Section: The American Interest (USA)
The King’s Speech
President Vladimir Putin addressed the Duma for the 13th time last week. Though there were no revelations in the speech—no bold new visions for the development of the country were proffered—the focus was notably different. Russia’s President talked much less about foreign policy than in the previous three years, and this time his rhetoric...
Putin Panic Triggers Pentagon Spending Spree
The 1980s are calling, and they want their military budget back. Reuters reports that top U.S. military brass are increasingly worried about the threat from Russia and are seeking to prioritize countermeasures in the next defense budget: “Russia is the No. 1 threat to the United States. We have a number of threats that we’re dealing with,...
The New Yorker Exposes a Fake News Fraud
A viral Washington Post story breathlessly circulated by media mandarins condemning the influence of “fake news” on the U.S. presidential election turns out to have been… fake news. The New Yorker’s Adrian Chen has published a devastating takedown of the key source in the Washington Post piece, an anonymous group called PropOrNot, which...
How Did It Come to This?
The incoming Trump Administration faces rockier relations with Moscow than any new U.S. President since Ronald Reagan in 1981. As Thomas Graham and Matthew Rojansky have aptly noted, America’s Russia policy has failed. This failure runs deeper than Russian challenges to U.S. interests in Ukraine or Syria, and responsibility does not lie at...
Blaming NATO, Russia Sends More Missiles to Kaliningrad
Moscow continues to rattle its saber against the West, deploying more missiles to Kaliningrad in what it claims is a retaliatory measure against NATO deployments. Reuters: Moscow will deploy S-400 surface-to-air missiles and nuclear-capable Iskander systems in the exclave of Kaliningrad in retaliation for NATO deployments, a senior pro-Kremlin...
The Populist Threat to a Precarious Peace
The election of Donald Trump as U.S. President has caused trepidation around the globe, not only because it blindsided most world leaders, but also because it may well represent the first step of the United States’ march to fundamentally reordering the international system. Campaign rhetoric may not be a perfect guide to how his foreign...
Abe’s Russian Dream
Next month, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan for a much-anticipated summit. Since taking office in late 2012, Abe has expended considerable effort to improve Japan’s strained relationship with Russia. Abe and Putin have met on numerous occasions on the sidelines of international...
Donald Trump’s New World Order
Ten days after the election of Donald J. Trump to be the 45th President of the United States, there is a more or less complete lack of certainty as to which direction his foreign policy will take, but a great deal of speculation—much of it alarmist—based on things Mr. Trump has said in speeches and interviews. Yet few if any Presidents base their...
“Fake News” is the New “Bregret”
After a majority of British voters stunned the political establishment on both sides of the Atlantic by voting to leave the European Union, the media quickly alighted on a narrative to reassure “Remain” partisans of their moral superiority: “Leave” voters, ignorant of the actual implications of their vote, were already regretting their decision...
Putinalia as Deceit and Self-Deceit
For years now, Vladimir Putin has been the most talked about leader in the West. He is on the covers of popular magazines; he is the hero or villain of numerous essays and books; he has an army of spectators waiting for the next detail to add to their Putin-centric narratives. Hardly any other Russian leader (with the exception of Stalin) has...
