Although many Americans believe their universities are places where administrators and faculty members coexist on a fairly equal basis, the reality is that this is far from the case.

According to recent surveys by the Chronicle of Higher Education, 35 private university presidents and 4 public university presidents...

According to a report just released by the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), world military expenditures in 2012 totaled $1.75 trillion.

The report revealed that, as in recent decades, the world's biggest military spender by far was the U.S. government, whose expenditures for war and...

What do hungry children and the world's largest military contractor have in common? Not much, it seems. At the very time when (thanks to sequestration) state governments are cutting back aid to low income women and their children, the government of the State of Maryland seems en route to providing...

Dear House Republicans:

In the heated debates over the federal deficit, you have said repeatedly that you want to cut it without raising taxes and, therefore, that you must reduce government spending.

If that is the case, I have a suggestion for you: Why not start by cutting the nuclear...

At this time of severe cutbacks in government funding for food stamps, early childhood education, and meals on wheels, some Maryland legislators are hard at work looking out for the welfare of one of the world's wealthiest corporations. Under a bill rapidly advancing in the legislature of that...

In a major address in Prague on April 5, 2009, the newly-elected U.S. president, Barack Obama, proclaimed "clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." On Jan. 24, 2013, however, Senator John Kerry, speaking at Senate...

In a number of ways, gun control issues are remarkably similar to arms control issues.

Gun controllers argue that the availability of guns facilitates the use of these weapons for murderous purposes. Arms controllers make much the same case, asserting that weapons buildups lead to arms races and wars....

Wars are frequently glamorized in American popular thought, but none more than World War II. This "Good War," fought by "The Greatest Generation," has much to commend it to Americans. It provided unusually villainous enemies, a regenerated U.S. economy and the satisfaction of total victory on the battlefield. It was...

Can fiction enhance our understanding of the past? In his latest novel, Edward Wilson -- a U.S. Special Forces officer in the Vietnam War who subsequently became an expatriate, a British citizen and a teacher in the UK -- does help to illuminate the Cold War crisis of the early...

Although fundamentalist fanatics have been working for decades to turn the United States into a "Christian Nation," they have not had much success along these lines. One reason for their failure is that religious minorities and non-believers have resisted. And another is probably that a large number of Americans want...

Can local governments influence national security policy? Congress has the power to appropriate funds for military purposes and to declare war. But local governments sometimes have something to say about this - especially when national policy has significant effects upon them.

In recent years, as Congress has poured trillions of...

On Oct. 9, 2012, the legislature of Albany County, N.Y. approved a proclamation calling upon Congress to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, cut the U.S. military budget, and use the savings to fund vital public programs at home.

This official demand for new national priorities -- by a...

In the midst of a nationwide election campaign in which many politicians trumpet their support for the buildup and employment of U.S. military power around the world, the American public's disagreement with such measures is quite remarkable. Indeed, many signs point to the fact that most Americans want to avoid...

About a third of the way through The Path to Zero: Dialogues on Nuclear Dangers (Paradigm Publishers), David Krieger, one of the authors, suggests a Zen koan -- a mind-bending riddle designed to foster enlightenment -- that runs as follows: "What casts a dark shadow when dormant and a fiery...

One of the most widely-advertised but falsest claims in American politics is that the modern Republican Party stands for "small government."

In the distant past, leading Republicans were sharp critics of statism. And, even today, a few marginal party activists, like U.S. Representative Ron Paul, have championed limited government...

On some issues, there is a serious disconnect between candidates for public office and the public they are hoping to represent.

Take the case of Mitt Romney and military spending.

For some time now, the Republican presidential candidate has been an avid proponent of a vast U.S. military buildup. Last...

It's often said that nuclear weapons have protected nations from military attack.

But is there any solid evidence to bolster this contention? Without such evidence, the argument that nuclear weapons prevented something that never occurred is simply a counter-factual abstraction that cannot be proved.

Ronald Reagan -- the hardest...

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (better known as NATO) is in the news once again thanks to a NATO Summit meeting in Chicago over the weekend of May 19-20 and to large public demonstrations in Chicago against this military pact.

NATO's website defines the alliance's mission as "Peace and Security,"...

Many people might be surprised to learn that the May Day celebrations that occurred around the world in 2012 were born more than a century ago out of a struggle by American workers for the eight-hour day.

The late 19th century was a particularly hard and brutal time for working...

On April 17, 2012, as millions of Americans were filing their income tax returns, the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its latest study of world military spending. In case Americans were wondering where most of their tax money -- and the tax money of other nations --...