Section: The American Interest (USA)
The Summer of Russia’s Discontent?
When Russian ministers, top managers, and oligarchs were boarding their first-class flights and private jets on their way back to Moscow from the glitzy annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum on Monday, they probably expected to read articles about themselves in the morning Russian business papers that are always offered on board....
The Death of the Two-State Solution
Jared Kushner is set to unveil his closely held Middle East peace initiative early next month in Bahrain, just after the end of Ramadan. Though some information leaked two weeks ago to an Israeli newspaper, people with connections to the Trump Administration have cautioned against reading too much into the reports. Shared sovereignty over...
When Solidarity Prevailed
Thirty years ago this June 4, Poland held its first honest election since the country was subjugated by Stalin and communism was imposed on an unwilling society. The election results were an across-the-board sweep for the anti-communist forces led by the Solidarity trade union movement. Communist power was shattered. Poland qualified as the first...
Russian-Ukrainian Relations in the Zelensky Era
If Moscow felt a warm sense of schadenfreude at the electoral trouncing of Ukraine’s incumbent President Poroshenko in the second round of the April 21 presidential elections, celebrations were outwardly subdued. Largely absent was the open, vindictive gloating that had accompanied Viktor Yushchenko’s record-breaking humiliation in...
How Film Can Shake Up the Debate About War
The debate about military interventions has been trapped in amber for years now. Where, when, and why we should intervene in conflicts—whether in Central Africa, Eastern Europe or the Middle East, whether for regime change, for the “responsibility to protect” (R2P), or for humanitarian aid—are almost forgotten topics. The debate has been stuck in...
Germany’s Russia Lobby
In Germany, prominent Russia advocates abound. Most recently, Horst Teltschik accuses the West of being “obsessed” with blaming Vladimir Putin for all the evils in world politics, thus “alienating” him from cooperation. Jürgen Todenhöfer denounces the “demonization” of Russia, which, according to him, gets a bad rap. And in a collection of essays...
Zelensky, the Post-Soviet Man
In the early 2000s I arrived at graduate film school in Moscow thinking I would be surrounded by brooding lovers of avant garde Soviet cinema, devotees of the evasive spiritual allegories of Tarkovsky or the high-art agitprop of Sergey Eisenstein. To my surprise, most of my mature co-students—many of whom were from outside Moscow, as well as from...
The Last Man and the Future of History
TAI: This year marks the 30th anniversary of your famous essay, “The End of History?” But few of your critics pay any attention to the “Last Man” thesis that you developed in the book based on the essay. Can you talk about that idea—what it means and how it speaks to today’s challenges?Francis Fukuyama: The whole “Last Man” section is about...
What We Know About Peace
Peace has a golden reputation. Worshippers pray for it. A Norwegian committee awards a celebrated prize to individuals and organizations that it believes promote peace. The central figure of Christianity bears the honorific “the Prince of Peace.” Yet peace on Earth has proven elusive. In the three decades since the end of the Cold War, however,...
Russia Is No Great Power Competitor
A common thread throughout the two-plus years of the Trump Administration’s foreign policy, reflected in its National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy, and a growing theme in much of the op-ed and think tank commentariat is the notion of great power competition between the United States on one side and Russia and China on the...
