The Best and Worst of US Foreign Policy

I’m guessing that mileage is going to vary quite a bit on this list from the Council on Foreign Relations of the best and worst US foreign policy decisions… For my part I think that the “Best” list is broadly correct, and although I’d subtract the Monroe Doctrine I’m not sure what I’d replace it with. Probably something to do with the occupation of Japan. Of the worst, we of course know now that Truman did not “decide” to destroy Nagasaki and that even describing the bombing as a “choice” runs into a bunch of conceptual and analytical problems… which is not to say that the dropping of Fat Man doesn’t deserve it’s position, just that it’s not correctly described. Of the rest of the worst… well, let’s just say that there are a lot of potential candidates. I can certainly understand listing Iraq 2003 as #1 given the role of the invasion in breaking down the liberal international order, but I still suspect more than a little recency bias. That said, I’m pretty sure that “invading Greenland” will take pride of place if Trump determines to go that route.

In any case, food for thought. Reminds me that I did finally manage to collect the series that Loomis and I wrote on George Herring’s From Colony to Superpower…