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Haitian gang members carrying assault rifles, standing in the center of a stylized rifle sight.

Haiti’s Agents Of Fear

Haitians are caught between the grip of violent gangs and the messy legacies of foreign intervention.
by Matthew J. Smith via Noema on October 29, 2024
Richard Nixon gestures toward George Meany during a speech at the 1971 AFL-CIO convention.

How the “AFL-CIA” Undermined Labor Movements Abroad

During the Cold War, the AFL-CIO actively participated in efforts to suppress left-wing labor movements abroad.
by Jeff Schuhrke, Cal Turner, Sara Van Horn via Jacobin on September 2, 2024
Illustration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt among tanks.

The ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ Once More

In sending military aid to Ukraine, America’s values and security interests are aligned.
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via Bulwark+ on February 20, 2024
A U.S. Army officer posing after a battle at the Baghdad airport, April 2003.

Blundering Into Baghdad

The right—and wrong—lessons of the Iraq War.
by Hal Brands via Foreign Affairs on February 28, 2023
Robet Kagan resting his head in his hands in a contemplative position, with a dark red background

Robert Kagan and Interventionism’s Big Reboot

He fell from favor after the disaster of the Iraq War. But he was always biding his time.
by Samuel Moyn via The New Republic on February 14, 2023
U.S. soldiers providing sniper coverage for a meeting in Kandahar, January 2013

The High Cost of American Heavy-Handedness 

Great-power competition demands persuasion, not coercion.
by Douglas London via Foreign Affairs on December 20, 2022
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Dictators and Civil Wars: The Cold War in Latin America

Driven by fears of the rise of communism, the U.S. intervened in elections across the globe. In Latin America, the consequences are still being felt.
via Retro Report on February 25, 2022
A woman walks next to a colorful mural of Patrice Lumumba.

Probing the Depths of the CIA’s Misdeeds in Africa

The CIA committed many crimes in the early days of post-independence Africa. But is it fair to call their interference “recolonization”?
by Alex Park via Africa Is A Country on October 15, 2021
Afghan children standing in rubble
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Invading Other Countries to ‘Help’ People Has Long Had Devastating Consequences

For more than a century, U.S. wars of invasion have claimed a humanitarian mantle.
by Joel Zapata via Made By History on September 10, 2021

U.S. Intervention in Haiti Would Be a Disaster—Again

The nation’s poverty and chaos has been shaped by Washington for decades.
by Jonathan M. Katz via Foreign Policy on July 13, 2021
Cover of "The Idealist" by Samuel Zipp, featuring a photo of Wendell Willkie waving to photographers from the doorway of an airplane.

Q&A with Samuel Zipp, author of "The Idealist: Wendell Willkie’s Wartime Quest to Build One World"

Debates about what should be America’s role in the world are not new—neither is the slogan “America First.”
by Samuel Zipp via Harvard University Press Blog on October 23, 2020
Latin American leftist presidents Fernando Lugo, Evo Morales, Lula da Silva, Rafael Correa, an Hugo Chávez, joining hands in solidarity.
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Americans Shouldn’t Be Shocked by Russian Interference in the Election

Frustrated with foreign interference in our elections? So are the people of Latin America.
by Timothy M. Gill via Made By History on March 7, 2018
A frayed and torn American flag flying on a flag pole.

Farewell, the American Century

Rewriting the past by adding in what's been left out.
by Andrew J. Bacevich, Tom Engelhardt via Tom Dispatch on April 28, 2009
Bars evoking the border wall superimposed on a photo of a river.

The New Politics Of Territorial Expansion

“Never again” and the “responsibility to protect” now license forcible territorial annexation.
by Nils Gilman, Dirk Moses, Zachariah Mampilly via Noema on May 29, 2025
Lyndon Johnson and Richard Helms, framed by a camera shutter.

Is Spying Un-American?

Espionage has always been with us, but its rapid growth over the past century may have undermined trust in government.
by James Santel via The Atlantic on May 8, 2025
Cover of "America, América" by Greg Grandin.

The Dialectic Lurking Behind the Brutality

Greg Grandin’s new book tells the story of US expansionism and its complex relationship with the rest of the New World.
by Ieva Jusionyte via Los Angeles Review of Books on April 23, 2025
A torn border fence is bent into the shape of the Americas.

What America Can Learn From the Americas

Greg Grandin’s sweeping history of the new world shows how immutably intertwined the United States is with Latin America.
by Patrick Iber via The New Republic on April 7, 2025
Floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Regime Change in the West?

Where amid this turmoil does neoliberalism stand? In emergency conditions it has been forced to take measures.
by Perry Anderson via London Review of Books on March 25, 2025
Black and white Washington DC.

Between Existential Fear and Isolationist Exhaustion: The United States on the Eve of the Cold War

Dean Acheson, President Truman’s prim, patrician undersecretary of state, was sitting in his office on February 21, 1947, when he received a visitor.
by Clay Risen via Literary Hub on March 21, 2025
Frank Wisner's photo covered with official seals.

The Making of a Cold War Spy

The life and work of Frank Wisner, one of the CIA’s founding officers, offers us a portrait of American intelligence’s excesses.
by Adam Hochschild via The Nation on March 11, 2025

The Meaning of Kony 2012

The Kony 2012 campaign pioneered a new form of online activism — one that served empire more than the people it claimed to help.
by Benjamin Fogel via Jacobin on March 9, 2025
President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

The First Draft of the Ukraine War’s History

Washington’s policy-makers showed themselves more wicked and feckless than their Vietnam- and Iraq-era predecessors.
by Scott McConnell via The American Conservative on February 19, 2025

The Historical Roots of Donald Trump’s Aggressive Nationalism

What the President’s confrontations with Panama, Greenland, Canada, and Colombia suggest about his expansionist vision.
by Greg Grandin, Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on January 28, 2025
Donald Trump half-obscured by the American flag.

Emperor Trump’s New Map

The president who built his fan base on isolationism is pivoting to a kind of imperialism that the U.S. hasn’t seen in decades.
by Franklin Foer via The Atlantic on January 23, 2025
Ronald and Nancy Reagan smiling and waving at victory celebration.

Honey, I Forgot to Duck

Reagan’s capacity to inhabit and generate legend stemmed from his own impulse to substitute pleasing fictions for inconvenient facts.
by Jackson Lears via London Review of Books on January 15, 2025
Soldiers and a tank, a Defense department seal, and Pete Hegseth.

Bring Back the War Department

If you want a clear strategy for winning wars, don’t play a semantic game with the name of the department that’s charged with the strategy’s execution.
by Elliot Ackerman via The Atlantic on December 5, 2024
Photo contact sheet from Ronald Reagan speech on Nicaragua in 1986.
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Letting the World Scream

The U.S., Nicaragua, and the International Court of Justice in the 1980s.
by Sean T. Byrnes via HNN on November 26, 2024
Jimmy Carter and Shah Pahlavi.

The US’s Long History of Destabilizing Iran

Kamala Harris called Iran a “destabilizing, dangerous force.” The appropriate context for this is the US’s own decades-long history of destabilizing Iran.
by Seraj Assi via Jacobin on October 9, 2024
Protesters march againts the US-backed government of El Salvador in 1985.

How US Trade Unionists Opposed the Dirty War in El Salvador

Progressive forces in US labor took a stand in solidarity with trade unionists facing murderous repression in El Salvador.
by Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on September 26, 2024
Reflections in a store window of people watching the 9/11 attack on television.

The World That September 11 Made

Richard Beck’s “Homeland” traces the far-reaching aftereffects of the attacks and tries to recover the events of the day, as they happened.
by Ed Burmila via The New Republic on September 9, 2024
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