John J. Tierney Jr.

The strict definition, from ancient Christian and Jewish texts, means God’s intervention against the evil of mankind, an “imminent cosmic cataclysm,” the “final judgment,” end of the world, the collapse of civilization, etc. Apocalypse is always meant as a prophetic revelation rather than a reflection of the past. Synonyms include “Armageddon,” “disaster,” “calamity,” etc. Thus…

Pardon me, but I’m almost 82, have been around a “long, long time,” and keep thinking that “IT” has to be me. Am I too old, impatient, cranky, selfish, and satisfied that everything that happens appears both unprecedented and catastrophic? So what is “IT”? Good question! Answer: the country, that’s what is “IT.” So ……

It was refreshing to read Michael McKenna’s recent Commentary piece on history, specifically World War I, as a reminder of where the world is now and how we got here (“What did we commemorate on Veterans Day?” Web, Nov. 14). The abuse of history by Americans has always been an intellectual problem, and it has…

Rarely does one read a column that summarizes most political circumstances, good or evil, as succinctly and as helpful as David Von Drehle’s Oct. 6 op-ed “Fear sells. It’s our job not to give in to it.” Read more at The Washington Post

Above: Angelo Codevilla speaking in Prof. Ken deGraffenreid’s intelligence course at IWP in August 1994.  My initial contact with Angelo goes back nearly half a century when we both worked Capitol Hill as “conservative” staff on National Security issues, me in the House he in the Senate. In 1975, we shared a memorable year together…

When I ask friends whether the country is “going or gone” they usually look at me quizzically and ask “what do you mean”? Admittedly, the question is both pessimistic and unnatural, as it presupposes that the USA is, indeed, on a trajectory and that this trajectory is headed, at best, nowhere, and at worse, to…

Today, August 16, 2021, will probably not go down in history as did Pearl Harbor, declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a “day that will live in infamy.” That particular day, December 7, 1941, has, in fact, stood the test of time. But today’s day, in 2021, is being declared as much by a…

Why do they hate this country? Of all the countries in the history of the world one might think that the United States of America would be the most loved, respected, and even exalted compared to all others. This is not just a sentimental and biased reflection from an American national but can be amply…

Readers will be forgiven if they have no idea about the subject of this essay. Yet, at one point in time, the “Pact” was signed by 62 countries of the world and most people, especially in the U.S. and France, believed that it would lead to an eventual “peace on earth” based on political liberty.…

Beginnings In 1963, a group of scholars at the University of Pennsylvania’s Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) wrote a book with the same title as this essay (Robert Strausz-Hupe et al ) that argued for a greater common political relationship that would unite the sovereign nations of the “Atlantic World.” Just fourteen years after NATO…