America’s modern addiction to the big stick
The history of US interventions shows that Washington’s ‘first use’ policy of military force is a relatively recent phenomenon.
Monica Duffy Toft is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute and Professor of International Politics, founding Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Prior to Tufts, Toft was Professor of Government and Public Policy at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and Assistant and Associate Professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. At Harvard, she was also the Assistant Director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and the founding director of the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs. Toft is a Global Scholar of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, a faculty associate of Oxford’s Blavatnik School, a fellow of Oxford’s Brasenose College, a research advisor to the Resolve Network, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Political Instability Task Force. The Carnegie Foundation of New York named her a Carnegie Scholar, and she was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to Norway and the World Politics Fellowship at Princeton University. She is the author of seven books and edited volumes and has published widely on international relations, strategy, civil wars and religion, and U.S. national security in academic and policy journals. Toft was educated at the University of Chicago (MA and PhD in political science) and UC Santa Barbara (BA in political science and Slavic languages and literature, summa cum laude). Before college, she spent four years in the US Army as a Russian linguist (honorably discharged).
The history of US interventions shows that Washington’s ‘first use’ policy of military force is a relatively recent phenomenon.
It was our own policies that facilitated the rise and supported a corrupt crony plutocracy in Russia, pushed its security concerns, and more.
As the crisis worsens, it’s likely that Donald Trump will seek to acquire more emergency powers to the executive branch, likely with broad public support.
Leaving militarily does not mean leaving all together. The United States should continue to pursue its Middle East interests diplomatically and economically.