US Foreign Policy

Trump ‘Eases Restrictions’ On US Military Attacks Abroad

March 1, 2025 News Desk, The Cradle. Educate! Trump Administration, US Foreign Policy, US military, Wars and Militarism

The White House has eased constraints on US military commanders to authorize airstrikes and special operation raids outside conventional battlefields, allowing for a broader range of people who can be targeted, CBS News reported on 28 February. According to US officials with knowledge of the policy shift, the quiet change drastically alters Biden-era rules governing strikes against so-called terror targets. It marks a return to the more aggressive counterterrorism policies US President Trump instituted in his first term.

Ostension In The White House

February 26, 2025 Arnie Saiki, Onibaba. Educate! Donald Trump, Executive power, One Voice Order, US Empire, US Foreign Policy

Project 2025 is designed to centralize executive power, dismantle the civil service, and reorient federal agencies toward ideological loyalty, with a particular focus on foreign policy, national security, and economic deregulation. At first glance, the One Voice Order aligns with this agenda by subordinating the State Department to direct presidential control, stripping diplomacy of its autonomy. However, OVO is not just another element of Project 2025—it is an accelerant, taking imperial presidency logic to its extreme by transforming foreign policy into an enforcement mechanism for executive authority.

Biden’s Pernicious Presidential Legacies

January 24, 2025 Dr. Jack Rasmus, World Financial Review. Educate! Finance and the Economy, Inflation, Joe Biden, US Foreign Policy

Trump’s proposals to radically transform much of US economic and social policy are being rapidly rolled out during the first week of his administration. How much he succeeds or fails in that transformation will depend on a number of factors. High on the list of such factors is the residue of conditions and policies leftover by the Biden administration—i.e. the legacies of the Biden years. Those legacies will play an important role influencing, and perhaps even determining, how Trump may fare in implementing his plans. So what are the legacy policies and conditions?

Warhawk Senator Marco Rubio Confirmed As Secretary Of State

January 19, 2025 People's Dispatch. Educate! Anti-war Movement, Cuba, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, US Foreign Policy

Yesterday, amid the momentous news of a ceasefire agreement finally being reached in Gaza, right-wing Senator Marco Rubio was confirmed as Trump’s Secretary of State by the United States Senate. To some, Rubio’s confirmation, given his reputation as a warhawk known for promoting an aggressive approach against countries that do not tip-toe around the US line on foreign policy, contradicts Trump’s campaign promise of “preventing World War III.” Rubio’s role as Secretary of State signals that Trump may immediately relist Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. This week, in his final days as President, Biden removed Cuba from the SSoT list, a designation which has resulted in multiple humanitarian crises on the island.

Sarah Adams And The Return Of The Iraq War Playbook

January 15, 2025 Robert Inlakesh, MintPress News. Educate! Iraq, Iraq War, Sarah Adams, US Foreign Policy, Wars and Militarism

A network of former intelligence operatives has woven itself into the fabric of right-wing alternative media, amplifying anti-Muslim scare narratives that appear aimed at countering a noted decline in conservative support for Israel since October 7, 2023. Central to this effort is Sarah Adams, a figure promoting conspiracies about a supposed Palestinian-linked Al-Qaeda plot against the West. On December 12, 2024, Adams appeared on the Shawn Ryan Show for a two-hour interview that quickly amassed over 2.5 million views on YouTube. Shorter excerpts have gained further traction across social media platforms.

What Will Trump’s Iran Policy Look Like?

January 11, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. Educate! Donald Trump, Iran, Iran Nuclear Deal, US Foreign Policy

Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump adopted an aggressive Iran policy in his first term. He withdrew from the Obama administration’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), adopted harsh sanctions on the country, and assassinated Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani. Should we expect more of the same this time around? Does he actually want a deal with the country? Who might end up pushing him on the issue behind the scenes? Is there any reason to take his non-interventionist seriously or does neocon ideology still prevail within the Republican party? Is the Iranian government actually vulnerable right now? What role does Israel play in all of this?

Don’t Deify Jimmy Carter

December 31, 2024 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Educate! Chris Hedges, Jimmy Carter, Palestine, US Foreign Policy

Jimmy Carter, out of office, had the courage to call out the “abominable oppression and persecution” and “strict segregation” of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” He dedicated himself to monitoring elections, including his controversial defense of the 2006 election of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and championed human rights around the globe. He lambasted the American political process as an “oligarchy” in which “unlimited political bribery” created “a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.”

Trump’s Christmas Message Is One Of Chaos, Turbulence And Retaliation

December 26, 2024 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. Educate! Death Penalty, Donald Trump, Executive power, Greenland, Imperialism, Panama Canal, Social safety net, US Foreign Policy

Letting no holiday opportunity go without stirring up chaos, turbulence and retaliation, by mid-morning on Christmas Day, President-elect Trump posted a series of insensitive, brazen and mean spirited “Merry Christmas” messages on his Truth Social platform. These posts for both national and international issues were followed, predictably, by over two dozen re-posts of articles or other social media posts forecasting his political agenda on topics including troubled Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth and his designation of Greenland and the Panama Canal as U.S. national security necessities, tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and reinstatement of the federal death penalty that Biden had suspended.

Mexico’s Leftist President Rips Trump Tariff Threat

November 27, 2024 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Educate! Donald Trump, Mexico, Pentagon Budget, Tariffs, US Foreign Policy

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday sharply criticized U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose a 25% tariff on all imported goods from Canada and Mexico, calling the proposal a potentially disastrous distraction from meaningful solutions to drug trafficking and mass migration. "Migration and drug consumption in the United States cannot be addressed through threats or tariffs," Sheinbaum, a member of Mexico's leftist Morena party, wrote in a letter to Trump. "What is needed is cooperation and mutual understanding to tackle these significant challenges."

Selective Democracy: US Hegemony And Global Consequences

August 28, 2024 Erica Caines, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Democracy, Gaza, Joe Biden, US Foreign Policy, US Imperialism

The United States often claims to promote democracy and human rights, but its actions reveal a deeper agenda of spreading global hegemony, exposing the hypocrisy in its foreign policy. A glaring example is the Biden-Harris administration’s simultaneous rhetoric of humanitarian concern and unwavering support for Israel, despite the latter’s ongoing military actions in Gaza. This contradiction exposes the inauthenticity of the U.S.’s commitment to democratic principles and human rights, especially when these principles conflict with its strategic alliances. In a recent convention speech, President Joe Biden embarked on what can only be described as a journey into an alternative universe of political guile.

Colonialism As A Bulwark Against China

August 27, 2024 Mick Hall, Consortium News. Educate! China, Colonialism, Pacific Island Forum, US Foreign Policy, US Imperialism

The 53rd annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), which opened Monday in Tonga, takes place amid a backdrop of simmering violence and confrontations between French security forces and protesters in New Caledonia that has so far left a dozen dead, as well as increased geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S. with its regional allies. On the agenda are talks on the impact of climate change. But for the West, the political thrust of the gathering is keeping Pacific nations outside of China’s orbit and enmeshed instead in Western military architecture. The five-day meeting, which runs until Friday, is being attended by the 18 leaders of strategically important islands and archipelagos spread across the vast Pacific Ocean, as well as think-tank analysts and politicians from sub-imperial countries like Australia and New Zealand who are sounding the alarm over the supposed dangers of “malign” Chinese influence in the region.

The Sanctuary Movement Put US Foreign Policy On Trial

June 10, 2024 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, In These Times. Strategize! Border Patrol, History, Immigration, Refugees, Sanctuary, US Foreign Policy

Forty-two years ago, a Tucson congregation changed the landscape of immigration politics when what started with a legal clinic for Central American asylum seekers quickly grew into a nationwide movement. Now, some immigration scholars who have tracked the Sanctuary Movement for many years say the spirit of the movement is alive and well in student organizing for Gaza. The Sanctuary Movement was born in the ‘80s against the backdrop of repression, death squads, and massacres in El Salvador and Guatemala. Refugees were arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in desperate search of safety, but few would find the refuge they sought.

Biden’s Perplexed Policy Prolongs Gaza Genocide

March 22, 2024 Ramzy Baroud, Consortium News. Educate! Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Joe Biden, US Foreign Policy

When the foreign policy of a country as large and significant as the United States is governed by a case of cognitive dissonance, terrible things happen. These terrible things are, in fact, already taking place in the Gaza Strip, where well over 100,000 people have been killed, wounded or are missing, and an outright famine is currently ravaging the displaced population. From the start of the war on Oct. 7, the U.S. mishandled the situation, although recent reports indicate that Biden, despite his old age, has read the overall meaning of the Oct. 7 events correctly.

Question The Narrative That Villainizes Henry Kissinger

December 7, 2023 K. J. Noh, Popular Resistance. Strategize! Genocide, Henry Kissinger, US Foreign Policy, Wars and Militarism

Henry Kissinger straddled US foreign policy like a narcissistic cowboy across two presidencies from 1969-1977 as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. He is considered to have influenced the policy decisions of 12 presidents, affecting the course of global history. What is notable in the current moment, in the moralizing obituary circuit, is the framing that Kissinger was somehow uniquely evil and murderous--a moral cancer on the US body politic--and that he personally shifted US policy in this direction. This “exceptional war criminal" framing is especially promoted by the Imperial Liberal Press, in particular the Overton window gatekeepers such as The Nation, DemocracyNow!, the NY Times, and the Washington Post.