The events of 2014–15 dispelled many of the illusions that arose in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia’s return to the global arena as a state demanding the right to interpret the rules of the game (or to undermine them) ruined the post-Cold War hopes that we were beginning a benevolent new chapter in history. The international crisis provoked by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the Russo-Ukrainian war, and soon Kremlin’s Syria foray, also forced the world to confront an unpleasant truth: international institutions are fragile; the liberal democracies are dysfunctional; and the illiberal world, meanwhile, …read more
Source: The American Interest
