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SHAFR Opinion

Why Do We Fight in Afghanistan?

by Susan Brewer

More people have been asking that question lately. For years Americans have been told that despite setbacks we are making progress there. Making progress toward what, people wonder. What is the mission of the United States in Afghanistan? After more than a decade since the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom, it is worth revisiting what [...]

Posted in Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Biographies / Memoirs / Diaries, Central Asia, George W. Bush administration: 2001-2008, United States | No Comments »

A Center-Left Leader, Missed Opportunities, and Anti-Americanism: A Possible new Direction in U.S. Policy Towards the Western Hemisphere?

by James Siekmeier

I received an email from a former colleague and friend of mine recently who concluded that Lula’s (Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva) two terms in office as President of Brazil (2003-2010) represented a missed opportunity for the United States–and United States-Latin American relations in general. Here was a center-left leader, in one of the world’s [...]

Posted in Americas, Brazil, South America, Uncategorized | No Comments »

A New Cold War at the Water’s Edge?

by Andrew Johnstone

An essential rule for politicians: always make sure the microphone is off.  On March 26 at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, Barack Obama was overheard discussing missile defence with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. With an open mic, Obama told Medvedev “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”[1] Russia currently [...]

Posted in Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Domestic politics, Mitt Romney, Post-9/11: 2001-present, Ronald Reagan administration: 1981-1989, Russia | No Comments »

Is the System the Solution? Past Policies, Current Dilemmas, and Inter-American Relations in the 21st Century

by James Siekmeier

More than 20 years have passed since the last full-fledged U.S. military intervention in Latin America (Panama, 1989, in case your memories are hazy).  Starting in the 1980s, democratization flowered in the region for numerous reasons—but mostly internal reasons based in Latin American history and society. Starting in the 1990s, with the end of the [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Visions of War

by Susan Brewer

On December 15th President Barack Obama welcomed home U.S. troops from a war he once had called “dumb.” His speech avoided the reasons why the Iraq War was fought and focused instead on honoring the American servicemen and women who fought it.  Inspiring words–“extraordinary achievement,” “honor,” “sacrifice,” “finest fighting force,” “unbroken line of heroes,” “progress [...]

Posted in Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Iraq, Iraq War: 2003-present, Middle East, Post-9/11: 2001-present | No Comments »

Newt Gingrich and the (ab)Uses of History

by Andrew Johnstone

It is an honor to join the SHAFR blogging team for 2011-12.  While SHAFR is (as the name makes perfectly clear) a society that focuses on the history of American foreign relations, there is no doubt that we are as well placed as anyone to make connections between historical events and contemporary issues in American [...]

Posted in Presidency, Public Opinion | No Comments »

Issues for the 2012 Presidential Election

by Nick Sarantakes

The United States of America is about to enter a presidential election year.  Actually, it already has entered the political season.  The election of 2012 will most likely turn on economics, but as Andy Johns pointed out in his blog, foreign policy is always important and next year’s contest will be no different.  In addition, [...]

Posted in Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, China, India, Middle East, North Korea, Pakistan, Policymaking--American | No Comments »

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Weekly Digest – 3/24/10

by Nick Ducote
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

In New York City, Mexican immigrants’ articulations of rights are neither uniform nor straightforward, suggested Alyshia Gálvez at a recent talk co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Working Group on Anthropology and Population. Assistant Professor of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies at Lehman College, Gálvez described two projects [...]

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Posted in Around the Web, Intelligence, Internationl law and treaties, Military affaris, National Security, Nuclear policy & WMD, Terrorism, Theory and Ideas, Trade policy | No Comments »

Weekly Digest – 3/10/10

by Nick Ducote
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Four years after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities, the Soviet Union explodes its first nuclear weapon at a test range in Kazakhstan. That the Soviet Union obtained “the bomb” is not surprising, but the timing of the test is. Most U.S. intelligence assessments at the time concluded Moscow was at [...]

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Posted in Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Around the Web, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Brazil, Early Cold War: 1945-1961, George W. Bush administration: 2001-2008, Gerald Ford administration: 1974-1977, Harry Truman administration: 1945-1953, Iraq War: 2003-present, Jimmy Carter administration: 1977-1981, John Kennedy administration: 1961-1963, Korean War: 1950-1953, Late Cold War: 1961-1991, Lyndon Johnson administration: 1963-1969, Military affaris, National Security, Nuclear policy & WMD, Policymaking--American, Post-colonial Third World, Propaganda and cultural diplomacy, Public Opinion, Terrorism | No Comments »

Diplomats Among Warriors

by John Prados
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

In Afghanistan at the moment (February 2010), U.S. Marines, allied troops, and Afghan government soldiers are embarked on an offensive at a town called Marja in Helmand province. American commander-in-chief General Stanley A. McChrystal here makes the first expression of the strategy that underlies the appeal for reinforcements that led to the Obama administration “surge” [...]

Posted in Afghanistan, Afghanistan War: 2001-present, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Early Cold War: 1945-1961, Historiography, Military affaris, Terrorism, Theory and Ideas | No Comments »

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