Ted Galen Carpenter

Ted Galen Carpenter is a senior fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute and a senior fellow at the Libertarian Institute. During a 37-year career at the Cato Institute, Dr. Carpenter also served in various policy positions. He is the author of more than 1,200 articles, as well as 13 books, including Unreliable Watchdog: The News Media and U.S. Foreign Policy (2022).

The Growing Estrangement between Washington and Beijing

The Trump years have not been a good period for relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). There are rising tensions involving multiple strategic and economic issues, and several of those disagreements…

China flexes its military muscles in the Western Pacific

It was just a matter of time until the surging economic capabilities of the People’s Republic of China would translate into more serious military capabilities. After more than two decades of annual (usually double-digit) boosts in defense…

Western alliance fissures grow about Libya policy

When Field Marshal Khalifa Hafter began his military offensive in early April to capture Tripoli, Libya’s longtime capital city, the United States and its European allies seemed united about the policy to adopt. They adamantly opposed his…

Facing the Transatlantic truth: divergent US and European security interests

Media reports that President Donald Trump discussed the possibility of US withdrawal from NATO with other officials on several occasions in 2018 have produced enhanced anxiety among Alliance partisans on both sides of the Atlantic. But…

Will Washington finally accept independent European defense initiatives?

The United States has a long, depressing record of trying to discourage European efforts to create an independent security capability. Washington’s hectoring of its NATO allies for greater “burden-sharing” always emphasizes more substantial…

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