Left, Right, Left, Right; Populism and Foreign Policy (Perspectives‪)‬

Foreign policy elites have been shaken by the unexpected rise of powerful social movements in the Arab world, coupled with the Tea Party "insurgency" in the United States. Assumptions of stable foreign and domestic equilibria seem to be in shambles. It is possible there may be a re-run of the 1950s, when domestic McCarthyism drove an aggressive military policy into quagmires first in Korea and ultimately in Vietnam. On the other hand, a progressive populism may awaken and develop into a powerful force, the beginning of which has already been observed in the popular Wisconsin reaction to Tea Party Republicans and the less-publicized immigrant rights revolt shaping the electoral politics of the southwestern United States.These rival energies are unpredictable, but one thing is clear: the center cannot hold. It is a time of realignment. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]