Section: The American Interest (USA)
Inside Putin’s Echo Chamber
“Let him speak,” Oliver Stone told CNN in defending his four hour documentary on Vladimir Putin, during which the acclaimed American director frequently seemed to avoid obvious follow-up questions. Stone’s reticence on some matters was so glaringly obvious that some commentators began suggesting the movie would be used to kick off...
Demonizing Democracy
The recent passage of a “foreign agents” law in Hungary is a disturbing reminder of the determination of the world’s autocracies to crush civil society activism. While Prime Minister Viktor Orban has justified the new measure on transparency grounds, the law’s clear purpose is to neutralize NGOs and think tanks as sources of...
New Russia Sanctions Hit A Roadblock
As journalists and pundits eagerly chase leads and leaks about Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, a more consequential Russia story is playing out in plain sight. In recent days, the Trump Administration and a Republican Congress have been doing a delicate dance over new sanctions against Moscow, in what could be a telling indicator of...
The US Is Exposing Europe’s Divide on Nord Stream 2
The U.S. Senate voted to expand sanctions on Russia today, and part of that expansion will target European countries who cooperate with Moscow’s efforts to build out its pipeline infrastructure into Europe. The FT has the details: The most prominent target is the contentious Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is set to start pumping gas from...
Senate Slaps New Sanctions On Russia
The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 election with an amendment that codifies existing sanctions on Moscow, imposes new ones, and establishes that Congress alone has the authority to remove them. The Washington Examiner explains: The amendment would sanction Russia for a variety of...
The Ukrainian Reformation
Walter Russell Mead: Welcome to Washington! Let me begin by asking—what brings you here?Oleksandr Danylyuk: I’m here to attend the spring meetings, the premier events of the financial world. We have a pretty busy agenda—meetings with the IMF, the World Bank, and private investors as well. I’m doing all this because we are preparing to...
“Tear Down This Wall” at Thirty
Whatever the West does, it is likely that it will endure a significant threat to global peace and stability during the next few years. Despite President Trump’s apparent desire to work outside the current system, crises in Syria, North Korea, and elsewhere have already demonstrated that dramatic change is best managed when Atlantic nations...
Losing Our Grip, From Paris to Podgorica to London
Most of the world does not feel sorry for America, and is not used to the wounded self-regard with which our President so frequently expresses himself. President Trump’s assertion that the Paris climate accord put America at “permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world” has elicited no sympathy abroad. And the sight of our...
Breathing Room for the Kremlin
Pity the poor modern historian, who has to explain the seemingly illogical logic of Russia’s trajectory, which stands in defiance of all settled knowledge about the rise and fall of states. Russia presents us with the bizarre, albeit fascinating, case of a state that has found a way to survive despite having exhausted its systemic resources...
Why Scholars and Policymakers Disagree
Academics are a conflicted lot, simultaneously cherishing and bemoaning their isolation from the world. Pursuing the life of the mind necessarily entails cultivating independence and even detachment from politics, the news cycle, and government policy. Yet detachment can easily become irrelevance, and in recent years, there has been a tidal wave...
