Section: The American Interest (USA)
America’s Global Role in Question
New eras in American foreign policy have begun in two different ways: suddenly and gradually. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, changed America’s role in the world in an instant. The events that turned the World War II alliance with the Soviet Union into the Cold-War confrontation that lasted for four...
How To Deal with Putin
In a result that should surprise no one, Vladimir Putin was elected to a fourth term as Russia’s President on Sunday, March 18. The Kremlin’s outrageous efforts to increase turnout—including reminders to show up at the polls posted on the mobile apps of major state-owned banks—combined with massive and well-documented voter fraud...
The West Must Step Up Russia Sanctions
Yesterday, the Trump Administration announced a new set of sanctions targeting the Russian individuals and entities involved with the Internet Research Agency that were indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in February. The FSB and the GRU—the main Russian intelligence services—were also on the list. The move should have not surprised...
Multilateralism for a Despotic Age
“I know very well that right now some are trying to isolate Cuba. We Europeans want to show, on the contrary, that we are closer to you than ever,” said Federica Mogherini, the head of the European External Action Service, in a not-so-subtle dig at the Trump Administration. A few weeks later, Carl Bildt, Sweden’s former Prime Minister,...
What Gorbachev Did Not Hear
On December 12, 2017, The National Security Archive published a study entitled “NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard,” drawing from declassified Western and Soviet documents to argue that, in the waning days of the Cold War, senior Western leaders gave their Soviet counterparts explicit assurances—on which the West later reneged—that NATO would...
Moldova: Stepping Out of Europe’s Grey Zone
Chisinau, Moldova rarely makes it on to the world stage or the front pages of newspapers, but on March 2, 2018, statesmen and experts from Europe and the United States descended on the city to buck the trend. During a high-level inter-parliamentary security conference held on that day for Eastern Partnership countries, the speakers of parliaments...
The Impossibility of Italian Politics
Italy has the best claim of any Western state to be the nursery of the most consequential political movements of the 20th century. This week’s Europe-shaking election in the peninsula emphasized that remarkable creativity, with dozens of parties, many with only local existences, vying for a slice of the vote. But the outcome may also mean...
The Loveless Russia of Andrey Zvyagintsev
LovelessDirected by Andrey ZvyagintsevSony Pictures Classics (2017), 128 minutes Leo Tolstoy famously opened Anna Karenina with the aphorism that all happy families are alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. To judge by his latest film, Andrey Zvyagintsev would beg to differ: In Loveless, the latest Oscar-nominated import from...
The EU Embrace
EU enlargement used to be a big deal. It made academic careers, filled up newspaper columns, and set foreign ministries abuzz. Nowadays it is more of a niche subject. You do meet the odd Brussels think tanker or European Commission functionary who is enthused about Montenegro clearing benchmark X, Y or Z in its membership talks or eager to...
What Europeans Can Learn from Donald Trump
With his abrasive manners and his “America First” rhetoric, Donald Trump has not made many friends in Europe—and for good reason. The U.S. President’s idea of America’s interests is crude, often clouded by mercantilist dogma, and only rarely accompanied by a strategy and a follow-up. Still, Europeans would do well to pick up on a few...
