James L. Payne, Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, discusses the often-exaggerated US role in democracy-building during the post-WWII occupation of Germany, FDR’s intent to keep Germany impoverished for a generation, how the issuance of a currency and the end of price controls allowed the German economy to rebuild, government “good intentions” that invariably produce bad results and why “democracy” is really nothing more than the absence of violence in the political process.

MP3 here. (28:15)

James L. Payne is Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Director of Lytton Research and Analysis and author of the books, A History of Force: Exploring the Worldwide Movement Against Habits of Coercion, Bloodshed, and Mayhem, Why Nations Arm, The Culture of Spending, Costly Returns, Overcoming Welfare: Expecting More from the Poor—and From Ourselves, Budgeting in Neverland: Irrational Policymaking in the U.S. Congress, Patterns of Conflict in Colombia, and Labor and Politics in Peru. Dr. Payne received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, and he has taught political science at Yale University, Wesleyan University, Johns Hopkins University, and Texas A & M University. His articles have appeared in The Independent Review, American Conservative, American Spectator, The Freeman, Policy Review, Reason, and other magazines and journals.

John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses the US influence in remaking the Japanese government after WWII, the enduring popularity of Japan’s Peace Constitution, the Pentagon’s recognition that US military bases eventually overstay their welcome even in allied countries, the continued symbolic significance of US gestures of regret for Hiroshima and Nagasaki and how Japanese foreign policy is influenced by antipathy toward N. Korea.

MP3 here. (25:04)

John Feffer is co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies.

He is the author of several books and numerous articles. He has been a Writing Fellow at Provisions Library in Washington, DC and a PanTech fellow in Korean Studies at Stanford University. He is a former associate editor of World Policy Journal. He has worked as an international affairs representative in Eastern Europe and East Asia for the American Friends Service Committee. He has studied in England and Russia, lived in Poland and Japan, and traveled widely throughout Europe and Asia. He has taught a graduate level course on international conflict at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul in July 2001 and delivered lectures at a variety of academic institutions including New York University, Hofstra, Union College, Cornell University, and Sofia University (Tokyo).

John has been widely interviewed in print and on radio. He serves on the advisory committees of the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea. He is a recipient of the Herbert W. Scoville fellowship and has been a writer in residence at Blue Mountain Center and the Wurlitzer Foundation. He currently lives with his partner Karin Lee in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Michael Penn, Executive Director of the Shingetsu Institute for the Study of Japanese-Islamic Relations, discusses the (nearly) first electoral loss for Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party since 1955, the balance between Japanese resentment over U.S. troop presence and the security of military protection, Japanese energy policy in the Middle East and how warmer relations with China would mean reduced dependence on the U.S.

MP3 here. (24:37)

Michael Penn teaches at The University of Kitakyushu, and is Executive Director of the Shingetsu Institute for the Study of Japanese-Islamic Relations.

Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor and Publisher, discusses the suppressed documentary color footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki devastation, today’s casual threats to use nuclear weapons without a serious understanding of the consequences, the continuing disagreement over the need to use atomic weapons to quickly defeat Japan in WWII and the surprising cast of characters (MacArthur, Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles) who were against using the bomb.

MP3 here. (38:30)

Greg Mitchell is the author of Hiroshima in America, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits–and the President–Failed on Iraq and Why Obama Won: The Making of a President 2008.

Joshua Snyder, American English Professor in South Korea, discusses American involvement with North and South Korea since World War II, how the UN gave Truman the excuse to enter the conflict without declaring war, how the defeat of Robert Taft marked the end of the Old Right until Ron Paul, how 106 of America’s 700+ military bases are in South Korea, how the many billions of American tax dollars being wasted on the occupation are subsidizing the booming South Korean economy, how if we left, South Korea could easily defend itself from the North, how reunification would be an economic nightmare for the South to absorb the North, the wide spread dislike of George Bush in Korea and questions surrounding the Syrian/ North Korean nuclear allegations.

MP3 here. (36:27)

An American Catholic son-in-law of Korea, Joshua Snyder lives with his wife and two children in Pohang, where he serves as an assistant visiting professor of English at a science and technology university. He blogs at The Western Confucian.

Catherine Lutz, professor of anthropology at Brown University, editor of the new book, The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against US Military Posts and proprietor of the Website No-Bases.net, discusses the recent agreement for permanent bases in Iraq, the empire of American military bases all over the world, the resentment of the general populations despite official cooperation, the myth that U.S. troops provide stability in the world, the indefinite occupation of Bosnia and the doctrine of preventive war.

MP3 here. (17:55)

Catherine Lutz is a Watson Institute professor (research) and holds a joint appointment with the Department of Anthropology. Professor Lutz received her BA in sociology and anthropology from Swarthmore College and her PhD in social anthropology from Harvard University. Her most recent books include Local Democracy Under Siege: Activism, Public Interests, and Private Politics and Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century, winner of the Leeds Prize and the Victor Turner Prize). Others include Reading National Geographic with Jane Collins, and Unnatural Emotions: Everyday Sentiments on a Micronesian Atoll and their Challenge to Western Theory. She is the immediate past of the American Ethnological Society, the largest organization of cultural anthropologists in the U.S.

Doug Bandow, policy analyst and Robert A. Taft fellow with the American Conservative Defense Alliance, discusses the War Party’s need for a new enemy, their attempt to make China fill that role, the progress toward liberty there since the days of Mao, the defensive nature of their military establishment, the lack of neccessity of American hegemony in the east and the benefits of free trade.

MP3 here. (23:08)

Doug Bandow is a Washington-based political writer and policy analyst and Robert A. Taft Fellow with the American Conservative Defense Alliance. He served as a special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and as a senior policy analyst in the 1980 Reagan for President campaign.

He has been widely published in leading newspapers and periodicals and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows. He has written and edited several books, including Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire (Xulon Press), The Korean Conundrum: America’s Troubled Relations with North and South Korea (Palgrave/Macmillan, coauthor), Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World (Cato), Perpetuating Poverty: The World Bank, the IMF, and the Developing World (Cato, coeditor), and Military Manpower and Human Resources (National Defense University). His latest book is Foreign Follies (Xulon Press).

John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus, discusses the new arms race in North Asia, Japan’s abandonment of their tradition of non intervention since WWII, “containment” policy toward China, the status of the nuclear deal with the DPRK and the possibilities and obstacles to Korean reunification.

MP3 here. (39:43)

John Feffer is the co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. He is the author of North Korea, South Korea: U.S. Policy at a Time of Crisis (Seven Stories, 2003), among other books.