The Nato summit in Ankara was a showcase of Turkish hospitality and ruthless authoritarian efficiency. Journalists were showered with Turkish delights, perfumes, and porcelain coffee cups, and even Turkey’s cats were enlisted in the charm offensive: white Angora kittens were introduced to cooing journalists in the press center.
VIDEO: John Mearsheimer’s lecture at the European Parliament: An ugly Russian victory in Ukraine is coming
Renowned political scientist and proponent of offensive realism, Professor John Mearsheimer, delivers a stark address to the European Parliament, hosted by the Patriots for Europe Foundation. In this comprehensive lecture, Mearsheimer breaks down why he believes the Western strategy in Eastern Europe has failed, why Russia is currently winning a brutal war of attrition, and why structural forces are pushing the United States to pivot its military “pacifier” away from Europe toward East Asia.
Omer Bartov: The Judeo-Bolshevist Target
Popular memory tends to separate the Holocaust and the German war against the Soviet Union, but for the Nazi regime they were two faces of the same undertaking.
Stephen Walt: The Quest for Nuclear Superiority Makes No Sense
Countries spend billions of dollars on defense every year, and some of that money inevitably gets squandered. Nobody likes “waste, fraud, and abuse,” but it’s impossible to eliminate it completely when you are spending vast sums on a wide array of military programs. More effective efforts to address this problem are desirable—i.e., it would be nice if the U.S. Defense Department could pass an audit every now and then—but the most obvious way to save money on defense is to simply not waste money pursuing unnecessary capabilities and impossible goals.
CNBC: Russia’s neighbor to scrap ban on nuclear weapons, says ‘situation is getting worse’
Lithuania, a NATO member which borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, has decided to remove a constitutional ban on nuclear weapons.
Anatol Lieven: Unlocking Peace in Ukraine
Ukraine has won a great victory, that opens the way for a lasting peace settlement. Contrary to all previous expectations, Ukraine has fought the Russian army to a standstill, secured 80 percent of its territory, consolidated its national identity and Western alignment, and gained the possibility of joining the European Union. This is a tremendous success not only when compared to the initial goals of the Russian government, but in the context of 500 years and more of Ukraine’s domination by Russia, Poland and Austria.
Semafor: Trump Turns to Discredited Neocon for Advice on Ukraine
George W. Bush had the hawkish Charles Krauthammer to explain his hawkish presidency to the public and advise him in private. Barack Obama liked talking to The New Yorker’s David Remnick. And Donald Trump has increasingly, improbably turned to a former Bush speechwriter best known for defending the least popular elements of Bush’s foreign policy, the Iraq War and CIA torture: The Washington Post’s Marc Thiessen.
Ian Proud: Starmer Exit Shows UK Can’t Afford the Ukraine War
The resignation had been brewing for some time. While Starmer led the Labour Party to an astounding landslide election victory in July 2024, by September 2025, he was already being labeled the most unpopular prime minister since polling began; this followed a series of U-turns and poorly handled crises. After heavy losses of council seats in local elections in May, the Labour Party moved quickly to remove him.
Stephen Crowley: On the Eve of the NATO Summit, Is Europe Rearming Against a Phantom Russia?
On the eve of the NATO summit in Istanbul, with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine now in its fifth year, and the Trump administration pulling back its support for the military alliance, European leaders are raising the alarm about the Russian threat. Despite “surging European military spending” prompted by Russia’s war, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently echoed the view of others that Russia could attack NATO within four years. A week later, in a “shock resignation,” Defense Secretary John Healey sharply criticized the government’s inadequate military spending, prompting Starmer’s own subsequent resignation. Healey’s “blistering resignation letter” accused Starmer of failing to adequately “defend the country at this time of rising threats.”
A Happy 4th of July Weekend from ACURA
May the next 250 years be more peaceful than the last…
I sing of Olaf glad and big
E. E. Cummings (1894 –1962)
XXX
i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-or
his wellbelovéd colonel(trig
westpointer most succinctly bred)
took erring Olaf soon in hand;
but–though an host of overjoyed
noncoms(first knocking on the head
him)do through icy waters roll
that helplessness which others stroke
with brushes recently employed
anent this muddy toiletbowl,
while kindred intellects evoke
allegiance per blunt instruments–
Olaf(being to all intents
a corpse and wanting any rag
upon what God unto him gave)
responds,without getting annoyed
“I will not kiss your fucking flag”
straightway the silver bird looked grave
(departing hurriedly to shave)
but–though all kinds of officers
(a yearning nation’s blueeyed pride)
their passive prey did kick and curse
until for wear their clarion
voices and boots were much the worse,
and egged the firstclassprivates on
his rectum wickedly to tease
by means of skilfully applied
bayonets roasted hot with heat–
Olaf(upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat
“there is some shit I will not eat”
our president,being of which
assertions duly notified
threw the yellowsonofabitch
into a dungeon,where he died
Christ(of His mercy infinite)
i pray to see;and Olaf,too
preponderatingly because
unless statistics lie he was
more brave than me:more blond than you.
Copyright 1931, © 1959, 1991 by the Trustees for E. E. Cummings Trust
Matthew Blackburn: When did Western statecraft lose its fear of the unknown?
Leonid Ragozin: As the Iran War Ends, European Elites Push Ukraine Escalation
The Iran and Ukraine conflicts have both always been intrinsically linked to domestic political rivalry in the U.S. President Joe Biden’s tough anti-Russian policies grew naturally out of the Russiagate campaign devised by Democratic strategists to paint Trump as a fifth columnist and a Russian stooge.
Zackary Paikin: For its own sake, Ukraine must not deny its past.
More than four years of war have clearly affected the politics of historical memory in Ukraine.
Zach Battat: The Long Cold War
More than a century ago, when the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd and began reshaping the vast Russian Empire into a socialist state, Washington made a fateful decision. After a failed intervention on the side of the Whites during the Russian Civil War, the United States refused to recognize the new Soviet government. During the ensuing years, successive American administrations treated the Soviet Union not as a difficult partner to be managed but as an illegitimate regime to be isolated through sanctions, diplomatic cold shoulders, and rhetorical hostility. Thus, what most commentators call a ‘New Cold War’ between the United States and Russia is, in fact, the third phase of a conflict that began in 1917 and has never truly ended.
Paul Grenier: With Friends Like These…(Regime Change in Georgia)
It is perhaps only natural that the tiny Republic of Georgia should have fallen out of the news cycle in the U.S. at this point in 2026. The flashy protests in downtown Tbilisi have long since petered out. The Georgian Dream government – the very government against whom the NGO-organized crowds had been protesting — remains stably in power. Meanwhile, there has been one crisis after another, from Venezuela to Greenland to Iran.
John Mearsheimer: What Nuclear Taboo?
Legendary political scientist John Mearsheimer talks with Russian scholar Sergei Karaganov.
Robert Ellsberg: The New Documentary An Ordinary Insanity
This film presents a synthesis of my father’s book The Doomsday Machine. His book depicts the evil murderousness of nuclear war plans, and the particular dangers posed by ICBMS, with their first strike capability, intended to be launched on warning.
Putin claims he is ready for peace talks after Kyiv’s refinery strikes spark fuel shortages
Calling the Ukrainian strikes a ploy to “destabilise society”, the president said: “Russia, however, as has been stated repeatedly, is ready for peace negotiations with Ukraine. It is ready to proceed on the basis of the agreements reached back in Istanbul, agreements which, I would remind you, were initiated at the time by the Ukrainian delegation.”
Jennifer Kavanagh: Ukraine wants to make its own Patriot missiles. That’s a bad idea.
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the G-7 summit in Evian, France, last week, he was ready with his latest set of military and economic requests. Near the top of his list was a new item: a license to produce Patriot anti-ballistic missile interceptors inside Ukraine.
VIDEO: Pascal Lottaz and Richard Sakwa Discuss the new Russophobia
Prof. Richard Sakwa joins Pascal Lottaz to discuss Russophobia, the post-1945 “political West,” and why Russia was never fully accepted into it. He links today’s tension to old history, power politics, and the split between Atlanticism and continental Europe, then explains how the Ukraine war, sanctions, and weak Western states have pushed the world toward more division.