Jonathan Katz spoke with Emma Green at The Atlantic about the resistance he encountered to using accurate language while writing a piece about Haiti and possible U.S. intervention there for an unnamed publication. Katz ended up taking the piece elsewhere, and Foreign...
The Bad Faith Hawkish Credibility Argument Just Won’t Die
If there’s one thing hawks enjoy, it is creating doubt about U.S. reliability:Mr. Biden “knows from long experience that America’s actions abroad matter, but he is willingly ignoring the far-reaching consequences of America’s withdrawal in Afghanistan,” said Bradley...
End the Illegal US Military Presence in Syria
While testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a top Biden administration Pentagon official confirmed today that the illegal US military presence in Syria would continue:The Biden administration is committed to retaining US military presence in...
Why Do We Fight? Don’t Ask
Derek Davison commented on the three U.S. strikes in Somalia that have taken place in the last few weeks, and noted that there is hardly anyone asking why the US is engaged in hostilities in Somalia in 2021:There’s no questioning why al-Shabab, whose current ambitions...
The Moral Bankruptcy of the Iran Hawks
Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh dress up the same failed sanctions approach as a “new approach" to Iran:Since sanctions became serious in 2018, Iran has seen major demonstrations without protesters venting against America. The clerical regime views these protests as...
Answering a Misguided Polemic Against Restraint
Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry have written a long article in Survival criticizing foreign policy restraint in general and the Quincy Institute in particular. (Full disclosure: I regularly write for the Quincy Institute’s Responsible Statecraft website and...
How Misinformation Poisons the Iran Debate
Shibley Telhami describes the findings of a new University of Maryland Critical Issues poll taken earlier this summer. There are a number of interesting results from the survey, but perhaps the most striking one was the discovery that more Americans incorrectly...
Haitians Don’t Want What the Interventionists Are Selling
The Washington Post really, really wants outside intervention in Haiti:There is no way for Haiti to pull itself out of the current morass without elections that would certify and legitimize a new government and legislature. That requires at least a short-term...
‘Maximum Pressure’ Is Malicious and So Are Its Supporters
The Wall Street Journal editors want…wait for it…more pressure on Iran:Abandoning negotiations would mean a return to Mr. Trump’s “maximum-pressure” sanctions campaign, which Biden officials criticized. But the single-term Trump Administration never had a chance to...
The Absurd Ben & Jerry’s Panic Is No Laughing Matter
The Israeli government’s panicked reaction to the announcement that Ben & Jerry’s would no longer sell its products in the occupied Palestinian territories has been amusing to watch, but it is part of a chilling campaign to stifle free speech here in the US and to...


