War
America: “The Dictatress of the World”
On July 21, 1821, John Quincy Adams, who would go on to become the sixth president of the United States, warned that if America were ever to abandon its founding principle of non-interventionism in foreign affairs, she might well become the “dictatress of the...
Federal Overreach and American Foreign Policy Go Hand-In-Hand
Apologists for the state often argue that criticism of the federal government must not encroach on national defense and foreign affairs. This is particularly true of Republicans, but Democrats are increasingly arguing in favor of a unitary presidency; especially as...
War: A Tool For Politicians to Centralize Power
War is a vehicle for federal power. Wars and threats of war create opportunities for the federal government to centralize military, economic, and political authority. This is clearly laid out in Walter Karp’s absorbing book The Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars...
War Presidents to the Left; War Presidents to the Right.
Who was the last American Presidential candidate to campaign on a pro-war platform? No major party candidate, in my lifetime, explicitly campaigned to lead the military into an offensive war. Interventionists from the left and right always argue that the wars of the...