Antiwar.com is a website devoted to opposing aggressive war, imperialism, and assaults on freedom associated with both. The editors describe their politics as libertarian.[1] Their stated motiviation is, "to show how the imperialistic tendencies of the American government lead to a loss of civil liberties and a centralization of political power".[2]. Guest writers featured on the site include people involved in United States foreign policy decision making such as former C.I.A. agents, self-described "economic hit men", and members of the United States Congress. Although politically libertarian, they also "look for well-written pieces - from both the Left and the Right - that demonstrate the failings of an interventionist foreign policy and big government."[2]
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The site was founded in December 1995, as a response to the Bosnian war. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation, operating under the auspices of the Randolph Bourne Institute, based in Atherton, California. It was previously affiliated with the Center for Libertarian Studies and functioned before that as an independent, ad-supported endeavor.[3]
On February 18, 1999, Antiwar.com won the "Conservative Site of the Day" award, from Enter Stage Right.[4]
The site’s first objective “was to fight against intervention in the Balkans under the Clinton presidency.” It “applied the same principles to Clinton's campaigns in Haiti and Kosovo and bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan.” Antiwar.com has consistently opposed all U.S. interventionism, from the bombing of Serbia to the present occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. It has also condemned aggressive military action and other forms of belligerence on the part of other governments, as well as what contributors view as the fiscal and civil liberties consequences of war.[5] Wen Stephenson of The Atlantic described the site as marked by “a decidely [sic] right-wing cast of thought.”[6] Its founders characterize themselves as libertarians,[7], and the two principal co-founders were involved in libertarian Republican politics, at the time.
The site features many writers (see below) from across the political spectrum.
Site personnel include[8]
Featured writers include:[9]
The site syndicates columns and op-eds by such authors as
Antiwar Radio is hosted by Scott Horton and others including Charles Goyette. It features interviews focused on war, international relations, the growth of state power, civil liberties, and related matters. Recent guests have included:
According to Eric Margolis, “Americans would have been totally misled [in the run-up to the Iraq War] had it not been for the Internet sites like ‘Antiwar.com;’ ‘CommonDreams;’ LewRockwell; and Bigeye; and magazines like ‘American Conservative’ and ‘Harpers.’[10] George Szamuely maintained in 2000 that “Antiwar.com now easily outshines the dreary foreign policy mags filled with the self-important vacuities of the Washington apparat.”[11] Antiwar.com is “a thoughtful, well-organized site,” according to the Washington Post’s Linton Weeks.[12] Scott McConnell noted in the New York Press that Antiwar.com was “strikingly successful” and “could claim more readers than Rupert Murdoch’s Weekly Standard once the [Balkan] war began.”[13]
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