It is a very old story. Even when slave owing was legal in the United States before the American Civil War (1861-65), the country insisted on presenting itself as a democratic model to the world. Not even the bloodiest civil war ever fought to that point by any European or North American country changed its self-regard in this respect.

As Britain prepares to host the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow next month, it is pursuing two contradictory policies that undermine its chances of success. On the one hand, it is seeking a unified global response to the climate crisis with nations agreeing to targets for the reduction of their coal and petroleum emissions. But at the same time, it has joined the US in escalating a new cold war directed at confronting China and Russia at every turn.

Putting aside power rivalries would require some painful compromises. But it’s our best chance to address the world’s problems.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was started in the aftermath of the second world war as a coalition of non-Soviet aligned states that actualized itself in the Korean War. Since the fall of the Soviet Union the organization has become what can only be described as the sticky web of globalist force and “diplomacy” holding together the crumbling empire of the post war American Anglosphere.

The perception of the US as a threat is rising globally. From 2013 to 2018 it rocketed up by 80 percent. For a similar period of time fear of Russia and China went up only by 9 and 3 percent respectively. World tensions overall have even increased since that period.

France’s pact with Greece and support for European ‘strategic autonomy’ are ripping apart the alliance.

Rather than simply greeting the development as a positive move, there were predictably sinister comments from some quarters. Russia was accused in Western media of “holding Europe hostage” over the continent’s energy crisis and using its vast supply of natural gas as a “geopolitical weapon”.

It is called institutionalizing hubris, and it’s taking U.S. global foreign policy nowhere fast. Washington needs a policy reset. There always will be important issues dividing the U.S. from China and Russia. However, Americans should look for opportunities to cooperate when possible. Institutionalizing hubris as part of American grand strategy is unnecessarily sacrificing important American interests.

Money drives the US military machine. By Andrew Cockburn Innumerable wars originate, wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 6, “entirely in private passions; in the attachments, enmities, interests, hopes, and fears of leading individuals in the communities of which they are members.” As […]

Ukraine’s National Security Council is blocking popular (pro-Russian) news outlets. What does this mean for freedom of speech? viaSince early 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has regularly resorted to sanctioning his domestic opponents. By law, both Ukraine’s president and National […]