Section: The American Interest (USA)
The Waning of American Primacy
That President Obama has been a singularly weak leader in foreign policy and national security is a view that was held by the entire field of Republican candidates for President this year, a sizable percentage of the American people and, perhaps to some degree, even Hillary Rodham Clinton, an exponent of a more conventionally muscular approach to...
Inside the Surkov Leaks—and the Surkov “Fakes”
On October 25, a group of Ukrainian hackers known as CyberHunta released a surprise cache of emails allegedly from the official inbox of Vladislav Surkov, one of Vladimir Putin’s top aides. Surkov, an elusive Kremlin spin master often credited as the architect of Russia’s propaganda machine, now advises Putin on the pro-Russian...
A Conversation with Moshe Yaalon
Adam Garfinkle: Thank you for sitting down with me today. Let me start, please, with some military matters.It has seemed to me for a while now that if the fighting ever stops in Syria—and all wars end sometime—that Hizballah will end up as a result of what it has experienced as weaker in some ways, for example within Lebanese politics, but maybe...
Russia in Wonderland
I remarked at the end of my November 2014 TAI essay, “Reflections on the Closing of the Russian Mind,” that “Russia threatens its own future more than do any of the Western powers.” That is even more true now than it was then. Russia is set upon a self-destructive course. Its ruler, or for politeness’s sake its rulers, show no present...
Putin’s Valdai Pivot?
Is Vladimir Putin trying to moderate his confrontational stance against the West? There are two recent data points to consider: Putin’s speech at the annual Kremlin-organized Valdai Political Forum, and a leak from a high-profile Russian official attending the same forum.When asked by the Economist‘s Arkady Ostrovsky about Russia’s...
Did Moscow Botch a Coup in Montenegro?
On the day of Montenegro’s Parliamentary elections on October 16, a remarkable story emerged: Montenegrin security services had arrested some 20 Serbian nationals who were alleged to be preparing an attack on various state institutions that very evening, as the results were rolling in. Among those arrested was a retired Serbian general who...
“Who Would Be Better for Israel?”
If I had a dollar for every time I was presented with this question in recent months, I probably wouldn’t need to write this column. Since the early spring, it was asked by at least one person at every meeting I’ve had with groups or delegations visiting Israel from the United States.It’s a question that is almost impossible to...
Russia Escalates Ground Game in Georgia
As Russia consolidates its gains in Syria and stalls on peace talks in Ukraine, the New York Times reports that Russia is slowly inching forward on another front. In South Ossetia, the breakaway republic of Georgia sponsored by Russia since the 2008 war, the border keeps creeping forward: Marked in places with barbed wire laid at night, in others...
The United States and Europe Need Each Other
Come January there will be a new U.S. administration settling into the White House, with attendant personnel changes in key government positions, new ambassadorial and national security appointments, and several months of flux to follow as Washington adjusts to the new President. On foreign and security policy, there will also be the usual...
Putin’s “Compatriots”
Damir Marusic sat down with scholar Agnia Grigas to discuss her new book on Putin’s policies. Below is an edited transcript.Damir Marusic for TAI: Tell us a little bit about the book Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire, and what you set out to do in writing it. Agnia Grigas: I set out to write this book in early 2014 with the aim of...
