Section: The American Interest (USA)
Europe’s Wheel of Fortune Turns
Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in EuropeGeorge FriedmanAnchor Books, 2016, 264 pp., $21 Slippery Slope: Europe’s Troubled FutureGiles MerrittOxford University Press, 2016, 320 pp., $29.95 Europe Since 1989: A HistoryPhilipp Ther, trans. Charlotte Hughes-KreutzmüllerPrinceton University Press, 2016, 440 pp., $35 Medieval EuropeChris...
Beyond a “Marshall Plan for Ukraine”
The fifth Eastern Partnership summit is kicking off today in Brussels, as leaders of the EU member states meet with leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine. One of the items on the agenda: an initiative nicknamed the “Marshall Plan for Ukraine”—a proposal originally put forward by two Lithuanian...
Beyond a “Marshall Plan for Ukraine”
The fifth Eastern Partnership summit is kicking off today in Brussels, as leaders of the EU member states meet with leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine. One of the items on the agenda: an initiative nicknamed the “Marshall Plan for Ukraine”—a proposal originally put forward by two Lithuanian...
Ukraine’s Bolshevik Shadow
When George Kennan was asked in 1967 by Foreign Affairs to reflect on the accomplishments and failures of Soviet rule at the 50-year mark, he stated that without a doubt, the October Revolution that had brought the Bolsheviks to power in Russia had altered world history and was the single most consequential event of the 20th century. Indeed, at...
Ukraine’s Bolshevik Shadow
When George Kennan was asked in 1967 by Foreign Affairs to reflect on the accomplishments and failures of Soviet rule at the 50-year mark, he stated that without a doubt, the October Revolution that had brought the Bolsheviks to power in Russia had altered world history and was the single most consequential event of the 20th century. Indeed, at...
The Diplomat vs. the Lobbyist
One would think Paul Manafort’s current legal troubles would serve as a cautionary tale for Washington lobbyists about the perils of seeking to burnish the reputations of authoritarian political leaders from other lands. And yet these lobbyists persist, even to the point of working for sketchy Ukrainian politico-oligarchic interests with...
The Paradise Papers: A Reading Guide
This past Sunday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism released the Paradise Papers, a new trove of documents showing the opaque networks, shell companies, and gaping regulatory loopholes that the world’s wealthy use to stash their gains abroad. The revelations therein are still sending shockwaves through Western...
Make Conservatism Moderate Again
In 1964, Barry Goldwater addressed the Republican National Convention with a famous speech that argued “extremism in defense of liberty [was] no vice” and “moderation in pursuit of justice [was] no virtue.” Few understood him as making a prediction about the future of right-wing thinking and politics across the English-speaking world. Yet that...
Studying Stalin
Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941Stephen KotkinPenguin Press, 2017, 1184pp., $40 Richard Aldous: Hello, and welcome. My guest this week on The American Interest Podcast is Stephen Kotkin, professor of history at Princeton and author of a new book, Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941. Stephen, welcome to the show.Stephen Kotkin: Thank you...
Shine On: The Balfour Declaration at 100
Just as I felt obligated to comment back in May 2016 on “The Bullshistory of ‘Sykes-Picot’” on the occasion of its centenary, this past June I felt obligated to comment on the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War. In the course of doing so I reflected on the psychological power of anniversaries and the potential dangers they posed to...
