Editing Cato Institute (section)

=== Defense and foreign policy ===
Cato's [[Non-interventionism|non-interventionist]] foreign policy views, and strong support for civil liberties, have frequently led Cato scholars to criticize those in power, both Republican and Democratic. Cato scholars opposed President [[George H. W. Bush]]'s 1991 [[Gulf War]] operations (a position which caused the organization to lose nearly $1 million in funding),<ref name="Doherty">{{cite book |last=Doherty |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Doherty (journalist) |title=Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement |publisher=PublicAffairs |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-58648-350-0 |location=New York |pages=741 |oclc=76141517}}</ref>{{rp|page=454}} President [[Bill Clinton]]'s interventions in [[Operation Uphold Democracy|Haiti]] and [[1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia|Kosovo]], President George W. Bush's [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], and President Barack Obama's [[2011 military intervention in Libya]].<ref name="cat"/> As a response to the [[September 11 attacks]], Cato scholars supported the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|removal of al Qaeda and the Taliban regime from power]], but are against an indefinite and open-ended military occupation of Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10533 |title=Escaping the 'Graveyard of Empires': A Strategy to Exit Afghanistan |author=Malou Innocent and Ted Galen Carpenter |date=September 14, 2009 |publisher=Cato Institute |access-date=November 20, 2010 |archive-date=November 22, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101122023141/http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10533 |url-status=live }}</ref> Cato scholars criticized U.S. involvement in [[Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen]].<ref name="cat">{{cite web | url=https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/gops-foreign-policy-goes-bad-ugly-marco-rubio-pushes-intervention-fun-profit | title=GOP's Foreign Policy Goes from Bad to Ugly as Marco Rubio Pushes Intervention for Fun and Profit | last=Bandow | first=Doug | date=12 August 2015 | website=Cato Institute | access-date=6 February 2020 | archive-date=November 7, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107061139/https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/gops-foreign-policy-goes-bad-ugly-marco-rubio-pushes-intervention-fun-profit | url-status=live }}</ref>

Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato's vice president for defense and foreign policy studies, criticized many of the arguments offered to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq. One of the war's earliest critics, Carpenter wrote in January 2002: "Ousting Saddam would make Washington responsible for Iraq's political future and entangle the United States in an endless nation-building mission beset by intractable problems."<ref name="cato.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3369 |title=Overthrow Saddam? Be Careful What You Wish For |first=Ted Galen |last=Carpenter |publisher=Cato Institute |access-date=November 20, 2010 |archive-date=January 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114121203/http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3369 |url-status=live }}</ref> Carpenter also predicted: "Most notably there is the issue posed by two persistent regional secession movements: the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south."<ref name="cato.org"/> But in 2002 Carpenter wrote, "the United States should not shrink from confronting al-Qaeda in its Pakistani lair,"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cato.org/dailys/03-28-02.html|title=Take the War on Terrorism to Pakistan|first=Ted Galen|last=Carpenter|publisher=Cato Institute|access-date=November 9, 2017|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020601233726/http://www.cato.org/dailys/03-28-02.html|archive-date=June 1, 2002|df=mdy-all}}</ref> a position echoed in the institute's policy recommendations for the 108th Congress.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/hb108-51.pdf |title=Waging an Effective War |first=Charles V. |last=Peña |work=Cato Handbook for Congress: Policy Recommendations for the 108th Congress |page=53 |access-date=November 9, 2017 |archive-date=April 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412122938/https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/hb108-51.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Cato's director of foreign policy studies, Christopher Preble, argues in ''The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free'', that America's position as an unrivaled superpower tempts policymakers to constantly overreach and to redefine ever more broadly the "national interest".<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/01/AR2009050101830.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=The Big Idea – The Power Problem | first=Carlos | last=Lozada | date=May 3, 2009 | access-date=April 28, 2010 | archive-date=November 11, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111122752/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/01/AR2009050101830.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

Christopher Preble has said that the "scare campaign" to protect military spending from cuts under the [[Budget Control Act of 2011]] has backfired.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://breakingdefense.com/2012/12/defense-execs-say-deeper-dod-budget-cuts-higher-taxes-ok/|title=Defense Execs Say Deeper DoD Budget Cuts, Higher Taxes OK|work=breakingdefense.com|date=December 3, 2012|access-date=September 6, 2016|archive-date=October 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011105750/http://breakingdefense.com/2012/12/defense-execs-say-deeper-dod-budget-cuts-higher-taxes-ok/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Cato's foreign and defense policies are guided by the view that the United States is relatively secure and so should engage the world, trade freely, and work with other countries on common concerns—but avoid trying to dominate it militarily. As a result, Cato advocates the United States should be an example of democracy and human rights, not their armed vindicator abroad, claiming it has a rich history, from [[George Washington]] to [[Cold War]] realists like [[George Kennan]]. Cato scholars aim to restore this view, with a principled and restrained foreign policy recommendation, to keep the nation out of most foreign conflicts and be cheaper, more ethical, and less destructive of civil liberties.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy|title=Cato on Defense and Foreign Policy at a Glance|work=cato.org|access-date=October 13, 2021}}</ref>{{Third-party inline|date=July 2024}}