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The decision to expand NATO eastward is a fateful venture that has received surprisingly little public attention. Advocates of enlargement insist that the step will foster cooperation, consolidate democracy, and promote stability throughout Europe. But the contributors to this volume conclude that an expanded NATO is a dubious, potentially disastrous idea. Instead of healing the wounds of the Cold War, it threatens to create a new division of Europe and undermine friendly relations with Russia. Even worse, it will establish expensive, dangerous, and probably unsustainable security obligations for the United States.
Gullible Superpower examines the most prominent cases in which well-meaning Americans have supported misguided policies to aid highly questionable individuals, organizations, and movements. A dismal track record over nearly four decades underscores the need for future U.S. leaders to adopt a policy of skepticism and restraint toward foreign movements that purport to embrace democracy.
Since the Mexican government initiated a military offensive against its country’s powerful drug cartels in December 2006, some 50,000 people have perished and the drugs continue to flow. In The Fire Next Door, Ted Galen Carpenter boldly conveys the growing horror overtaking Mexico and makes the case that the only effective strategy for the United States is to abandon its failed drug prohibition policy, thus depriving drug cartels of financial resources.
The domestic phase of Washington's war on drugs has received considerable criticism over the years from a variety of individuals. Until recently, however, most critics have not stressed the damage that the international phase of the drug war has done to our Latin American neighbors. That lack of attention has begun to change and Ted Carpenter chronicles our disenchantment with the hemispheric drug war. Some prominent Latin American political leaders have finally dared to criticize Washington while at the same time, the U.S. government seems determined to perpetuate, if not intensify, the antidrug crusade. Spending on federal antidrug measures also continues to increase, and the tactics employed by drug war bureaucracy, both here and abroad, bring the inflammatory "drug war" metaphor closer to reality. Ending the prohibitionist system would produce numerous benefits for both Latin American societies and the United States. In a book deriving from his work at the CATO Institute, Ted Carpenter paints a picture of this ongoing fiasco.
The Clinton administration and the other NATO governments boast that the alliance won a great victory in its war against Yugoslavia.
Donald Trump’s presidency has triggered a growing debate on both sides of the Atlantic about the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and U.S. policy regarding the alliance. In NATO: The Dangerous Dinosaur, Ted Galen Carpenter outlines how NATO in its current form has outlived its purpose, and burden sharing is only part of the problem. Continuing to expand NATO eastward, encroaching on Russia, will only endanger the alliance.
The US seems to be heading directly toward a confrontation with North Korea as Koreans in the south, and nations around the world, anxiously witness mounting tension. Carpenter and Bandow take a look at the twin crises now afflicting US policy in East Asia: the reemergence of North Korea's nuclear weapons program and the growing anti-American sentiment in South Korea. They question whether Washington's East Asia security strategy makes sense with the looming prospect of US troops stationed in South Korea becoming nuclear hostages. Carpenter and Bandow put forth the most provocative solution yet to this gnarled and dangerous situation.
One issue could lead to a disastrous war between the United States and China: Taiwan. A growing number of Taiwanese want independence for their island and regard mainland China as an alien nation. Mainland Chinese consider Taiwan a province that was stolen from China more than a century ago, and their patience about getting it back is wearing thin. Washington officially endorses a "one China" policy but also sells arms to Taiwan and maintains an implicit pledge to defend it from attack. That vague, muddled policy invites miscalculation by Taiwan or China or both. The three parties are on a collision course, and unless something dramatic changes, an armed conflict is virtually inevitable within a decade. Although there is still time to avert a calamity, time is running out. In this book, Carpenter tells the reader what the U.S. must do quickly to avoid being dragged into war.
The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has cast a deep shadow over Washington's relationship with Saudi Arabia. The ever-changing story about how Khashoggi died undermines the Saudi government's already weak credibility and is illustrative of its extensive record of humans-rights abuses and outright war crimes. Washington's solicitous, even enabling, posture toward Saudi Arabia cannot disguise the fact that the Kingdom has never been a reliable U.S. ally. Unfortunately, U.S. leaders are far too willing to make moral compromises when security threats are modest. Abandoning essential moral standards and values for the defense of lesser interests is never justified. Yet that is precisely what the U.S. has done with Saudi Arabia for decades. The chapters contained in The Ties That Blind were first published in Perilous Partners (2015). Combined with a new introduction, this book documents the many instances in which U.S. and Saudi interests diverged, and shows that the case for terminating the toxic U.S.-Saudi alliance--indefensible on both strategic and moral grounds--is more clear and urgent than ever before.
Within months of the United States and its coalition partners toppling Saddam Husseins government, the Cato Institute convened a special task force of scholars and policy experts to examine U.S. strategic interests in Iraq and to question the Bush administrations intention to 2stay as long as necessary. 3 The result of their efforts was a book of their analysis that was published near the one-year anniversary of the occupation -- Exiting Iraq. As the war now enters its fourth year, Exiting Iraq remains as clear and incisive as ever, with the added dimension of its being so prophetic in what it saw, predicted, and urgently recommended. In addition to the members (listed below) of the special task force calling for the military occupation to end they showed how the presence of troops in Iraq distracts attention from fighting al-Qaeda and emboldens a new class of terrorists to take up arms against the United States. Moreover, the report underscores how the occupation is enormously costly for American taxpayers, exposes our men and women in uniform to unnecessary risks, and undermines attempts to foster political and economic reform in the region. - Publisher.