Russia's foreign minister reveals a strange talk with John Kerry, and explains much about American foreign policy
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, Jun 12, 2016 12:00 PM EDTTrump may well be dangerous. But know what you're getting with Hillary: American hegemony that's hated worldwide
Patrick L. Smith Saturday, Jun 4, 2016 12:00 PM EDT"Our defense contractors await your business." That was the message behind Obama and Carter's visits to Asia
Patrick L. Smith Saturday, May 28, 2016 6:00 PM EDTOur smartest modern military historian explains to Salon what's wrong about our adventures in the Middle East
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, May 22, 2016 9:58 AM EDTThe brilliant Andrew Bacevich tells Salon why our massive march to folly in Middle East has to be seen as one war
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, May 15, 2016 9:58 AM EDTA startling piece pulls back the curtain on how our foreign policy is created -- and sold to willing media dupes
Patrick L. Smith Tuesday, May 10, 2016 10:58 PM EDTIt is pathetically impossible to determine which one would be worse, the only metric we have left. It's OK to pass
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, May 8, 2016 9:59 AM EDTHillary will be the nominee this fall. Time to examine what Bernie achieved and how it might go different next time
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, May 1, 2016 9:58 AM EDTTrump gets some things very wrong. But today's speech was still daring, spot on and important contrast with Hillary
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Apr 27, 2016 11:00 PM EDTThe truth about our foreign policy is on display, if we choose to look. If only we ever learned the right lessons
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, Apr 17, 2016 9:58 AM EDTForget his impractical foreign policy solutions. Trump scares elites because he is rethinking U.S. military might
Patrick L. Smith Saturday, Apr 2, 2016 3:59 PM EDTThere is no more ducking the point: It's not terror only when it happens to us. Our "shock and awe" is terror, too
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, Mar 27, 2016 9:58 AM EDTAmerican foreign policy has not worked for decades. Hillary believes all of its myths to her core. This is scary
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, Mar 20, 2016 9:58 AM EDTAmerican primacy at all cost. That's her dangerous guiding mission. Only Bush, Nixon loved imperial adventure more
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, Mar 13, 2016 10:01 AM EDTA new accord with Moscow on Syria clears up little. And a new Times series on Clinton and Libya has a messy agenda
Patrick L. Smith Tuesday, Mar 1, 2016 11:58 PM EDTThe failure of Washington’s most adventurous power assertion in post-Cold War period can no longer be papered over
Patrick L. Smith Tuesday, Feb 23, 2016 11:59 PM EDTA veteran CIA officer explains to Salon exactly where the agency has gone wrong for decades — and the consequences
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, Feb 14, 2016 10:58 AM EDTAfter almost 30 years in the CIA, Ray McGovern became a truth-teller. He sits down with Salon for a long debriefing
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, Feb 7, 2016 3:00 PM EDTAmerican media covers the world through American eyes. Let's look at Syria the way the rest of the world does
Patrick L. Smith Thursday, Jan 28, 2016 12:00 AM EDTWe are angry. We are afraid. We are exceptional. And the problem with America is that very combination
Patrick L. Smith Tuesday, Jan 19, 2016 11:00 AM EDTDecades of poorly concocted policies with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and others haunt us -- and worsen every day
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Jan 6, 2016 11:45 PM EDTThe Times’ coverage of anything that challenges the mythology of American primacy just gets worse
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Dec 23, 2015 12:02 AM EDTTrump leads the GOP. Terror fears. Protests on campus. This is a fraught Thanksgiving — and that's a good sign
Patrick L. Smith Thursday, Nov 26, 2015 10:57 AM EDTWatching Trump beat his chest about how he'd force Putin to his will is a reminder that Putin's had his way with us
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Nov 25, 2015 12:00 AM EDTWe despise the foreign leaders a compliant media villainizes. It's worth looking for the real motivations
Patrick L. Smith Monday, Nov 23, 2015 11:59 PM EDTKrugman mocks idea that US imperialism's at root of all evil. But scars of our meddling are key to the Middle East
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Nov 18, 2015 12:00 AM EDTThe West's behaved horrifically in Middle East for decades. We can't be surprised by Paris. Let's look in a mirror
Patrick L. Smith Sunday, Nov 15, 2015 10:59 AM EDTSanders would do nothing to change America's worldwide meddling. This is a dangerous moment, and he's ducking it
Patrick L. Smith Friday, Nov 13, 2015 12:00 AM EDTThe propagandists have turned on the fog machine. Let's try and sort out myth vs. reality with Russia, Middle East
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Nov 4, 2015 11:59 PM EDTWe have accepted the horrors of American exceptionalism for too long. Here's a progressive foreign policy blueprint
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Oct 28, 2015 9:57 AM EDTForeign policy never really changes regardless of who holds the White House. This is why exceptionalism always wins
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Oct 21, 2015 11:01 PM EDTThere's actually common sense and historical vision behind the Putin plan. Not that our media covers it honestly
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Oct 14, 2015 11:01 PM EDTPerry Anderson on foreign policy: America's problem is it's a global hegemon without global ideology legitimacy
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Oct 7, 2015 10:28 PM EDT"Do you realize now what you've done?" The best question about our Middle East disasters actually comes from Putin
Patrick L. Smith Tuesday, Oct 6, 2015 10:59 PM EDTPerry Anderson sits down with Salon to discuss the Cold War, Hiroshima, American exceptionalism, Iran and more
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Sep 23, 2015 10:59 PM EDTThe right wants to substitute religious belief and ideology for reality and smarts. The Iran deal won't derail them
Patrick L. Smith Thursday, Sep 17, 2015 9:58 AM EDTThe refugee disaster unfolding across Europe is the result of decades -- even centuries -- of Western policies
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Sep 9, 2015 11:00 PM EDTWhile establishment media toe Washington's line, violence and instability have shaken the Ukraine this week
Patrick L. Smith Wednesday, Sep 2, 2015 10:59 PM EDTOfficials launch an all-out assault on free press -- with nary an objection from the Fourth Estate's guardians
Patrick L. Smith Tuesday, Aug 25, 2015 11:00 PM EDTRepublicans have spent decades dressing up fear as courage, pretending at seriousness while advancing hysteria
Patrick L. Smith Thursday, Aug 13, 2015 9:44 PM EDTPage 1 of 4 in Patrick L. Smith
Patrick Smith is Salon’s foreign affairs columnist. A longtime correspondent abroad, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune and The New Yorker, he is also an essayist, critic and editor. His most recent books are “Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century” (Yale, 2013) and Somebody Else’s Century: East and West in a Post-Western World (Pantheon, 2010). Follow him @thefloutist. His web site is patricklawrence.us.
