This statement is submitted in connection with the Joint Committee’s deliberations on the European Union’s (EU) legislative proposals COM(2025)122 and COM(2025)123. Those two measures aim to increase EU member state military expenditures and weapons production. They raise multiple serious concerns regarding the merits thereof, including gravely exacerbating the existing Ukraine conflict and making a peace settlement even more difficult to achieve. They will also contribute to cementing the EU on a path of massively increased military expenditures, which will inevitably displace and diminish other forms of needed government spending owing to the fiscal constraints confronting member states. Worst of all, they could contribute to EU member states becoming directly involved in the Ukraine conflict, thereby bringing the conflict inside the EU. Consequently, Ireland should vigorously oppose the two measures as they are neither in Ireland’s national interest nor in the collective interest of the European Union.
Archive for the ‘U.S. Policy’ Category
The Case Against European Union Rearmament Spending: statement to the Irish Parliament re EU Proposals COM(2025)122 and COM(2025)123
Wednesday, June 18th, 2025A Niemöller moment: more on being cancelled Post Keynesian style
Saturday, May 31st, 2025Last week I e-mailed a note titled “Goodbye pluralism: cancelled Post Keynesian style” which detailed my suspension by the Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES). That suspension unjustly sanctioned me for an earlier e-mail announcement of my article “The Ukraine war and Europe’s deepening march of folly”.
The PKES has now responded, claiming I violated its list-serve rules. I welcome their response. It creates an opportunity both to remedy this injustice and to reverse an intolerant turn within the PKES’s rules of discourse. That turn is the much more important issue and it should concern all.
But first, I must address the PKES response, which I believe is disingenuous about the real reason for my suspension. In my view, that reason is the desire of pro-Ukrainian sympathizers to ban discussions of the Ukraine conflict which challenge the Western establishment’s anti-Russian narrative. If my article had been about Keir Starmer’s Labour government fiscal austerity it would not have been sanctioned.
(more…)The Ukraine war and Europe’s deepening march of folly
Monday, March 24th, 2025In her book The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam, the historian Barbara Tuchman explores the perplexing question of why countries sometimes pursue policies that are fundamentally contrary to their own interests. That question has acquired renewed relevance as Europe has now enlisted in a deepening march of folly over Ukraine.
Failure to reject the march of folly will have grave consequences for Europe, but doing so is a huge political challenge. It requires explaining how Europe has been harmed by its Ukraine policy; how Europe stands to be further harmed by doubling-down on that policy; how the march of folly has been sold politically; and why the political establishment persists therewith.
(more…)Germany’s election & why it is important to understand the Ukraine War
Sunday, February 2nd, 2025I urge you to watch this YouTube mini documentary (30 minutes). If that is too long, watch just the segment from 10:30 -12:00 (1.30 minutes).
Jeffrey D. Sachs – Understanding the Ukraine conflict – Brave New Europe
Every German should watch this before voting in the February election (and every European should watch in advance of future elections).
The establishment has lied to all of us. Perhaps worst of all are the German Greens, led by Annalena Baerbock. Today’s German Greens are neither Green nor for peace (the explanation of that transformation is a standalone story).
We must act now, or the far-right will exploit the crack caused by the establishment’s lies about Russia & Ukraine.
Fortunately, in Germany the BSW (Bundis Sarah Wagenknecht) Party provides an alternative. In most other countries (like the UK) the situation is more difficult because no party is challenging the lie.
The Ukraine – Russia war is the foremost issue facing Germany. The Social Democrats have fundamentally misunderstood the geopolitical causes of the war, and they show no sign of change. They are captured by the US/NATO Neoconservatives, and Germany and Europe suffer therefrom. The economic and social damage is huge, both now and in terms of lost future prosperity from a Europe that included Russia as an economic partner.
The political situation is akin to a Gordian knot, and the cleanest cut of that knot is with the BSW sword, even if it is not perfect. Failure to cut the knot will allow the AfD to make further gains, and that is the worst outcome.
N.B. For those wanting additional argument & evidence, I have written a research paper titled “The Ukraine – Russia war explained”.
The Ukraine – Russia war explained: how the US exploited internal fractures in the post-Soviet order (plus lessons for Georgia)
Sunday, November 10th, 2024This paper explores the deep causes of the Ukraine – Russia war. It argues that the war has both internal and external causes. The internal causes are rooted in the way the Soviet Union disintegrated. The external causes relate to how the US exploited the fractures in the post-Soviet order to advance its geopolitical agenda aimed at establishing US global hegemony. The war has devastated Ukraine. The capture of Ukrainian politics by extremist nationalists prevented a compromise that addressed the political and demographic reality of post-Soviet Ukraine. In doing so, the nationalists made Ukraine a sacrificial pawn in the US project seeking global hegemony, with fateful consequences that may yet worsen further. Georgia’s frozen conflict with Russia has some structural similarities. That said, Georgia can avoid Ukraine’s fate by choosing a path of non-alignment. That will not be easy as the US is likely to try and sabotage that path, as non-alignment tacitly challenges US hegemony.
Causes of the Ukraine War & the case for Georgian non-alignment — An interview I gave in Tbilisi, Georgia
Thursday, October 31st, 2024We still ask if 80 years ago they (ordinary Germans) knew?
Tuesday, October 29th, 2024Watch this and ask yourself if you know:
Neoliberalism and the Drift to Proto-Fascism: Political and Economic Causes of the Crisis of Liberal Democracy
Saturday, September 7th, 2024Neoliberalism is a political economic philosophy consisting of two claims, one economic and the other political. The economic claim is laissez-faire is the best way to organize economic activity as it generates efficient outcomes that maximize well-being. The political claim is free markets promote individual liberty. This article argues both claims are problematic. The evidence from the Neoliberal era shows Neoliberalism has undercut shared prosperity and unleashed illiberal forces that threaten liberty. The article distinguishes between the first political turn which established Neoliberal political hegemony, and the second political turn toward proto-fascism now underway. The second turn is being driven by a collection of factors which have created a demand for proto-fascism and weakened the defenses against alt-right ideas. Those factors include socio-economic disembedding, institutional destruction and political disembedding, increased economic inequality that tilts political power, transformation of attitudes to government and governance, transformation of economic identity, and behavioral transformation that celebrates sociopathic egotism. The Third Way’s capture of center-left politics means liberal elites occupy the political place that should be held by true opponents of Neoliberalism. Those elites obstruct the politics needed to reverse the deep causes of the drift to proto-fascism. Ironically, that makes them a real danger.
Keywords: Neoliberalism, proto-fascism, disembedding, inequality, identity, behavior
Ukraine’s Hiroshima moment is drawing closer (the consequences of Neocon madness)
Wednesday, August 21st, 2024In August 1945, the US atom bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since then, nuclear weapons have never been used in conflict. That may soon change as Ukraine faces the increasing likelihood of a Hiroshima moment.
Conditions in Ukraine increasingly give Russia military and geopolitical cause to use tactical nuclear weapons. Though Russia will use them, the US and NATO are deeply implicated in the process. They are in the grip of Neocon madness which casually dismisses potentially catastrophic consequences and blocks all off-ramps.
Lessons from Hiroshima and Nagasaki
One way to understand the current moment is via the history of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Those attacks also had military and geopolitical motivations. The former is widely recognized: the latter is not.
(more…)The military-industrial complex as a variety of capitalism and threat to democracy: rethinking the political economy of guns versus butter
Wednesday, June 12th, 2024This paper examines the military-industrial complex (MIC), which is a prototype widely imitated by other business sectors. Collectively, they constitute a variety of capitalism which can be termed the poly-industrial complex (PIC). Understanding the MIC is critical to understanding contemporary US capitalism, US international policy, and the drift toward Cold War II. The MIC exerts a massive societal impact. It twists economic activity toward military spending; twists the character of technical progress; is socially corrosive via its capture of politics and government; twists societal understanding of geopolitics to increase demand for war services; promotes militarism and increases the likelihood of war; and promotes proto-fascist drift because militarism drips back into national politics. Given those features, the MIC is of first-order significance and the consequences of failure to understand it are likely to be grim. Politics is at the center of possibilities for change. That raises questions whether the demand for change can be mustered, and whether the political system will permit it.