War and Foreign Policy

Bob Murphy gives a pragmatic case for pacifism.

Sanctions have a long history of failure. The US government's recent sanctions on Iran will likely be no different, but they will certainly be harmful to the Iranian people.

What is a national-security state? It is a totalitarian-like governmental structure that consists of an enormous military-intelligence establishment with extraordinary powers, such as indefinite detention, torture, secret surveillance, and even assassination of both citizens and foreigners.

The US's enthusiasm for sanctions means Europe is learning the price of doing business with the United States and with the dollar.  They're now developing new ways to work around the the US-dominated financial system.

There's no evidence Trump is more trigger-happy than any other president, but the presidency's unchecked nuclear-launch power will remain a problem both now and with future presidents.

The Iraqi parliament response to the recent US airstrike — expelling all US troops from Iraq — suggests that an escalation of the ongoing US-Iran conflict would not be as simple as pro-war factions of the US regime would like it to be.

"To recognize that the Baghdadi government is an enemy of the United States is to acknowledge that not only was the Iraq war a mistake, but that its outcome was a boon for Iran."

John Maynard Keynes's stance on German reparations in the wake of the First World War may have precipitated the rise of Hitler.

Despite its supposedly strained relationship with the Saudi regime, the Obama administration, for example, still managed to offer the royals of that kingdom a record $136 billion in US weapons between 2009 and 2017.

Jeffrey Rogers Hummel joins Bob Murphy for an in-depth discussion of the economics of slavery, touching on subtleties such as the labor/leisure trade-off, and the recent claims by some historians that slavery was efficient.