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As NATO’s mission devolved and lost its focus after the end of the Cold War, it has become increasingly apparent that the alliance has shed its defensive basis and been re-conceived as an organization whose primary directive is to expand America’s sphere of influence globally through the continuous encroachment on various regional powers’ more immediate spheres of interest. NATO’s rhetoric and actions — especially since its intervention in Yugoslavia in 1999 — signal an intentional strategic shift toward adopting a globalized agenda, thereby facilitating its transition to become the global military arm for the U.S.-led liberal international order. Ironically, this rather aggressive and maximalist reorientation also puts America’s core national interests at risk.

Is the U.S. military becoming a paper tiger whose sole remaining power move is a mighty nuclear roar? It’s a disturbing thought, given the extent to which U.S. military power is overstretched, recruiting shortfalls, and the usual waste, fraud, and abuse at the Pentagon, exacerbated by imperial megalomania.

Russia’s point man for arms control cautioned Donald Trump’s incoming administration on Friday against resuming nuclear testing, saying Moscow would keep its own options open amid what he said was Washington’s “extremely hostile” stance.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned of the consequences of an arms build-up in an exclusive interview with Swiss public television.

We will return to our regular morning schedule December 30th. Thanks to all our readers, subscribers and supporters throughout this tumultuous time.

Washington, D.C. – A now-legendary but long-secret 70-paragraph telegram written by the top political analyst at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in March 1994, E. Wayne Merry, criticizing the American policy focus on radical economic reform in Russia, was published in full today for the first time by the National Security Archive.

Merry could not get the critical message cleared for government-wide distribution at the time in 1994 because of Treasury objections (“It would give Larry Summers a heart attack”) and ultimately resorted to the Dissent Channel instead, according to Merry’s retrospective commentary, which was also published today by the Archive together with the actual “long telegram” and other declassified documents.

Reminiscent of George Kennan’s Long Telegram of 1946 in the depth and scope of its analysis of Russian realities and almost as prescient in its prophecies, the Merry cable only reached the public domain as the result of a National Security Archive lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The State Department denied a copy to Merry himself, claiming public release of dissent messages would provide the wrong incentive for future Foreign Service Officers.

One predictable consequence of an attack on Iran will be a solidifying of the Chinese-brokered Iran-Saudi rapprochement—and a hardening of the blocs in the Greater Middle East, which will see Iran, backed by Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, set against a temporary Israel-Turkish bloc backed by Washington and its European vassals.

Even with defense spending at current levels, NATO is the biggest military empire the world has ever seen. According to the SIPRI database, NATO in 2023 accounted for 57% of global defense spending.

President-elect Trump is reportedly advancing the idea that a large and heavily armed peacekeeping force from Europe (but including NATO members) could be introduced into Ukraine as part of a peace settlement there. It is important that this very ill-thought-out idea be shot down before it does serious damage to the prospects for an early peace and causes Ukraine still further human, economic and territorial loss.

There are four Western deceptions and lost opportunities for ending Ukraine‘s violence that have led Ukraine to slaughter. These are the four horsemen of the Ukrainian apocaplypse or its Second Great Ruin or Ruin 2.0.

Full transcript: https://time.com/7201565/person-of-the-year-2024-donald-trump-transcript/

Q: I’m going to shift to foreign policy. Have you spoken to Vladimir Putin since your election?

I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you. It’s just inappropriate. [Read more…] about Excerpt: Trump’s 2024 Person of the Year Interview With TIME (re: Ukraine-Russia)

The collapse of Assad’s regime in Syria has not changed the balance of power in the war between Russia and Ukraine. There is no doubt that the Ukraine war, after the deaths of hundreds of thousands, will end through negotiations, much as it could have ended two years ago. The difference is that Ukraine will probably now lose not only Crimea, but also much of the Donbas region. Only increased, direct Western military intervention is likely to prevent that outcome, and doing so would pose significant risks.

The only path to an enduring resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian war lies through a broader agreement on a framework for the future of European security. The larger geopolitical settlement needs to precede the final resolution of the narrower issue of Russia’s relations with Ukraine.

The strategy of constructing a narrative of lies to justify going to war is certainly nothing new. There is a long history in the U.S. that appeared to reach its apogee with the lie that Iraq had a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. That false narrative was reused with various faces with chemical weapons in Syria and, currently, with nuclear weapons in Iran.

Andrew Day and Connor Echols discuss the foreign policy news of the week. In this episode, Day and Echols also discuss Trump’s foreign policy team with James Carden of the American Conservative.

Reaching a peace deal in Ukraine is not impossible, but it will require many Western leaders to recalibrate their expectations.

In Dr. Gardner’s discussion at the Yerevan Dialogue, he argued that Joe Biden and American officialdom completely missed the boat as to how NATO enlargement would link Russia and China even closer together.