Section: The American Interest (USA)
Anti-Modernity, Within and Without
Editor’s note: Read part three here.As described in Part 3, the concentration of political power in the hands of the state is an evolved accouterment of modernity, but it is not part of modernity’s essential definition. The modern state system, however, which goes back to Westphalia, really is quintessentially modern precisely because...
The UK Returns
There has been much dismay in response to the British electorate’s decision to leave the EU, including the assumption that the UK is signaling a retreat from the world and its position as NATO’s second military power. On closer inspection, however, it is much more likely that exactly the reverse is happening: Theresa May’s...
Lavrov Ratchets Down the Rhetoric?
The public Western response to Russian President Vladimir Putin rattling the cage with Ukraine last week has been reasonably unified. All the statements released over the course of the weekend, from Paris, Washington, and Brussels, have urged that cooler heads prevail, have reiterated that Crimea belongs to Ukraine and is currently being occupied...
Polish Regulators Stymie Nord Stream 2
Polish regulators yesterday struck what many seem to have initially hoped was a fatal blow to the Nord Stream 2 project, a proposed gas pipeline that shadows the existing Nord Stream project, linking Northern Europe to Russia’s vast supplies while notably bypassing Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal: An application with Poland’s...
The Rise and Fall of Sergey Ivanov
The most puzzling and unexpected high-profile resignation happened today in the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin dismissed the Chief of his Presidential Administration, his long-time friend and closest of allies, Sergey Ivanov. Formally, Ivanov filed for resignation himself, but in fact not only did he lose his position, he was moved to another post: he...
Terms of Estrangement
When Barack Obama’s chances of re-election looked uncertain in May 2011, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu came to the White House to lecture its occupant. In front of “astonished” journalists and “furious” White House aides, Netanyahu publicly rejected the framework for peace the President had endorsed the day before. Our Separate...
Who Framed Dmitry Medvedev?
The Kremlin said it had discerned the roots of a defamatory campaign against Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. As RBC reports citing two high-profile officials inside the Kremlin, Medvedev’s opponents have launched a coordinated campaign, in the media and on social networks, trying to discredit the PM and get him to resign.As...
Merely PR or Real Policy Breakthroughs?
As we wrote yesterday, the opportunity for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan to come up with some kind of way to say they are cooperating in Syria that pointedly sidelines the United States might be a temptation too tasty to pass up. It looks like we were right. AFP: Turkey on Thursday called on Russia to...
Putin Throws Down the Gauntlet
Things have been heating up in Ukraine. As we noted on Monday, tensions were already high in Ukraine through the weekend, with scattered reports of a large buildup of Russian troops in Crimea and Donbas coinciding with a mysterious attempt on the life of the leader of the so-called breakaway Luhansk People’s Republic. Ukraine had put its...
Moscow Prefers Republicans
It’s not just The Donald. Since World War II the Kremlin generally has seen most Republican presidents more benignly than their Democratic counterparts. Russian leaders generally believe Republicans are less wedded to unfriendly ideologies, such as human rights, and are more pragmatic. And when a Republican cuts a deal, they believe, it is...
