Section: The American Interest (USA)
Warsaw Weakens Gazprom’s Grip
Poland currently buys nearly all of its gas from Russia, but the construction of a new LNG import terminal and a proposed pipeline link with Norway could help weaken Gazprom’s grip on Warsaw. Reuters reports: Poland has finished construction of a 3 billion zlotys ($794 million) LNG terminal by the Baltic Sea, which is expected to receive...
The Long Standoff
Two years ago yesterday, on March 21, 2014, only 5 days after the so called “referendum” on the status of Crimea, the Russian Ministry of Defense issued medals “For the Return of Crimea” to the soldiers who had participated in the storming and illegal annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula. Most Russians, thrilling at the lavish media coverage,...
The Obama Doctrine: Responses
Editor’s Note: The American Interest asked regular contributors and members of the editorial board to offer their reactions to President Obama’s unusually candid remarks on foreign policy in Jeffrey Goldberg’s “The Obama Doctrine” (The Atlantic). Good Points and Bad Points Francis Fukuyama Flaws aside, Obama is in touch with an...
The Dangers of Presidential Clarity
Supporters of strategic ambiguity, the concept by which the United States leaves its enemies wondering what we might do in certain situations, believe it deters hostile actions by the likes of Russia and China. President Obama prefers the opposite—he likes to telegraph to the world and, most disturbingly, to our enemies what the United States...
Good Points and Bad Points
Let’s first get through the list of problems with the “Obama Doctrine” laid out in Jeffrey Goldberg’s interview, where I would echo many of the criticisms being made of him by others in the foreign policy establishment.First, while it’s true that there is a “cult of credibility” in Washington which is often overemphasized,...
The Obama Doctrine and Ukraine
In an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, President Obama laid out key elements of his approach to foreign policy. There is much in it with which one can agree. “Don’t do stupid s—” makes sense as an axiom of foreign policy—or of any policy, for that matter—as does taking deliberate and strategic decisions about when to engage...
Is the Time of the Russlandversteher Over?
Editor’s Note: How do Russia and the West see one another? What are the experts’ views on the confrontation between Russia and the West? How do the pundits explain the Russo-Ukrainian war and Russia’s Syrian gambit? What are the roots of the mythology about Russia in the West, and why has the West failed to predict and...
Putin Announces Withdrawal From Syria
Once more, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has surprised almost all observers by announcing that as of tomorrow, he is withdrawing most of his forces from Syria. Russia Today has the official English-language writeup: “I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defense Ministry to be generally accomplished. That is why I order to start...
The Word in Tokyo: Crimea
It took a recent trip to Japan to hear “Crimea” mentioned whenever the subject of Russia came up. Two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, starting with Crimea and its illegal annexation, one rarely hears about the peninsula these days in Europe or the United States. Distracted by Russian actions in Syria, Western government officials and analysts...
An Avoidable Catastrophe
SKOPJE, MACEDONIA—It was during another Greek seaside vacation that I came face-to-face with the problem. From the lounging sunbathers, laughing, splashing children, and half-depleted cups of freddo cappuccino, you would never know that a full-blown migration crisis was on, and not very far down the road. Plying the rows of lined umbrellas were...
