Herbert Schiller provides a reliable guide to the obstacles we face, but it II is also a goad to action. Searching for the Enemy" : Alternative Resources on WORKS CITED U.S. Foreign Policy Lent, John A. ed. 1995. Interview with Herbert I. Schiller, A Different Road Taken: Pro­ files in Critical Communication, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 136-137. McChesney, Robert W. 1999. Noam Chomsky and the Struggle Against Neoliberal­ ism,"Monthly Review 50 (April 1999), 40-47. by Charles D'Adamo Schiller, Herbert I. 1976. Communication and Cultural Domination, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 98-103. Schiller, Herbert I. 1989. Culture, Inc.: The Corporate Takeover ofPublic Expression, New York: Oxford University Press, 30-33, 40, 75. n reviewing alternative sources of information on U.S. foreign Schiller, Herbert I. 1984. Information and the Crisis Economy, Norwood, NJ: Ablex Pub­ policy, I plan to do two things - first, summarize some ofthe ideas lishing, xii-xiii, of writers in the 1960s who analyzed, from critical points-of-view, Schiller, Herbert I. 1996. Information Inequality: The Deepening Social Crisis in America. I New York: Routledge, xii, xvi, 77-82. the economic and political-administrative institutions underlying U.S. Schiller, Herbert I. 1973. The Mind Managers, Boston: Beacon Press, 8-24. foreign policy which, they argued, was imperialist, not democratic; and Schiller, Herbert I. 1992. Mass Communications and American Empire, 2nd Edition, second, to indicate how the Alternative Press Index is a useful resource Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 48. for critical research on the institutions and practices of U.S. foreign Schiller, Herbert I. 1981. Who Knows: Information in the Age ofthe Fortune 500. Nor­ wood, NJ: Ablex Publishing, 149-151. policy. United Nations Development Program. 1998. Human Development Report, New York: Oxford University Press. In the 1960s, New Left "revisionist historians" criticized the mainstream U.S. Bureau ofthe Census. 1995. Population Profile ofthe United States 1995, Current celebration of American liberal democracy and its role in the world. Population Reports, Series P23-189, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Historians William Appleman Williams and Gabriel Kolko, policy ana­ Office, 41. Wolff, Edward N. 1995. Top Heavy: A Study ofIncreasing Inequality ofWealth in Amer­ lyst Richard Barnet, and economist Harry Magdoff, wrote books which ica. New York: Twentieth Century Fund Press, 7. challenged academia and provided the New Left and anti-Vietnam War Yates, Michael D. 1994. Longer Hours, Fewer Jobs: Employment and Unemployment in movement with interpretations contrasting American ideals ofdemocracy the United States, New York: Monthly Review Press, 25-26, 60-64. and self-determination with the contradictory and harsh realities of U.S. foreign policy. Williams, in The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, developed an eco­ nomic interpretation arguing that the U.S. had an "Open Door Policy" which was instigated by the U.S. corporate elite with the guiding purpose of economic expansion (Williams). Efforts by other nations to constrain this goal were perceived by the policy establishment as a threat to the American system as a whole. The "tragedy" was that while espousing principles of "self-determination," the U.S. acted to create an interna­ It tional political economy in its own image, undermining many country's 10fcourse, the fact that many ofneoliberalism's opponents even today continue to use the word "socialism" in connection with these societies makes it considerably easier for national self-determination in the process. neoliberals to make their case in this way. Progressive Librarian #16 Page 36 Progressive Librarian #16 Page 37 Kolko, in The Roots ofAmerican Foreign Policy, emphasized the conti­ tours of American History which was recently added to the .Modem nuity and rationality of the policy of economic imperialism developed Library classics list (much to Arthur Schlesinger's dismay), and Kolko's and implemented by establishment liberals (Kolko). Here he examined Anatomy ofa War: Vietnam, the United States and the Modern Historical many details of this policy, such as the use of foreign aid and loans as Experience. Barnet and Magdoffhave continued to write on U.S. foreign means to open markets for U.S. corporations. Kolko also argued that the policy, multinational corporations, and economic imperialism, but have Vietnam War was not an "accident" ofpolicy but the logical result of an also worked to build alternative institutions such as the Institute for expansionism which seeks raw materials, trade, and investments as well Policy Studies and Monthly Review Press, respectively. as of an agenda in opposition to the alternatives offered by nationalist revolutions. Now I want to shift gears and discuss the Alternative Press Index as an alternative resource for research on U.S. foreign policy. API can assist Magdoff, in The Age of Imperialism: the Economics of U.s. Foreign researchers in pursuing the kinds of issues and approaches examined Policy, documented in great detail the manifestations of economic impe­ above, while extracting some references of particular value in under­ rialism (Magdoff). What was most important to the U.S. business class standing recent international events. was "...that the option of foreign investment (and foreign trade) should remain available" (p. 20). And he demonstrated the close interpenetration In 1969, the Radical Research Center was founded to provide access to of political, economic, and military interests. Yet, he cautioned that the "independent, critical press" largely through the publication of the economic motives, while a useful hypothesis, cannot be assumed opera­ Alternative Press Index. In 1969, the API indexed 72 periodicals; today tive in all cases of political and military policy. Magdoff also noted the that number is 280. Many of the periodicals indexed report on and increasing problem of Third World external public debt, which had analyze the activity of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus. Our subject quadrupled between 1956 and 1967 expanding to $41.5 billion (p. 150). category development includes headings designed specifically for easy Today it is over $ 1.3 trillion, even after the Third World has repaid close searches, headings such as "U.S. Foreign Policy" and "Imperialism to $1 trillion in principle in addition to $771 billion in interest (Campaign [U.S.]" which, you may be surprised to discover, do not appear with such Against Neoliberalism in South Africa). specificity in other indexes. For example, in the PAIS International database "United States Imperialism" appears in a subject keyword Barnet, in Intervention and Revolution: America's Confrontation with search 35 times, in a descriptor keyword search 13 times, and not once in Insurgent Movements around the World, examined in detail cases ofU.S. a descriptor exact phrase search. In the API,"Imperialism [U.S.]" appears military interventions showing a consistent pattern of attempts to sup­ 180 times in a key term search. press national revolutionary movements (Barnet). He studied the inter­ ventions in Greece, Lebanon, the Dominican Republic, and Vietnam The Alternative Press Index provides access to movements, news, policy, while touching on the cases in British Guiana, Congo, Guatemala, and theory. To illustrate the scope of API coverage, we have done a Indonesia, and Iran. However, Barnet's approach emphasized what might simple search on our CD-ROM, published with NISC (National Informa­ be described as "bureaucratic imperialism" rather than "economic imperi­ tion Services Corporation), on "U.S. Foreign Policy" in the period from alism" as the catalyst for American expansionism. In particular, Barnet 1991 through June 1998. The search found over 1,000 articles. We then pointed to the independent role of the National Securitybureaucracy in created a database of these 1,063 articles from which we have compiled U.S. foreign policy decisions (p.17-19). information on who is writing where on what aspects of U.S. foreign policy. Given more time, we could have created a more comprehensive Williams and Kolko went on to write major historical works, often on U.S. foreign policy database linking other key terms indexing various U.S. foreign policy and its consequences - witness Williams' The Con- foreign policy institutions (see Table IV). Yet, we have generated four Progressive Librarian #16 Page 38 Progressive Librarian #16 Page 39 tables and a bibliography, which can serve as guides for: sive. The scholars include James Chace, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Leon Hadar, Edward Herman, Michael Klare, James Petras, and Stephen Shalom writing in Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Journal of 1. references on who the U.S. believes "The Enemy," or enemies, to be Palestine Studies, Latin American Perspectives, NACLA, The Nation, in the post-1989 period; New Left Review, The Progressive, Radical History Review, Third World 2. references on what institutions may be the enemies ofdemocracy, Quarterly, and Z Magazine. human welfare, and national sovereignty in the post-1989 period; 3. a list ofperiodicals useful for librarians in collection development Table II summarizes which alternative periodicals are publishing on U.S. when seeking alternatives to mainstream materials on democracy, foreign policy. Most ofthese titles are still publishing and 90% are highly human welfare, national sovereignty, and U.S. foreign policy; recommended for collection development librarians interested in democ­ 4. a list