Free Republic

Russia, flush with new-found wealth from oil exports, expands its military reach and political influence abroad. A war-weary America slashes defense spending and retreats from the world. The president embarks on a massive government-subsidized program to develop alternative energy to replace fossil fuels. Pundits cluck about America in retreat, and point to the rise of an Asian economic superpower. That’s the world circa 1976, but it sounds like quotes ripped from today’s headlines. History has a way of repeating itself, or to quote the great Yogi Bera, it’s déjà vu all over again. The Obama administration is looking a lot...

With the spotlight this week on Germany’s foreign policy, The Local asks if Europe’s biggest economy should play a greater role in world affairs? Foreign policy expert Professor Walter Russell Mead explains. … Professor Mead argued German foreign policy has been relatively successful in Europe. Asked if Germany should play a greater global role, he said: “Germany is playing a larger role in the world than people appreciate.” But he added: “Germany should play any role it thinks it ought to play. The Europe we see today is a Europe that US presidents from Washington on would have given anything...

Ahmadinejad says US influence in world affairs waning due to massive debt and loss of legitimacy, adds West increasingly questioning legitimacy of "Zionist regime," hints EU hurt more by sanctions than Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted the impending downfall of the "US empire," blaming the collapse on a combination of the country's massive debt and its loss of legitimacy within the international community, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported Thursday. “How long can a government with a $16 trillion foreign debt remain a world power?” he asked at a press conference with Kuwaiti media personnel. "The Americans have injected...

In the Illinois legislature, state senator Barack Obama voted “present” 129 times. Today, he seems to be voting present on two major issues — Libya and the budget. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told reporters Thursday that the United States and other nations have “taken a range of steps . . . to squeeze (Moammar) Qaddafi, isolate him, really turn him into a pariah.” But the steps the United States has taken may well have bolstered Qaddafi’s determination to crush the rebellion against his regime. On the one hand, we supported .... On the other hand, we have..... Or at...

n November 1956, at the height of the Suez crisis, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of Britain telephoned his French counterpart, Guy Mollet. Under intense pressure from Washington, he explained, Britain was withdrawing from the British-French force that had just invaded Egypt. France would have to do likewise. Mollet was stunned; the decision by the Americans and the British had been taken without his knowledge and would be especially humiliating for France, already facing an armed revolt in its Algerian colony. But Konrad Adenauer, the German chancellor, who was visiting him at the time, sought to lift his spirits by pointing...