Lawrence Kaplan is a foreign policy writer and analyst who contributed to The Weekly Standard from 1997 to 2000, covering U.S. foreign policy, international affairs, and political ideology. He went on to become a senior editor at The New Republic and co-authored "The War Over Iraq" with William Kristol. His writing frequently examined American engagement abroad and critiqued both left and right on foreign policy matters.
"The chief practical use of history," James Bryce wrote, "is to deliver us from plausible historical analogies." That fairly summarizes the dim view the profession has of analogies that reduce complex issues to, say, another Vietnam or Munich. If two events seem similar in one way, the determined…
When a state routinely flouts international norms, menaces its neighbors, and inveighs against the United States, how should American policymakers respond? On this question, the foreign affairs "realists," commerce-minded liberals, and captains of industry who presently guide U.S. foreign policy…
CONSERVATIVES are quarreling again about American foreign policy -- about how forceful it should be and to what extent it should reflect the nation's values and ideals. But this time, far from remaining the exclusive property of pundits and intellectuals, the debate is also being waged in the…
HOW MUCH should America spend on its military? Listening to Republicans, you would think the answer was clear: much more than whatever we are currently spending. The charge that President Clinton has "hollowed out" the armed forces has become a favorite among Republican members of Congress. The…
THE FINELY CALIBRATED BOMBING of Serbia exemplifies a conventional wisdom that emerged soon after the 1991 Gulf War: The only wars American public opinion will sanction are those that may be fought bloodlessly and, hence, from the air. There is a paradox here. During the era of universal…
When Vice President Gore uttered the word "reformasi" on a visit to Malaysia last year, American investors promptly charged him with rudeness. Their reaction was perhaps to be expected, as "reformasi," or reform, is shorthand for dumping Malaysia's investment-friendly prime minister. Less…
YOU CAN'T AVOID THEM. The Mobil Corporation's paid "editorials" have been bombarding readers of the New York Times op-ed page for 28 years. Immediately recognizable by their bold-print headlines -- "Let's nurture human rights -- not dictate them," "Singapore: an orchid in the Pacific," "An argument…
YOU CAN'T AVOID THEM. The Mobil Corporation's paid "editorials" have been bombarding readers of the New York Times op-ed page for 28 years. Immediately recognizable by their bold-print headlines -- "Let's nurture human rights -- not dictate them," "Singapore: an orchid in the Pacific," "An argument…
Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw
It is an American illusion that other nations are Lager to have pointed out to them what the U.S. government regards as their defects. . . . It is our little conceit that once other nations have learned how we feel, they will mend their ways." The author of this opinion is neither Susan Sontag nor…
Margot A. Henriksen
IN THE GREAT DEBATE OVER CHINA, the playing field is becoming more level. On one side is the pro-China lobby, which favors "engagement." What this has come to mean is giving a near-absolute priority to the expansion of economic ties with China. Though it boasts extraordinary financial resources and…
For evidence that American foreign policy has abandoned its traditional moorings, one need only glance at a newspaper. On a typical day, the national press will report items such as the following: The Navy evicts a Marine Corps battalion from its base in southern California -- to make room for a…
At different times, the European right, the Latin American left and even groups at the margins of American politics have fallen under the sway of conspiracy theories. But today it is the Middle East that provides the world's most fertile ground for fears of covert plots. Scholarly works on the…
After tanks, subversion, and vodka, perhaps the greatest export of the Soviet Union was the "socialist realism" novel. These candy-coated political tracts, which enjoyed a vogue on college campuses for half a century, were concerned less with plot elaboration than with hitting the reader repeatedly…