John J. Tierney Jr.

Above: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British prime minister Winston Churchill, and their advisors in Casablanca, 1943. The verb “made” in the title is meant to describe the main activity or set of related events that were responsible for the chief accomplishments of the time period. The Twentieth Century is almost universally recognized as the “greatest” period…

The title quotes from the familiar notion but reverses the two expressions. The point of the article is that it doesn’t matter, especially between nation-states. Meaning: that to “label” others into either category might be a terrible mistake. In other words, in the final analysis, there is little distinction between the two, and to make…

The two expressions in the title, circumstance and politics, are essential in estimating the current (and historic) public acceptance of war vs. peace in the American political culture. The word “circumstance” is formally defined as “state of affairs” or “sum of essential and environmental factors,” while politics is associated with the art of “governing” as…

While certainly “subjective,” I would like to begin this essay with an assertion: that George Washington’s Farewell Address, September 17, 1796, remains the greatest political document in American history. While the odds against this claim remain large, they are not helped by the notion that the very first document published on this subject (political “behavior”…

The first stanza of Bob Dylan’s historic 1963 song, which ignited a whole generation, is, How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? How many seas must the white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand? Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever…

There was once a time, and a long one, when Latin America was the singular area of U.S. interests. The first major assertion of any U.S. foreign policy goes back to President Monroe’s Doctrine (1823), which defined the entire hemisphere as under American strategic jurisdiction.  Originally, Monroe made only a statement of interest against foreign…

“Remember this: anticipation is the ultimate power. Losers react; leaders anticipate.” -Tony Robbins Properly, the word anticipation is defined as the act of “looking forward to” or “an action that takes into account or forestalls a later action.” Can someone/something be held responsible for doing nothing when action might have forestalled/stopped some action in the…

The notion of political union is as old as history, while the notion of political solidarity at home can be traced to colonial America. The first popular effort toward a global union came in 1919 with Woodrow Wilson’s call to make world war “safe for democracy.” Wilson’s League of Nations failed from the beginning, but,…

We are all familiar with the satirical idiom “The Emperor Has No Clothes,” applied to situations painfully clear to all yet unmentionable. Since Hans Christian Andersen wrote his fairy tale in 1837, the expression has been commonplace to expose the willful ignorance of a people unwilling or unable to acknowledge the obvious. Andersen’s story shows…

Office “memos” are meant to impart guidelines or instruction to the rest of the staff from the Boss regarding proper (improper) behavior. They may address business conduct, office decorum, sales techniques, timeliness, or any other conduct that may (may not) affect the business. They should normally be taken seriously, especially if one wants (likes) his…