Section: The American Interest (USA)
The New Greek Oligarchy
Ivan Ignatyevich Savvidis has played many unusual roles in his life—one of the great tobacco tycoons of Eurasia, a member of Russia’s Duma, a confidante of Vladimir Putin —but it is his latest one that is now sounding off alarm bells throughout Europe. Savvidis is the parvenu of Greece’s oligarchic scene. Since the onset of the...
The Fading of the Idea of Central Europe
Europe today is riven by several urgent policy questions: How should its institutions evolve? How far and how fast should EU integration proceed? What should Europeans think about the concept increasingly referred to as “two-tiered” Europe? How should they think about common defense following the signing of the PESCO agreement by 23 European...
The Top Books of 2017
The holidays are over, you’ve received your gift cards from Amazon and already returned your duplicate copies of Grant by Ron Chernow. So what books to buy now? Here are some of our favorites at the American Interest.Actually, if you happen to be the one person who didn’t receive it, Grant (Penguin) isn’t a bad place to start....
What Was the Cold War?
When an historical era comes to an end the pundits move on and the historians move in. When major issues have been decided, or have faded in importance, commentary on them thins out and looks backward rather than forward. The emphasis shifts from arguments about what should be done and speculation about what will happen to judgements about...
This Sputnik Moment
It takes a pretty big shock to the system to transform the way the United States engages the world. A spate of German submarine attacks on American merchant ships was the final trigger for American entry into World War I. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor brought America into World War II. The attacks on September 11 led the United States to...
Russia Jumps Into LNG With Chinese Money
Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the West carefully calibrated its ramp-up of sanctions to balance the need to turn the screws on Moscow without endangering European energy supplies. This targeting of Russia’s medium- and long-term energy projects pushed Russia to look elsewhere for financing for the development of its...
A Sideshow and a Showdown in Kyiv
This week, with much of the world’s attention diverted to Washington and Jerusalem, Kyiv has been home to some high-stakes political drama of its own. Since Tuesday, Ukraine’s capital has been roiled by a pair of intense confrontations: one a personalistic clash of wills playing out across rooftops, amid mobs, and in full view of the...
How “America First” Turns Into “America Last”
In the first year of Donald Trump, Amerikakritik, a pseudo-academic euphemism for anti-Americanism, has finally made it into the Duden, the German version of the OED. Of course, there is no such thing as anti-Americanism in polite German society; “we are just against this or that U.S. policy/president,” runs the standard disclaimer. In the...
To End Foreign Meddling, End Anonymity
The Washington Post ran a headline two weeks ago that captured the country’s fevered mood perfectly: “Wondering if the Russians reached you over Facebook? You can soon find out.” In a middling bit of clickbait, the Post managed to conjoin the prevailing sentiment of collective victimhood with the media’s favorite theme of 2017:...
How the Olympics Ban Helps Putin
The verdict is in, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially banned Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics for systematic, state-backed doping. The state-run Russian propaganda machine has already denounced the move as an attack on the country from the West, one allegedly designed to incite revolution and Putin’s removal...
