It’s finally here: Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky’s “Victory Plan,” furtively touted for weeks as Zelensky sought, unsuccessfully, to peddle it to world leaders. Until now, all that Zelensky would say in public was that this clandestine plan paradoxically would not require negotiation with Putin, but also provides a way to strengthen Ukraine in order to “push Putin” to diplomatically end the war. Tone deaf in the extreme, several weeks ago Zelensky brazenly flew on a US Air Force C-17 transport plane into the key battleground state of Pennsylvania to visit a munitions plant before hectoring the United Nations General Assembly on this special plan. Election interference be damned!Blessed with Zelensky’s grand reveal of his vaunted five-point plan to the Ukrainian parliament on October 16, the

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

In around three months’ time, the Biden administration will be out of office. Exits typically prompt reflection. For an outgoing administration, the chief task is to shape the narrative. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent legacy-molding foray grounds the Biden administration’s legacy in the “fierce competition” with the “revisionist powers”—Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China—who want to bring down America and dominate the international order at the US government’s expense. On Blinken’s telling, the Biden administration’s strategy of domestic industrial spending and improved international partnerships were the one-two punch that “has put the United States in a much stronger geopolitical position today than it was four years ago.” Unfortunately for Blinken, nothing can sugarcoat

In around three months’ time, the Biden administration will be out of office. Exits typically prompt reflection. For an outgoing administration, the chief task is to shape the narrative. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent legacy-molding foray grounds the Biden administration’s legacy in the “fierce competition” with the “revisionist powers”—Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China—who want to bring down America and dominate the international order at the US government’s expense. On Blinken’s telling, the Biden administration’s strategy of domestic industrial spending and improved international partnerships were the one-two punch that “has put the United States in a much stronger geopolitical position today than it was four years ago.” Unfortunately for Blinken, nothing can sugarcoat

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

Donald Trump’s ascendancy in the Republican Party fissured the GOP. Increasingly alienated, the GOP’s neoconservative wing flocks more and more to the Democrats. To anyone who grew up accustomed to viewing Democrats as the peace party, a Democrat presidential candidate celebrating the endorsement of Dick Cheney is mind-bending. But while some in the GOP increasingly reject nation-building and democracy-promotion as pillars of foreign policy, others have sought to bridge the gap between foreign policy restraint and interventionism. Matthew Kroenig and Dan Negrea’s book, We Win, They Lose: Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War, represents one such attempt. The authors posit that a foreign policy synthesis of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump’s visions is best positioned to guide

Like many people, I eagerly await Scott Horton’s upcoming book, Provoked, which will explain in detail the US provocations that led to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But will it come too late?Since the Russia-Ukraine war began, the Biden administration, in collaboration with the Ukrainian government and much of Europe, has continued incessantly provoking Putin toward a wider conflict with the West. One can recognize the dangerous path we tread without justifying any of Russia’s responses to these provocations.The US and Europe have armed Ukraine to the teeth. The West has funded Ukraine’s military effort—and a great deal of corruption—to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Supposedly this is good for the US because it aids the US military-industrial complex, but this will be cold

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

The war in Ukraine rages. Underwritten by US dollars, arms, intelligence, and provocation, US leaders have prolonged the war. And, in funding and arming Ukraine to the teeth, they have escalated tensions with Russia, a nation with thousands of nuclear weapons. Just this week, for the third straight month, the Russian military conducted drills to prepare for using short-range, “tactical” nuclear weapons. The risks could not be graver. Yet, as the threats of nuclear war daily become more ominous, our political class buries its head further into the sand.Henry Kissinger notably concluded that nuclear war need not devolve into global nuclear war. But “limited nuclear war” is an oxymoron, rather like “journalistic ethics” or “military intelligence.” This is borne out in national security

As the saying goes, “Personnel is Policy.” President Trump learned this the hard way, depending heavily on the very Washington, D.C. swamp creatures whose swamp he sought to drain. George W. Bush, having scant foreign policy experience himself, leaned heavily on a stable of neoconservative advisors, who had long pressed for another war with Iraq. What might a Kamala Harris victory in November portend for US foreign policy? Harris’s statements and advisors tell the story.In 2019, when Kamala Harris was running for President, her campaign website’s foreign policy featured bright spots. Harris stated that, “[a]s president, she’ll work with our allies and local leaders to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and protracted military engagements in places like Syria.” However, Harris said