzfeld asked. ‘A million dollars or so, just to get it organised,’ Taylor replied. ‘You’ve got it,’ Herzfeld replied. And that was it. The conversation to approve the money…
Neo-Imperialism
: The American Experiment in Exile – TPM
Our partners in the international order we created – some of whom we conquered to make it possible – are now seeking to defend it from us. Let’s say that again, Defend it from us. How do we now as…
Klaus Brinkbäumer: Europe Must Defend Itself Against A Dangerous President – SPIEGEL ONLINE
Germany must stand up in opposition to the 45th president of the United States and his government. That’s difficult enough already for two reasons: Because it is from the Americans that we obtained our liberal democracy in the first place;…
Posted in International Relations, Neo-Imperialism, Noted & Quoted, Operation American Greatness Tagged with: Germany
Robert Kagan: Backing Into World War III – Foreign Policy
In the 1930s, economic crisis and rising nationalism led many to doubt whether either democracy or capitalism was preferable to alternatives such as fascism and communism. And it is no coincidence that the crisis of confidence in liberalism accompanied a…
Walter Russell Mead: The Jacksonian Revolt – Foreign Affairs
To paraphrase what the neoconservative intellectual Irving Kristol wrote about Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1952, there is one thing that Jacksonians know about Trump—that he is unequivocally on their side. About their country’s elites, they feel they know no such…
Charlie Jane Anders: The Essential Difference Between Star Wars and Star Trek – io9
The later Star Trek series are frequently concerned with the wisdom of command—Picard, in particular, obsesses about choosing the wise path and being a responsible leader. Deep Space Nine and Voyager try to take away some of Starfleet’s awesome power…
Posted in Movies, Neo-Imperialism, Noted & Quoted, TV Tagged with: Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Wars
Molly K McKew: Putin’s Real Long Game – POLITICO Magazine
We have to accept we’re in a war and that we have a lot to lose. We need to look at this war differently, both geographically and strategically. For example, it’s hard to understand Ukraine and Syria as two fronts…
Robert Kaplan: Why Trump Can’t Disengage America From the World – The New York Times
The frontier was about being frugal with our assets. It was about pushing out over the perimeter, but only while tending to our own. It was about maintaining supply lines, however much that slowed us up. Above all it was…
Posted in Neo-Imperialism, Noted & Quoted
Si Vis Bellum, Part 3: Always Again
If members of the present younger generation in particular seem unable to articulate or comprehend the basis of a still operative policy consensus, they can hardly be faulted if their elders, even those running for the highest office in the land, can no longer do so either. We seem to be preparing and in effect demanding – perhaps cannot help but to require – a repetition, or at least a reinforcement, of the very old lesson.
Posted in Neo-Imperialism, Operation American Greatness
Leon Wieseltier: Aleppo’s fall is Obama’s failure – The Washington Post
If Obama wants credit for not getting us into another war, the credit is his. If he wants credit for not being guilty of “overreach,” the credit is his. If he wants credit for conceiving of every obstacle and impediment…