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(This is the 4th and final part of a series of posts on this topic)
Are there any institutions that reduce the ability of a relatively peaceful public majority to counter the influence of the relevant special interests?
I discuss three institutions here – lack of democratic accountability; the poor performance of the mass media; and […]

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Are there any institutional features that increase the likelihood of a significant component of military and covert intervention in US foreign policy?
There are three institutional factors to discuss – the proliferation of US military bases abroad, US training of foreign militaries and pressure from the defense industry.
The US maintains a large number of […]

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Through which institutions are these interests able to have disproportionate influence on foreign policy?
(This post follows on from the discussion in Part 1 of this four part series)
This is a matter of the means by which a special interest group X identified in Part 1 can influence the relevant foreign policy makers in the US […]

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A military or an intelligence agency embodies a concentration of power. At times, concentrations of power and their deployment may be necessary. However, a cautionary acknowledgement is that there is a potential for concentrations of power being used for unjust purposes. I take it to be an uncontroversial precautionary principle that we should bind concentrations […]

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