Section: National Review (USA)
Russia, Putin, and Trump — Untangling the Conspiracy Theories
Today there occurs the first telephone call between President Trump and Russian President Putin. It will be a significant moment because both men have suggested that they want a better Russo–American relationship to be a main element in their foreign policies. That’s bound to be controversial when Russia is engaged in an ongoing war in...
Obama’s Unforced Errors on Foreign Policy
When Barack Obama moves two miles from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to 2446 Belmont Road in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood, he will live half a mile from 2340 S Street, where Woodrow Wilson spent his three post-presidential years. Wilson’s embittering foreign policy failure was the Senate’s rejection of the U.S. participation in...
Obama’s Last-Minute Legacy-Padding on Foreign Policy
Of all Barack Obama’s costumes, the most ill-fitting is that of the hawk. The guise doesn’t work for all sorts of ideological and historical reasons. Plus there’s the fact that he’s rushing to put on the outfit as he’s heading out the door.The new sanctions against Russia are fine with me on the merits, even if they...
A Ukrainian Christmas . . .
Whether it’s celebrated according to the Gregorian or the Julian calendar, Christmastide in Ukraine this season might seem to be one in which the bad news is all the news there is. Russian aggression, low-key but lethal, continues in the eastern regions of the country, as do cyber-warfare and other forms of Russian agitprop throughout the...
Of Course Russia Meddles in Our Elections — But the ‘Hacking’ Claim Is a Farce
The hypocrisy oozing from the peddling of this week’s narrative about Russian “meddling” in the U.S. presidential election is thick even by the sorry standards of modern American politics.I feel entitled to be amused, having maintained, through a decade of bipartisan idiocy, that Putin’s thug-ocracy is an enemy of the United States:...
Obama’s Second Term Was a Complete Failure
Every December, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post picks the biggest political loser of the past year.In 2013, Cillizza’s selection was Barack Obama. He cited the botched rollout of Healthcare.gov, the NSA domestic-surveillance scandal, the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party groups, and the continuing questions about the...
The Price of Greatness
My guest on a new Q&A podcast is John Hillen — who is a soldier, scholar, businessman, athlete, etc. The word I use for him is “hombre.” He is chairman of National Review. He was an assistant secretary of state under George W. Bush. He was an Army officer. He has degrees out the wazoo. Etc.I always say, “I want to be John Hillen when I...
A European Nation Rediscovers the Value of an Armed Citizenry
I’m talking about Estonia, the tiny nation on Russia’s doorstep. The New York Times features a fascinating piece discussing Estonia’s efforts to mobilize its people in the face of Russian aggression. The story begins with the popularity of “military sports” in the country, including contests like a “patrol...
An Education and a Pleasure
Anne Applebaum is an expert on world affairs, and in particular on Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet Union. She is the author of several books, including Gulag: A History, which won the Pulitzer prize. And she is a columnist for the Washington Post.Her husband, Radek Sikorski, is a Polish politician, journalist, and writer. He was...
About Germany
Impromptus today is a continuation of my “Baltic Journal”: Part III. I touch on many issues, some of which deserve to be more than touched on. For instance, Germany.I’ll tell you how it comes up. NATO has decided to send battalions to the Baltic states next year. This is one of the steps that the alliance has taken in response to Vladimir...
