Richardcyoung.com

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin & Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity & Wellington Since 1971
  • Hillsdale College
  • Babson College
  • Artificial Intelligence Opposed
  • Contact Us

America’s Real Foreign Policy Expert

July 11, 2022 By Richard C. Young

USAF Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Brent Scowcroft (left) makes remarks during a dedication ceremony in his honor at the National Defense University’s National War College on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., Jan. 13, 2015. NDU hosted a ceremony to officially dedicate room 350 of Roosevelt Hall in honor of Scowcroft. Gen. Dempsey attended the ceremony as a guest speaker. DoD photo by Army Staff Sgt. Sean K. Harp/Released

Michael F. Duggan of Realism and Policy tells us how USAF Lt. General Brent Scowcroft, with his moderate realism in foreign affairs, was an inspiration for creating the Realism and Policy blog. He writes (abridged):

Brent Scowcroft died at 95.

You didn’t have to be a Republican to appreciate his form of moderate realism in foreign affairs. He, along with James Baker and the first President Bush masterfully eased the world out of the (first) Cold War during 1989-1991.

Other foreign policy successes were the reunification of Germany, the intervention in Panama, and Desert Storm (in spite of its toxic spawn and the subsequent U.S. military entrenchment in the region, it was a great operational success). The only beginning-to-end mistake of this period the intervention in Somalia in the waning days of the administration, and this seems to have been an unrealistic concession to humanitarianism.

Excommunicated by the Neocons of the George W. Bush Administration, he wrote an article that appeared in the Wall St. Journal on August 15, 2002 making the case not to invade Iraq. This article is a more-than fair sample of his good sense and wisdom. He turned out to be right, and, having not heeded his advice, we are left with haunting counterfactuals of history and a legacy of failure in an already volatile region.

A thoroughly decent man, he took a meeting with me—a nobody—when I was the Supreme Court Fellow in 2011-2012. I just called his office and scheduled an appointment. This man who had advised presidents and oversaw world historical events in momentous times gave me a full hour of his own time. Quiet spoken and unfailingly courteous. A gentleman. A great policy adviser. The world is literally a less sane place without him.

I could write volumes singing the praises of General Scowcroft, but will defer to those who knew him. Suffice it to say that he and his ideas were an inspiration for creating this blog. It is in part a memorial to him and others like him.

About Realism and Policy

Michael F. Duggan holds a doctorate from Georgetown University with a major in American History, a minor in Modern Europe, and a collateral concentration in Western Philosophy.  He has taught in the Department of Graduate Liberal Studies at Georgetown, and in New York University’s Washington, D.C. Program and has guest lectured at American University and at Howard University Law School.  He was the Supreme Court Fellow for 2011-2012, and cofounded the Liberal Studies Philosophy Roundtable (2007-2013), a discussion group focusing on ethical questions.

Related Posts

  • Switzerland’s Foreign Policy
  • Joe Biden, Foreign Policy "Expert"?
  • Toward a Libertarian Foreign Policy
  • Foreign Policy in the Age of Trump
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Richard C. Young
Richard C. Young
Richard C. Young is the editor of Young's World Money Forecast, and a contributing editor to both Richardcyoung.com and Youngresearch.com.
Richard C. Young
Latest posts by Richard C. Young (see all)
  • Is Trump Divorcing Bibi? - May 16, 2025
  • How Will Trump Move Forward on Ukraine? - May 16, 2025
  • Is Trump Preparing for Peace with Iran? - May 16, 2025

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Ron Paul: “Freedom and Central Banking Are Not Compatible”
  • The Case for Individual Stocks: Now More than Ever
  • Marry Compound Interest, Divorce Market Timing
  • RAPPOPORT: War Applauded by “Stone Cold Utopians”
  • If You’re Overexposed to Stocks, Then Look Here
  • Can Ginger Combat Heart Disease and Improve Circulation?
  • In Chicago, Education Connects the Dots
  • We’ll Burn the Place Down!
  • Florida: Enjoy Certain Freedoms and Individual Liberties
  • Soros’s Open Society Foundation, Charles Koch Team Up

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Congratulations, You’re Retired #3: “When You Were Young”
  • Magnets Run the World — And China Runs the Magnets
  • USGS Launches Major New England Critical Minerals Survey
  • U.S. Import and Export Prices Edge Up in April Amid Fuel Declines
  • Denmark Considers Ending 40-Year Nuclear Ban
  • Apple’s Next-Gen CarPlay Rolls Out in U.S. and Canada
  • Congratulations on Graduation Day from Work to Retirement “2.0 and Go”
  • Could an Economic Slowdown Curb Global Oil Consumption Growth?
  • No SALT Please: Part II
  • Vertical Aerospace Advances Toward VX4 Certification

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Congratulations, You’re Retired #3: “When You Were Young”
  • Are You Giving a Tax Free Gift in 2025?
  • Does Your Lazy Cash Need a Home?
  • Congratulations on Graduation Day from Work to Retirement “2.0 and Go”
  • $3 Million Makeover of the International Tennis Hall of Fame
  • No SALT Please: Part II
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement: Now What? Part 1
  • You’re Not Dreaming, Food Prices Are Falling
  • Can America Generate Enough Power for New Data Centers?
  • TRUMP: More SALT Please

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

My Key West Garden Office

Your Retirement Life: Traveling the Efficient Frontier

Live a Long Life

Your Survival Guy’s Mt. Rushmore of Investing Legends

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Copyright © 2025 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives