Having been debased by the decade-long editorship of Gideon Rose, the once august journal Foreign Affairs staggers along – a zombie from another time. But it maintains its uses to the established order. And one of its principle uses is to provide intellectual justification for the unjustifiable. It wouldn’t be the first time…
James W. Carden: At 75, Has NATO Outlived Its Use?
The show has been on the road for far too long. Surely, 75 years of NATO is enough.
The Nation and Sherle R. Schwenninger: Hate To Say We Told You So: NATO Expansion Edition
Neutrality Studies and ACURA Mark The 75th Anniversary of NATO’s Founding with Distinguished Panel
Today we mark the 75th anniversary of NATO. In March, we convened a panel of experts, graciously hosted by the popular YouTube channel Neutrality Studies, featuring John Mearsheimer, Jack Matlock, and Anatol Lieven. It was moderated by Pascal Lottaz, with an introduction by ACURA president Katrina vanden Heuvel.
The Simone Weil Center’s Symposium on ‘Containment 2.0’
In response to a March 6, 2024 article in Foreign Affairs titled “America’s New Twilight Struggle with Russia: To Prevail, Washington Must Revive Containment” The Simone Weil Center will be publishing a series of responses from several Russia experts and foreign policy thinkers. The series begins with a contribution by Dr. Gordon Hahn.
Daniel Larison: More Militarism Puts America on the Road to Ruin
Whatever is wrong with U.S. foreign policy, it isn’t going to be fixed by giving more funds to the Pentagon and killing “crows.”
George Beebe: Connecting dots: What Russia can learn from the US after 9/11
The sense of failure and frustration that Russian security officials must be feeling should be all too familiar for Americans whose job it had been to detect and prevent the September 11 attacks by al-Qaida radicals on the United States. A shocked American public wondered why the CIA and FBI had failed to “connect the dots” that could have revealed the plot. Russian President Vladimir Putin had even telephoned President Bush a few days before the attacks to warn that Russian intelligence had detected signs of an incipient terrorist campaign, “something long in preparation,” coming out of Afghanistan.
Doug Bandow: U.S. Officials Believe That ‘We’ Are at War With Russia
Nothing Putin has said or done since suggests he is interested in European conquest. His military assaults, while lawless, have been limited to Georgia and Ukraine, and do not make him Hitler reincarnated. Even now President George W. Bush is responsible for far more civilian deaths.
MK Bhadrakumar: Ukraine’s survival hangs in the balance
The Crocus City Hall attack will have profound geopolitical consequences and will impact the trajectory of the Ukraine war. The incident has rallied world sympathy massively for Russia. It is a huge challenge of statecraft now for Putin to act decisively, as the Russian public will expect, to completely uproot the dark forces entrenched next-door.
Branko Marcetic: Does Putin want to end the war? We should test him
Ukraine war maximalists are portraying diplomacy as futile, pointing to a cherry picked quote from a recent interview with the Russian president.
Balkan Insight: Romania To Host Largest NATO Military Base in Europe
The military base at Mihail Kogqlniceanu, Constanta, southeast Romania, on the Black Sea coast, will become the largest NATO military base in Europe and will surpass the US military base in Ramstein, Germany, in size.
The new base will give Romania an increased role in NATO’s security architecture and a position of greater strength in the Black Sea, which is militarily dominated by Russia. It will be able to host 10,000 soldiers and civilians by 2030.
William Astore: Pentagon Spending and National (In)Security
In an age when American presidents routinely boast of having the world’s finest military, where nearly trillion-dollar war budgets are now a new version of routine, let me bring up one vitally important but seldom mentioned fact: making major cuts to military spending would increase U.S. national security.
Jeffrey Sachs: The Urgency of Diplomacy
Katrina vanden Heuvel: The Moscow Terror Attack
For the first time, a few days before the attacks, Russian Press Secretary Peskov called the Ukraine war a war, citing the West’s involvement in the conflict—and jettisoning the official construct, “special military operation.”
Will Putin seize advantage of this latest attack to strengthen his grip on absolute power?
Anatol Lieven: Moscow attack proves Russia — and US — have lost sight of priorities
The Islamic State terrorist attack in Moscow is the starkest possible reminder that despite the war in Ukraine, Russia and the West also still have some of the same enemies.
Reuters: Gunmen kill more than 60 in concert attack near Moscow, Islamic State claims responsibility
Camouflage-clad gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons at concertgoers near Moscow on Friday, killing at least 60 people and injuring 145 in an attack claimed by Islamic State militants.
Daniel Larison: Hawks pushing for ‘axis of evil’ reunion tour
The danger of basing U.S. foreign policy on imaginary things should be obvious. If U.S. policymakers believe that Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea form an axis when they don’t, that will distort U.S. policies toward all four states in destructive ways.
EL PAIS English: NATO personnel already in Ukraine for arms control, intelligence operations and military training
Emmanuel Macron broke the taboo in February. NATO already assists Ukraine in virtually every possible aspect, from supplying weaponry and intelligence on Russian targets and the positions of enemy bombers to training thousands of Ukrainian troops in Europe. But until the French president suggested it, no one had dared to raise the question of Atlantic Alliance soldiers going into action to stop the Kremlin’s invasion. Macron not only opened a debate; his words also served to confirm that there are already military personnel from NATO countries on Ukrainian soil, albeit without taking an active role in combat operations.
VIDEO: John Mearsheimer: Ukraine’s Dangerous Last Gasp
Judge Andrew Napolitano and Professor John Mearsheimer take stock of the current situation in Ukraine.
Andrew Cockburn: Our Real National Security Budget (With Winslow Wheeler)
The Biden Administration has just published its proposed budget, generating copious commentary, much of it displaying a commensurate degree of misunderstanding, especially regarding our gargantuan national security spending.