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,[2] 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 and Grover Cleveland were ranked the two strongest, while Harry Truman and Woodrow Wilson came in last.
Eland once named Jimmy Carter "the best modern president," praising Carter's restrained foreign policy and deregulation of several American industries.[3] Eland continues to strongly oppose the 2003 invasion of Iraq,[4] and called George W. Bush'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.[5]