Brian Stewart

Israel’s New Reality

In these dire circumstances, deterrence will only be restored with overwhelming force.

Brian Stewart

12 Oct 2023 · 6 min read

A Country in the Making

Sean Penn’s surprising new documentary explores “extreme history” in war-torn Ukraine.

Brian Stewart

29 Sep 2023 · 6 min read

Chronicle of a War, 20 Years On

The case for removing the worst of the Arab prison states looks more justifiable than ever, even as the blunders involved in its execution look even more unpardonable.

Brian Stewart

19 Mar 2023 · 17 min read

Will It Be Different This Time?

It is starting to look like a question of when, not if, the Islamic Republic of Iran will fall.

Brian Stewart

19 Nov 2022 · 9 min read

Putting the Cart before the Camel?

A plea for Arab democracy.

Brian Stewart

10 Nov 2022 · 9 min read

Death From Above

Ayman al-Zawahiri’s reign of pious terror is now over.

Brian Stewart

4 Aug 2022 · 6 min read

America Must Not Abandon Europe

The United States retains the capacity to defend the liberal order on both sides of Eurasia.

Brian Stewart

14 Jul 2022 · 6 min read

Pacifism and Papal Fallibility

The Pope is a perverse sort of pacifist, not a man of peace.

Brian Stewart

20 May 2022 · 8 min read

A review of The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism by Matthew Continetti, Basic Books, 496 pages (April 2022) “So inevitable and yet so completely unforeseen” was Alexis de Tocqueville’s verdict on the French Revolution. Much the same can be said of Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of

Brian Stewart

4 May 2022 · 15 min read

Macron Will Have to Do

A decent and competent Left might point out that France stands to gain exactly nothing from an “alliance” with Putin’s dictatorship proposed by the likes of Le Pen.

Brian Stewart

24 Apr 2022 · 7 min read

Can the Revolution in German Foreign Policy Last?

During the fierce debate over the Iraq war, the German political scientist Karl Kaiser said, “Europeans have done something that no one has ever done before: create a zone of peace where war is ruled out, absolutely out.” And, he added, “Europeans are convinced that this model is valid for

Brian Stewart

11 Apr 2022 · 6 min read

A Failure of Deterrence

According to foreign policy “realists,” the tale we are being told about Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war in Ukraine is a fiction. Realists like to be known for their clear-eyed appreciation of the realities of global power, and in their telling, responsibility for the war does not lie chiefly with

Brian Stewart

17 Mar 2022 · 6 min read

Ukraine in the Balance

As I write this, Vladimir Putin has moved more than 100,000 troops to Russia’s Ukrainian border, and has strongly implied that he will invade absent an ironclad guarantee that Ukraine will never be permitted to join NATO. Although the Biden administration has rejected that demand, a chorus of

Brian Stewart

14 Feb 2022 · 10 min read

This Is About More Than Ukraine

In the early days of World War Two, George Orwell published a marvelous essay entitled “England Your England.” With the Luftwaffe in the skies above London laying waste to the city, Orwell observed a peculiarly contemptible trait of the English intelligentsia. In a word, this portion of the national elite

Brian Stewart

28 Jan 2022 · 6 min read

The Free-ish World

A review of World in Danger: Germany and Europe in an Uncertain Time by Wolfgang Ischinger, Brookings, 280 pages (November, 2020) Every winter in Bavaria, the great and the good from Europe and the United States gather to take stock of the threats facing the world. The Munich Security Conference

Brian Stewart

3 Jan 2022 · 8 min read

Israel’s New Reality

A Country in the Making

Chronicle of a War, 20 Years On

Will It Be Different This Time?

Putting the Cart before the Camel?

Death From Above

America Must Not Abandon Europe

Pacifism and Papal Fallibility

Revolution Betrayed

Macron Will Have to Do

Can the Revolution in German Foreign Policy Last?

A Failure of Deterrence

Ukraine in the Balance

This Is About More Than Ukraine

The Free-ish World