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Daniel Bessner is an associate professor in International Studies at the University of Washington. He is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a contributing editor at Jacobin.
US imperialists’ post–Cold War directionlessness was solved by 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq — only for Iraq and the entire “war on terror” to lead to disaster. The imperialist liberal vision has been thoroughly discredited. So how is it still staggering on?
Breitbart’s movie about Hunter Biden, My Son Hunter, is neither entertaining, informative, competently made, nor politically persuasive. How do you screw this one up?
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a fierce debate over realism as an approach to thinking about foreign policy. Historian Daniel Bessner tells Jacobin what socialists can learn from realism and what they should reject.
The rapid collapse of Afghanistan to Taliban rule has created a chaotic, complicated situation. But here’s the fundamental point: the US has nothing to show for two decades of bloodshed and occupation.
Joe Biden hits his 100-day mark in office this week. His foreign policy has been as bad as expected, animated by the grotesque idea that now and forever, the US should call the shots around the world.
When it comes to foreign policy, Joe Biden represents a continuation of the imperialist status quo. We need a leftist alternative that weakens US empire and prizes democracy, rather than one that assumes the US is right to dominate the world.
Walter LaFeber, a giant in the field of American diplomatic history, died this week at 87. His work refused to prettify the destructive record of US foreign policy and emphasized the unacknowledged economic motives behind American statesmen’s high-flying rhetoric.
Ghostbusters’ Slimer embodied the hedonistic greed of the Reagan era. But the reboot’s Muncher is a reflection of our sad and depressed 2020s.
From his new memoir, it’s clear that Barack Obama believes process is politics. But no amount of “process” will solve the problems that plague us — for that, we need the political will he could never muster as president.
Perhaps the strangest thing about the media coverage of the Capitol Hill rally was how little of it focused on the visible presence of QAnon. What’s behind the Q cult, and how can we confront it?
The violent attempt to stop the certification of the electoral vote shouldn’t be ignored. But fascism isn’t on the brink in America. Pretending we’re on the precipice of losing our democracy plays into the hands of those who want to give new, repressive powers to the security state.
In 2002, the Pentagon staged a $250 million war game known as the “Millennium Challenge.” It was supposed to be a fixed fight — until a retired Marine lieutenant general, playing the role of a Middle Eastern country, brought the US military to its knees.
It looks like Biden won a narrow victory. But when Democratic candidates lose elections, is there any accountability for the Democratic Party operatives responsible? They don’t lose their jobs; they don’t even seem to take a pay cut.
A new study finds that America’s “war on terror” has displaced at least 37 million people around the globe. The US left has a responsibility to push an internationalism that aids the victims of American imperialism — and acts in solidarity with workers no matter their country of origin.
We talked to Bernie Sanders foreign policy adviser Matt Duss about the internationalism that animated the Vermont senator’s 2020 campaign.
Michael Brooks believed that every person, regardless of where they were born or where they lived, was worthy of fundamental human respect — and his dream was to create a more just world, not only for Americans, but for every working person on Earth.
On the 76th anniversary of D-Day, to honor those who perished in the struggle against fascism, we could do little better than to combat imperial hubris wherever we find it, including at home.
With Joe Biden releasing racist anti-China ads and Donald Trump trafficking in his usual toxic xenophobia, it’s becoming clear liberals and conservatives alike are trying to stoke a New Cold War with China. Democratic socialists must stand against it.
From the creation of the Civil Works Administration to the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Franklin Delano Roosevelt radically remade the American state using the power of executive orders. If Bernie Sanders wins the White House, he should do the same.
In the world of philanthropy, George Soros is about as good as it gets. But allowing plutocrats, even progressive ones, to decide what’s best for the rest of us is fundamentally unjust and undemocratic.