Section: The American Conservative (USA)
Why Is Kim Jong-un Our Problem?
“If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will.” So President Donald Trump warns, amid reports North Korea, in its zeal to build an intercontinental ballistic missile to hit our West Coast, may test another atom bomb. China shares a border with North Korea. We do not. Why then is this our problem to “solve”? And why is North Korea building...
Is Putin the ‘Preeminent Statesman’ of Our Times?
“If we were to use traditional measures for understanding leaders, which involve the defense of borders and national flourishing, Putin would count as the preeminent statesman of our time. “On the world stage, who could vie with him?” So asks Chris Caldwell of The Weekly Standard in a remarkable essay in Hillsdale College’s March issue of...
Daily Foreign Affairs Roundup
Here are some interesting stories relevant to foreign affairs from today, Wednesday, March 29: What happens now that Britain has triggered Article 50? The Economist explains how Brexit could play out in the coming months. The United States should not send U.S. troops into harm’s way unless a vital U.S. national security interest is at...
Russian Trads And Western Sympathizers
A couple of weeks ago, Sohrab Ahmari identified me as a Putinist. This came as a shock to me, as I have written critically of the Russian president, of whom I am not an admirer in most, but not all, respects. But that’s just it. Here’s Ahmari: For the author and American Conservative journalist Rod Dreher, the redemptive promise of...
Russiagate’s Unasked Questions
Call me confused. Last week’s House Intelligence Committee hearing on possible Trump associates’ collusion with the Russian government, which featured FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers, provided very little new information even as it confirmed troubling revelations that had already appeared in the media. If the FBI...
Ukraine and the Cult of ‘Resolve’
Anders Fogh Rasmussen makes a dubious claim and offers an even worse recommendation: Moscow has remained in the Donbas because the West has allowed it to. The U.S. can demonstrate Western resolve by ramping up sanctions on Moscow and increase the cost of Russian interference by supplying defensive weapons to Ukraine. The first sentence greatly...
Is a Trump-Putin Detente Dead?
Among the reasons Donald Trump is president is that he read the nation and the world better than his rivals. He saw the surging power of American nationalism at home, and of ethnonationalism in Europe. And he embraced Brexit. While our bipartisan establishment worships diversity, Trump saw Middle America recoiling from the demographic change...
The Deep State Targets Trump
When Gen. Michael Flynn was forced to resign as national-security advisor, Bill Kristol purred his satisfaction, “If it comes to it, prefer the deep state to the Trump state.” To Kristol, the permanent regime, not the elected president and his government, is the real defender and rightful repository of our liberties. Yet it was this regime, the...
More About Russia and Less About Flynn?
The story on the resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn is somewhat like peeling an onion, with each layer revealing something new. To be sure, I am delighted to see Flynn gone, both because of his clearly expressed desire to confront Iran and his inaccurate characterization of Islam. But Flynn’s departure will no doubt be...
Is President Trump Headed for a War With China?
Forget those “bad hombres down there” in Mexico that U.S. troops might take out. Ignore the way National Security Adviser Michael Flynn put Iran “on notice” and the new president insisted, that, when it comes to that country, “nothing is off the table.” Instead, focus for a moment on something truly scary: the possibility that Donald...
