Section: The American Interest (USA)
Europe to Bust Gazprom?
Tensions are set to escalate once again between Brussels and Moscow as the EU’s new antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, is set to bring charges against Russia’s Gazprom for abusing its preeminent position in the natural gas markets. The NYT: The formal charges against Gazprom could result in a fine. Theoretically, it could run higher...
Pivot to Japan
“The Japanese,” wrote Joseph Grew to President Roosevelt’s Secretary of State Cordell Hull in May 1933, are “extremely nationalistic [and] war-loving.” They had already become, at the time, observed Roosevelt’s Ambassador in Tokyo, “a tremendously powerful fighting machine.” Nearly a decade later, three years before the end of World...
Are Tyrants Only Local Thugs?
If we see that tyrants lack hope, making them myopic in their historical outlook, we might also argue that their actions are circumscribed to their dominions. Tyrants, in other words, may be only local thugs and thus have less impact on international stability than they might otherwise. Applied to today, this argument would suggest that a tyrant...
Time to Forge a European Defence Union
The European Union may not end up having a joint army, as shown by the opposition of several member states to the recent declarations of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. But it should move forward with a new framework for defense cooperation. The report of the CEPS Task Force on Security and Defence, presented on March 9 in...
Obama Lavishes Praise on Modi in TIME Magazine
The list of writers of Time‘s annual 100 Most Influential People feature is usually as star-studded as the list itself. This year, you can read Elon Musk on Kanye West, or Ukrainian Prime Minister Petro Poroshenko on Angela Merkel. But even in this pantheon, one byline-subject combination stands out, and that’s Barack Obama on Narendra...
High-Riding Ruble Pulls Putin’s Chestnuts out of Fire
In what has become almost an annual ritual since 2001, Vladimir Putin took to the airwaves to participate in a lengthy call-in show, fielding vetted questions from citizens and prominent figures for several hours on national television. The questions were far-ranging—some concerning Russia’s sending troops to Ukraine (he denied it), others...
Springtime for Zakharchenko?
After a period of relative calm near the end of winter, many Ukraine watchers are warning that all signs point to a new rebel/Russian offensive. The rebel leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, has been saying for a week that a new offensive is forthcoming. Meanwhile, Kiev has been sounding the alarm more loudly than usual, ordering troops to dig...
Why We Need Totalitarianism
Adam Michnik, the one-time Polish dissident and now editor of Warsaw’s best daily newspaper, once quipped that if forced to choose between the rule of Polish Communist General Wojciech Jaruzelski and Chilean junta leader General Augusto Pinochet, he would choose Marlene Dietrich. Michnik thus accentuated the humor of the dilemma on several...
Could It Have Been Otherwise?
Did the West bungle its relations with Russia after the Cold War? Was there a better way? This debate, now a quarter of a century old, will doubtless be with us for decades. The sides don’t seem to change much, nor do their arguments. Those who opposed the enlargement of NATO in the 1990s treat the war in Ukraine as proof that they were...
Gazprom Warns Against Proposed European Energy Union
As the European Union moves ahead with an anti-trust case against Gazprom, the Russian firm is pushing back by warning that a unified pricing model will mean higher costs for the continent. The FT reports: [Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller] defended the company’s pricing model and explained that prices differed because Europe was a “fragmented...
