How the Weak Prevail
From ISIS to the IRGC, how groups with sacred commitments outlast adversaries with far greater firepower.
Scott Atran
· 8 min read
Russia
A collection of 82 posts
Statecraft and Seduction
In an excellent new biography of Rasputin, British military historian Antony Beevor argues that perception can be a more powerful shaper of world events than reality.
Ron Capshaw
· 9 min read
Made in Moscow
The foreign origins of Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson’s antisemitism.
Alex Goldenberg, Pamela Paresky
· 9 min read
Risky, Costly, and Extremely Cold
Any invasion of Greenland would be a logistical nightmare with no economic upside.
Sean Welsh
· 9 min read
Russian Lies Won’t Bring Peace
The latest Russian “peace proposal” is a set of demands designed to enable a complete Russian takeover of Ukraine, which would otherwise be impossible to achieve.
Stephan Jensen
· 6 min read
A Self-Created Tyrant
In a new biography of Stalin, William Nester does his best to locate a human being within the monster, but those efforts eventually run aground.
Ron Capshaw
· 6 min read
Russiagate Redux
The real hoax is the one being peddled by the Trump administration right now.
Cathy Young
· 23 min read
Russia’s Strategic Blindness
Putin’s fixation on Ukraine is eroding his empire.
Tomislav Kardum
· 5 min read
“Social Trust Has Really Eroded”
An interview with Francis Fukuyama.
Matt Johnson, Francis Fukuyama
· 29 min read
After Liberal Internationalism
The post-11 September wars set in motion political forces that constrained and undermined American power at the moment it was needed most.
Matt Johnson
· 21 min read
One Hundred Days of Ineptitude
Even those of us who sounded alarms before the November election underestimated just how unhinged the second Trump presidency would turn out to be.
Cathy Young
· 13 min read
Victims of Realism
Alexander Vindman’s bracing new book argues that Ukraine has been made to suffer the consequences of Western naivety and restraint.
Brian Stewart
· 7 min read
Border Wars and the Return of Fear
The new European commitment to defence and Russia’s unshakeable wish to control Ukraine have revived an awareness that war is something with which comfortable and relatively wealthy states may still have to live.
John Lloyd
· 10 min read
Stalin, Putin, and the Corruption of History
The history of Soviet totalitarianism is now being rewritten.
Andy Owen
· 13 min read
The MAGA War on Ukraine
Why does so much of the US Right hate a country valiantly resisting a war of aggression?
Cathy Young
· 13 min read