William Pfaff

This Time Is No Different

William Pfaff

The blood runs cold when one fully appreciates how vulnerable Western policymakers are to slogans and magical thinking. The Reinhart-Rogoff case is the latest, and certainly will not be the last, in which the credulity and carelessness of experts wreak havoc among millions of ordinary people.

From a Distance

William Pfaff

War is war and murder is murder. The law draws the distinction. The American armed drone is a weapons system of war, not of policemen. And even if it were a police weapon, the United States does not have a commission to police the world of its radicals, jihadists, and religious fanatics, although for too many years it has acted as if it did.

Irrational Fear of Iran

William Pfaff

Iran will be our next war, if neo-conservatives and certain advisers to the Obama administration have their way -- all acting with the support of the American public, which one might think has had enough of war, after nearly seventy years of it and gaining nothing.

North Africa Next?

William Pfaff

Are northern Mali and southern Algeria about to be declared the new front in the war on terror that still preoccupies the American political class and the foreign affairs community?  

Syrian Chemical Weapons Threat: Eerily Familiar?

William Pfaff

The threat posed by weapons of mass destruction was infamously used to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq. That's why clear evidence and a convincing argument must be presented before any action on Syria's chemical weapons. 

A Serious Question

William Pfaff

When Israel wins its campaign to create a single, unchallenged Jewish state on all of the land given by the U.N. in 1948 to make parallel Jewish and Arab homelands, what happens to the Palestinian people left in the country?

Illegal Tactic, Unending War

William Pfaff

As a method of war, unmanned drones are illegal and unconstitutional. But the two presidential candidates have each indicated a commitment to the continued use of drones for programmed unilateral killing of selected individuals in Muslim society.

Unclear Choice, Troubling Policies

William Pfaff

The third debate added to the evidence that the United States is intellectually adrift when it comes to policies concerning the Middle East, and perhaps blundering into serious trouble with Russia and China. 

Foreign Policy Pieces Don't Fit

William Pfaff

Does Mitt Romney possess a serious understanding of American foreign relations, their past, their present, and the problems they will pose for a new administration? 

Friendly Advice From Egypt

William Pfaff

As the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, President Mohamed Morsi has been looked upon by Washing with apprehension. But he has same well-founded words for the United States in how it should approach relations with Egypt and the Middle East. 

Campaigns Touch Briefly on Wars

William Pfaff

Afghanistan and Iraq remain awkward and troubling topics for both political parties.

Romney and Ryan Project Vague Foreign Policy

William Pfaff

Neither Mitt Romney nor Paul Ryan seem close to the hawkish ideology that gave the United States its military deployments in Asia and Central Asia. But they seem to have no clear intellectual position at all, which is to say that they might easily become the instruments of others with aggressive ideologies of their own. 

U.S. National Debate Is a Disgrace

William Pfaff

Overwrought warnings from both campaigns suggest there will be no end to the current stalemate. 

Euro Zone in Stalemate

William Pfaff

With the Siena conference on euro reform ending in an even divide, the survival of the European Union seems at ever greater risk.

The Paranoid Pentagon

William Pfaff

The Managerial Coup D’Etat

William Pfaff

John Burnham may be known as the godfather of neoconservatism. But as the election approaches, it's his seminal work on the rise of the managerial class that should be recalled.

Greece Trap

William Pfaff

The Undemocratic Politics Of Austerity

Leaving Afghanistan

William Pfaff

The Afghan government's order a week ago to the U.S. to close its prison at Bagram Air Base near Kabul, where it holds unidentified prisoners, came as a shock to Washington, although President Karzai has before asked the U.S. to cease operations because of what he considered infringements upon Afghan sovereignty.

Containment Breach

William Pfaff

The great economic crisis has given birth to a smaller and tighter monetary union in Europe, under the influence of a Germany that is undergoing a certain estrangement from its European partners. This amounts to a possibly dangerous wager on what the European Union will ultimately become, which not everyone may like.

The 1-percent Problem

William Pfaff

How Americans can save themselves from plutocracy

The 1-percent Problem

William Pfaff

Can Americans Save Their Country from Plutocracy?

Occupying Force

William Pfaff

The only popular movements of modern times that made any difference to the United States were the civil-rights campaign and the anti-Vietnam-War demonstrations of the 1960s. Not even the Great Depression produced a popular protest that changed anything. What will Occupy Wall Street accomplish?

Obama's Gordian Knot

William Pfaff

Will the United States ever leave Afghanistan?

Beyond Empire

William Pfaff

Could Turkey lead Europe out of a tumultuous century?

Every Nation for Itself

William Pfaff

The series of Arab uprisings during the past two months have yet to complete their destruction of what, since shortly after World War II, had seemed a fixed oppressive political order in the Muslim states of the Middle East and Central Asia, overseen by the United States.

Alone Again

William Pfaff

The growing irrelevance of American power

Lost Appetite

William Pfaff

Has America given up on land wars?

Democratic Awakening?

William Pfaff

There are many in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere who believe that the democratic awakening of the Arab nations will consolidate a predominantly democratic order for nearly all the major states, with the United States enjoying a respected leadership role. Nothing is less likely.

Chaos Theory

William Pfaff

Washington's confused response misses the mark on Egypt

The Battle for Egypt

William Pfaff

America should butt out

Regime Changes

William Pfaff

Dictatorships rarely end happily—for rulers or their people

Unenlightened Capitalism

William Pfaff

Are we committing economic suicide?

A Legacy of Exploitation

William Pfaff

Africa's slavery system survives

Lending Power

William Pfaff

Germans bankrolled the European Union's bailout of Greece. Now they want the EU's governing treaty to be changed to shield them and other better-off countries from shouldering such responsibilities alone. Could their buyer's remorse eventually undo the EU?

An Imbalance of Power

William Pfaff

The challenges facing Europe make America's Afghan problem look simple

The Honeymoon Is Over

William Pfaff

Why the French lost faith in Nicolas Sarkozy

Taking Responsibility

William Pfaff

Europe's Role in Obama's Mideast Negotiations

War Without End?

William Pfaff

During his recent tour of TV news programs, Petraeus suggested that sending troops home a year from now might be premature. Defense Secretary Gates then intervened to say that the promise given the president in 2009 by the military would be kept. Who's right?

Bad Neighbors?

William Pfaff

German intransigence could threaten Europe

Strategic Disarray

William Pfaff

The prospect of giving Afghanistan a functioning and competent democratic government and a new and functional army is slight. That was what the counterinsurgency doctrine drafted by Gen. Petraeus was supposed to do. It has rarely succeeded.

Generals Go and Come, and the War Worsens

William Pfaff

General McChrystal gets out just in time

Big, Pricey, Unrivaled

William Pfaff

American arms spending is supposed to make Americans safe from its problems, but that is not working. Congressional attempts to reduce military spending over the years have consistently failed because military spending is a politically irresistible cause, even when the results are irrational.

Does the EU Have a Future?

William Pfaff

The European Union doesn’t know where it stands at the moment. NATO thinks it knows and is gambling.

Existential Threats

William Pfaff

Lies have led the west into war again and again in the last century. Theories about the nuclear threat posed by Iran, and the need for a preemptive military response, could be the latest propaganda to have deadly consequences.

The Buck Starts Here

William Pfaff

Clash of Cultures

William Pfaff

  What is the price of "progress"?

The Nuclear Option

William Pfaff

Escape from Iraq

William Pfaff

Being & Doing

William Pfaff

Exporting Democracy

William Pfaff

  Because the United States was founded on Enlightenment ideas, and nationalism is usually connected to romantic notions of terrain, history, and a unique cultural experience, little is ordinarily said about American nationalism. But, of course, the United States is perhaps the most nationalistic society on earth.

Torturing prisoners

William Pfaff

American Destiny

William Pfaff

Torturing Prisoners

William Pfaff

Good cop, bad cop

William Pfaff

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