Zelensky’s Terrible Dilemma—and Ours
Capitulation or Bloody Resistance?
John Lloyd
· 8 min read
Ukraine
A collection of 54 posts
Pacifism and Papal Fallibility
The Pope is a perverse sort of pacifist, not a man of peace.
Brian Stewart
· 8 min read
The Hard Left and Populist Right Agree on All the Wrong Things
The ideas that unite the hard Left and the populist Right against the West itself are the same ones that make them both so excited about the culture wars.
Stephan Jensen
· 8 min read
Putinism and the Stalinist Legacy
From the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, justifications offered for Moscow’s aggression must have struck most non-Russian observers as unrealistic, to say the least. Many observers were incredulous that any educated Russian could possibly believe Putin’s claim that Ukraine required “denazification and demilitarization,” or that the country
Tomislav Kardum
· 7 min read
Ukrainians Are Nobody’s Pawns
Conservative anti-interventionists buy into an authoritarian narrative that ignores the clear choices made by the people of Ukraine.
Robert Tracinski
· 8 min read
Casualties of War
I have been a Russophile for as long as I can remember. Or, to put it more exactly, since I was eight years old, when I attended a school play performance of Gogol’s The Government Inspector. I loved Gogol’s sense of humour, the long names with their patronymics—
Robert Ginzburg
· 13 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
· 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
· 23 min read
Ukraine’s Suffering Shows Culture Warriors What a Real War Looks Like: a Quillette Editorial
Over the last month, Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine, slaughtered thousands of its citizens, and laid waste to its infrastructure. At home, the Russian President has outlawed political dissent, arrested legions of antiwar protesters, shut down the last vestiges of an independent press, and, as Quillette contributor Robert Ginzburg has
The Quillette Editorial Board
· 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
· 5 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
· 6 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
· 5 min read
Ukraine: On the Fault Line Between East and West
Ukrainian nationalism and its clear expression as part of a larger European identity has burst into the open with the power of a hydrogen bomb.
Michael J. Totten
· 11 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 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
· 7 min read