Roundup: Historians' Take

Julian Zelizer: How Afghanistan Became the Ignored War

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security -- From World War II to the War on Terrorism" and of a book on former President Carter, to be published next fall by Times Books.] If the Korean War, which began 60 years ago this past weekend, was America's forgotten war, Afghanistan has been America's ignored war.... Indeed, when the controversy

Andrew J. Bacevich: Endless War, a Recipe for Four-Star Arrogance

[Andrew J. Bacevich is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University. His book "Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War" will be published in August. He will be online at 11 a.m. on Monday, June 28, to chat. Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.] Long wars are antithetical to democracy. Protracted conflict introduces toxins that inexorably corrode the values of popular government. Not least among those value

Fouad Ajami: Petraeus and Obama's Uncertain Trumpet

[Mr. Ajami is professor of Middle East Studies at The Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies and an adjunct senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.] The chroniclers tell us that Lyndon Johnson never took to the Vietnam War. He prosecuted it, it became his war, but it was, in LBJ's language, a "bitch of a war." He fought it with a premonition that it could wreck his Great Society programs. He had a feel for the po

Roger E. A. Farmer: Economic Policy Through the Lens of History

[Roger E. A. Farmer is Distinguished Professor of Economics and Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of California Los Angeles. He is the author of two new books on the current global economic crisis. How the Economy Works: Confidence, Crashes and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, is written for the general reader and specialist alike, and Expectations, Employment and Prices is written for academics and practicing economists. Both books are published with Oxford University Press.]

Richard Sylla: The U.S. Banking System: Origin, Development, and Regulation

[Richard Sylla is Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets, and Professor of Economics at New York University, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Chairman of the board of the Museum of American Finance.] Banks are among the oldest businesses in American history—the Bank of New York, for example, was founded in 1784, and as the recently renamed Bank of New York Mellon it had its 225th anniversary in 2009. The ban

Timothy Garton Ash: Look Out for Another Financial Avalanche

[Timothy Garton Ash is a professor of European studies at Oxford University.] I felt it was time I got to know the almighty. I mean, of course, the bond markets. For at their call, the governments of this world tremble. Before them, every knee shall bow. To fend off their wrath, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has just presented the most draconian budget in living memory – a burnt offering on the altar of this god we call simply “the markets.” So,

David Bercuson: Sixty Years Later, Canada Can Still Learn from the Korean War

[David Bercuson is director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary and the author of Blood on the Hills; The Canadian Army in the Korean War.] On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces swarmed over the 38th parallel, the border between communist North Korea and anti-communist South Korea. Korean leader Kim-il Sung had planned the invasion carefully and had received the backing of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who not only blessed the invasion politi

Laurent Dubois: France's Soccer Empire in Ruins?

[Laurent Dubois is the Marcello Lotti Professor of Romance Studies and History at Duke University. He recently published "Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France," and is founding editor of the Soccer Politics Blog.] The world watched with awe and derision this past week as the French national soccer team, boasting a roster of star players, imploded on and off the field at the World Cup.... The intellectual Alain Finkielkraut -- already well know

Tom Engelhardt: America Detached from War

[Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com. His latest book, just published, is The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s (Haymarket Books). Watch a Timothy MacBain TomCast video of him discussing the American way of war by clicking here.]Admittedly, before George W. Bush had his fever dream, the U.S. had already put its first unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drone surveillance planes in the skies

Daniel Pipes: The Left's New Enemy: "Empire"

[Mr. Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.]We know what Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao wanted (state control of everything) and how they achieved this goal (brutal totalitarianism); but what do their successors today want and how do they hope to achieve it? It's a curiously un-examined subject.Ernest Sternberg of the University at Buffalo offers answers in an eye-opening article in a

Peter Baldwin: Is the EU Too Big to be Democratic?

[Peter Baldwin is Professor of Modern History at UCLA. He is the author of "The narcissism of minor differences: how America and Europe are alike" (Oxford University Press, 2009).] Back in the days – let’s say 1932 just to pick a moment – when European politics were really polarized, the spectrum ran from Moscow-faithful communists at one extreme all the way to monarchists and fascists. During the same time, the US political spectrum spanned all the way from Republicans to

Jim Sleeper: McChrystal's Master-Stroke?

[Jim Sleeper is a lecturer in political science at Yale University.]An interesting theory about Stanley McChrystal's motives and strategy -- and about what Obama may have lost by dismissing him -- popped up in the thread below my post yesterday, and I urged David Seaton to make the comment into a post of his own.

Victor Davis Hanson: A McChrystal Endnote

[Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.] Obama had no choice but to do what he did, and the wise Petraeus move was obviously a mitigating factor. Obama’s speech, despite the customarily excessive use of “I,” “me,” and “my,” was workmanlike and wise in its emphasis on continuity of strategy. In this regard, the more one r

Julian Zelizer: Not Quite MacArthur

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and author of “Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security From World War II to the War on Terrorism.” He is author of the forthcoming “Jimmy Carter,” and editor of the forthcoming “President George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment.”] General McCrystal’s comments in the Rolling Stone interview have rocked Washington. Without question, President Obama has a political problem on h

William Astore: McChrystal Must Go

[Professor Astore currently teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, PA. He writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and can be reached at wjastore@gmail.com.]In putting General Stanley McChrystal in charge of the Afghan war effort, President Obama knew he wasn't hiring a choirboy. Tough as nails, McChrystal was known as a "can-do" and "results driven" leader, definitely rough around the edges, but then again so too was General Geor

Bruce Ackerman: An Increasingly Politicized Military

[Bruce Ackerman, a professor of law and political science at Yale University, is the author of the forthcoming book "The Decline and Fall of the American Republic."] It is tempting to compare Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's criticism of Obama administration officials to Gen. Douglas MacArthur's defiance of President Truman during the Korean War. But something important has changed over the last 60 years. Although MacArthur challenged Truman, the larger officer corps was

Richard H. Kohn: Thoroughly Debate McChrystal’s Fate

[Richard H. Kohn teaches military history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A specialist in civil-military relations, he was Chief of Air Force History for the USAF, 1981-1991.] That General Stanley McChrystal committed egregious, unprofessional mistakes is beyond dispute: disdain for the vice president, unhappiness with the president and frustration and anger with crucial civilian colleagues — all to a reporter whom he welcomed into his headquarters in circumstanc

Max Boot: Judging McChrystal’s War

[Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is writing a history of guerrilla warfare and terrorism.] ON Tuesday, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, was called back to Washington to explain disparaging comments he and his aides made to a Rolling Stone reporter about senior administration officials. The general’s ill-advised remarks, which have prompted him to prepare a letter of resignation, will only feed the general sense of despair and

Robert Dallek: The Other Truman Doctrine

[Robert Dallek is the author of the forthcoming history “The Lost Peace: Leadership in a Time of Horror and Hope, 1945-1953.”] IRRESPECTIVE of anything he said, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, committed a clear breach of traditional standards by even agreeing to give an interview to Rolling Stone magazine. Presidents and defense secretaries make policy decisions, and military officers, from the lowest to the highest ranks, are obliged to follow or

Doris Kearns Goodwin: What Would Lincoln Do?

[Doris Kearns Goodwin is the author of “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.”] IF Abraham Lincoln’s experience is any guide, Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s fate will be determined by President Obama’s judgment of how his firing would affect the war in Afghanistan. What to Do With the ‘Runaway General’? Should General McChrystal be fired for insubordination, or do his remarks reflect a healthy level of dissent? For months during the Civ