Ivan Eland (; born February 23, 1958) is an American

defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

analyst and writer. He is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at the

Independent Institute The Independent Institute is an American libertarian think tank founded in 1986 by David J. Theroux and based in Oakland, California. The institute has more than 140 research fellows and is organized into seven centers addressing a range of pol ...

. Eland's writings generally propose

libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

and

non-interventionist Non-interventionism or non-intervention is commonly understood as "a foreign policy of political or military non-involvement in foreign relations or in other countries' internal affairs". This is based on the grounds that a state should not inter ...

policies. Books that he has authored include '' Recarving Rushmore''.

Life

Eland received an

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

Applied Economics Applied economics is the application of economic theory and econometrics in specific settings. As one of the two sets of fields of economics (the other set being the ''core''), it is typically characterized by the application of the ''core'', i.e ...

and a Ph.D. in

National Security National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...

Policy from

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

. He has previously served as Director of Defense Policy Studies at the

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch ...

, as Principal Defense Analyst at the

Congressional Budget Office The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the United States Congress, legislative branch of the United States government that provides budget and economic information to Congress. I ...

, as an investigator dealing with national security and intelligence for the

Government Accountability Office The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan government agency within the legislative branch that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the s ...

, and on a House Committee on Foreign Affairs special investigation of allegations that the U.S. sold weapons to

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

prior to 1991.Ivan Eland profile
at Cato Institute website. He has testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the

Senate Committee on Foreign Relations The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for authorizing and overseeing foreign a ...

. Ivan Eland is the author of ''Putting "Defense" Back into U.S. Defense Policy'' (2001), ''The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed'' (2004), ''Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty'' (2008; updated edition 2014) and ''Partitioning for Peace: An Exit Strategy for Iraq'' (2009). He has also written essays, including forty-five in-depth studies on national security issues, and numerous popular articles.

Political opinions

Eland is a libertarian, generally supporting non-interventionism and limited government. In his 2008 book '' Recarving Rushmore'', Eland argued that historians' rankings of US presidents fail to reflect presidents' actual services to the country. In the book, he rated 40 US presidents on the basis of whether or not their policies promoted peace, prosperity, and liberty during their tenures;

John Tyler John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president of the United States, vice president in 1841. He was elected ...

and

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

were ranked the two strongest, while

Harry Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...

and

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

came in last. Eland once named

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

"the best modern president," praising Carter's restrained foreign policy and deregulation of several American industries. Eland continues to strongly oppose the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and called

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

's presidency "one of the worst of all time." Eland is the Assistant Editor of the ''Independent Review'', writes a regular column for the website Antiwar.com, contributes frequently at Consortium News Robert Parry's website of investigative journalism. Eland is on the Advisory Council of the Democracy Institute.Democracy Institute
About Us
, accessed 8 August 2010

References

External links

Bio
from the

Column archive
from

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

*
The Empire Has No Clothes
Eland's column at Antiwar.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Eland, Ivan 1958 births Living people 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American anti–Iraq War activists American columnists American foreign policy writers American gun rights activists American libertarians American male bloggers American bloggers American male non-fiction writers American military writers American political writers Cato Institute people George Washington University School of Business alumni HuffPost writers and columnists Libertarian theorists

Life

Political opinions

See also

References

External links