Can the Revolution in German Foreign Policy Last? During the fierce debate over the Iraq war, the German political scientist Karl Kaiser said [https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-0207310289jul31-story.html] , “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 Brian Stewart 11 Apr 2022 · 6 min read
Deterrence After Ukraine—A Critical Analysis On February 24th, Russia invaded Ukraine with the explicit goal of eliminating its existence as an independent country. Why was Russian President Vladimir Putin not deterred by the risk of a response from the West/NATO? This question requires a review of the fundamentals of conventional deterrence, neglected by the Shmuel Bar 24 Mar 2022 · 22 min read
Ukraine’s Suffering Shows Culture Warriors What a Real War Looks Like: a Quillette Editorial The Quillette Editorial Board 23 Mar 2022 · 4 min read
Monkey with a Grenade “Not even a pig shits where it eats.” So said Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev when attacking Nobel Laureate Boris Pasternak for publishing his masterpiece Dr. Zhivago abroad while still living in Russia. Mao railed against the “running dogs” of capitalism. Stalinist propaganda posters vilified priests as sly geese, while Stalinist Robert Ginzburg 20 Mar 2022 · 4 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 · 5 min read
Privilege-Checking in a World on Fire Privilege is a sham mark of opprobrium—those who decry the privilege of others tend to want more of it for themselves. The dissemblance is all the more distasteful given that the detractors of privilege typically possess, comparatively speaking, an abundance of it. One need not be conversant in history David A. Eisenberg 15 Mar 2022 · 5 min read
Ukraine: On the Fault Line Between East and West MSNBC’s Joy Reid thinks the West’s galvanizing response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is unfair. “Let’s face it,” she said [https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/03/08/joy_reid_lets_face_it_the_world_is_paying_attention_to_russia-ukraine_conflict_because_theyre_white_and_christian. Michael J. Totten 14 Mar 2022 · 10 min read
Ukraine and the Pro-Putin Right Reactions to Russia’s war in Ukraine have become a perfect demonstration of the “horseshoe theory,” according to which the extremes of Left and Right must converge. Amid overwhelming international condemnation of Russia and sympathy for the Ukrainians’ courageous resistance, Putin-friendly voices blaming the West, NATO, and particularly the United Cathy Young 12 Mar 2022 · 12 min read
Remind the Kremlin of Its Weakness From the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, discussions about the war in the West have been permeated by a dangerous tone of complacency and self-congratulation. The Russian military has indeed been exposed as less than effective, and Ukrainian bravery has resonated among the public worldwide Dalibor Roháč 11 Mar 2022 · 7 min read
The New Great Game Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine will be remembered as one of the great crimes of the 21st century. The ensuing humanitarian crisis has already caused more than two million refugees [https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-number-of-refugees-reaches-2-million-un-says/a-61048556] to flee their homeland. With the imposition of sanctions, policymakers will have Joel Kotkin and Hügo Krüger 9 Mar 2022 · 9 min read
Vladimir Putin’s Medieval Mindset In 1338, the story has it, a notorious French exile named Robert of Artois strutted into the London palace of King Edward III, bearing a stuffed heron on a silver platter. “Clear the way, you miserable failures,” he said to the assembled lords. “I have a heron … the most cowardly Jonathan Kay 3 Mar 2022 · 4 min read
An Englishman in Russia Bids His Daughter Farewell I am an Englishman in Southern Russia. For nearly four years I’ve lived here, helping my Russian ex-partner bring up our (now) eight-year-old daughter. At 9 o’clock last night I saw both of them onto a sleeper-train to Moscow. From there they will fly to Italy and the Robert Ginzburg 28 Feb 2022 · 5 min read
The New Eurasian Century The current crises in eastern Europe reflect more than just Kremlin mischief-making—they reflect the first fruits of an emerging world order that spans the vastness from Beijing to Berlin. Unlike the longstanding liberal status quo, with its roots in classical civilization and the Enlightenment, this emerging alternative draws upon Joel Kotkin 15 Feb 2022 · 8 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 [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-ukraine-war-news-putin-retaliatory-military-technical-measures/] that he will invade absent an ironclad guarantee that Ukraine will never be permitted to join NATO. Although the Biden administration has Brian Stewart 14 Feb 2022 · 9 min read
What Putin Really Wants On Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desk sits a bronze statue of Peter the Great, the tsar who spent his four decades in power waging war on neighbors to establish his country as a great power in Europe. Peter would have understood the nature of the current conflict in Eastern Christopher Miller 14 Feb 2022 · 7 min read
