John J. Tierney Jr.

The Washington Naval Conference, 1921–1922 Notice that the keyword in the title is NOT “prevent,” nor “end,” but “contain,” an expression that goes back to the beginning of the Cold War (1946). In that year, George Kennan, a State Department officer in Moscow, wrote back that the U.S. must maintain “a long-term, patient but firm…

Of all the great “conceptions” (plan, idea, design, image, cause) on the political globe, there is none so noble, majestic, nor so idealistic as the union of the western democracies in a single sovereignty stretching beyond both shores of the Atlantic Ocean. This notion has been dominant in theoretical/philosophical circles even before the nation-state (1648)…

If there is any “consensus” for America in the world, it is that the differences between “authoritarian” societies (Kings, Emperors, dictators, Fascists, Communists, etc.) and “democracies” (U.S., UK, France, etc.) are so vast and apparent that to “convert” the first into the second has always been, and remains today, as the chief purpose of America…

For most of its history, the United States needed no formal or legal supervision for its foreign policies since George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796) created an “isolationist” nation that avoided any form of “entangling alliances” with other countries (European). With exceptions, Washington’s advice governed how the U.S. viewed itself on the world stage: independent, a…

The title here is one of the most famous (infamous?) statements ever made in the history of world politics. It was said by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on September 27, 1938 in reference to the growing British anguish over German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s ambition to take Czechoslovakia. In retrospect, it characterized the foreign policies…

Above: A counter-attack by Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces supported by T-34 tanks near Playa Giron during the Bay of Pigs invasion, 19 April 1961. First, a bit of perspective. While the Bay of Pigs invasion can properly be called a “fiasco,” one must remember that seventeen years earlier, the United States supervised the greatest seaborne…

  In 1775, in a Richmond church, Patrick Henry gave the reason for the American Revolution and, subsequently, the explanation for any American political independence in the first place. “Give me liberty or give me death” was described by one man in the audience (Thomas Marshall, father of the first Chief Justice, John Marshall) as…

Questions like this are full of innuendos that complicate the issue. Such as: what of the Falklands War (1982), Argentina’s “Dirty War” (1976-1983), or the 1969 “Soccer War” between El Salvador and Honduras? Certainly, the Western Hemisphere (WH) has never been free of warfare, much less violence, as any history of the region will attest,…

From the time “recorded” history began (6,000 BC), all societies on earth have lived in something we call “government,” including aboriginals, tribes, and indigenous groups. “Anarchy,” being “without authority,” is impossible for any form of society and normally refers to a temporary breakdown of order, as in civil disturbance, revolution, protest, strike, etc. Whether society…

In an evaluation of my class “History of International Relations” (taught 48 consecutive semesters at The Institute of World Politics) one student wrote that “Professor Tierney spent too much time on World War I.” This was meant as a “negative” review, as “too much” was literal and, by definition, a complaint. As usual in such…