As the US Congress and mainstream media see it, in the looming confrontation Russia represents the forces of evil while the West, i.e. the U.S. and NATO countries, the forces of good.
Analysis
PODCAST: The Radical Historian Rewriting Ukraine’s Past (WNYC)
During World War II and in the years following, certain Ukrainian nationalist groups are known to have carried out ethnic cleansing, both helping the Nazis as they exterminated Jews and committing mass murder of Polish citizens in Ukraine. These, historians agree, are the historical facts. But if the new head of Ukraine’s Institute of National Memory has his way, they may not be for long.
Thomas Walkom: Why did Canada expel four Russian diplomats? Because they told the truth
The Russians are being punished for saying that Freeland’s grandfather was a Nazi collaborator during the Second World War. He was.
Out of the Cold War? (Caroline Dorminey)
Is America stuck in the Cold War or headed into a new one? Over the last 25 years, American grand strategy has had to do some heavy lifting to address the rise of terrorism—but it may have lost sight of the more dangerous threat posed by great power wars.
Paul Robinson: Expelled for Tweeting
A week or so ago Canada announced that it was expelling four Russian diplomats as part of the general Western purge of Russians in the wake of the Skripal affair. I suspected something was amiss the moment that I read Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland’s explanation of why those four particular Russians had been chosen.
Doug Bandow: The West Should Avoid Starting a New Cold War with Russia
A chilling political wind is blowing through the capitals of America, Europe and Russia.
On the Incipient Cold War between NATO and Russia in the Balkans (Filip Kovacevic, PhD)
For about two decades, it appeared that the end of the Cold War in Europe left the Balkan states with no long-term geostrategic option except the so-called Euro-Atlantic integrations underwritten by the ideology known as Atlanticism.
Michael Andrei: Seeing the world through Russian eyes
Molly Anderson’s Russian connection changed her life.
Mary Dejevsky: Russia and Abroad Over the Next Five Years
It is always tempting to be captured by the moment, to see everything through the prism of now, without realising that the circumstances of today may be the exception and not the rule.
Sanctions On Russia Not Going Away Anytime Soon (Kenneth Rapoza)
The Russians will blame Ukraine. The Europeans will blame the Russians. Meanwhile, market consensus seems to have gotten this one right. No, Russian sanctions are not going to get lifted in July as a few contrarians believed in January.
Review Essay: Grand Flattery: The Yale Grand Strategy Seminar
To mark the publication of John Lewis Gaddis’ new book On Grand Strategy, we are running a link to Thomas Meaney and Stephen Wertheim’s review of some of Gaddis’ other work, including his 2011 biography of George F. Kennan, which first appeared in The Nation.
NATO, Russia and the lost art of diplomacy (Fiona Clark)
A former NATO leader says there is a real risk of war with Russia as early as 2017. Arm up or face the consequences is the advice. Whatever happened to diplomacy, asks Fiona Clark?
Who’s Responsible For The New Cold War? An Interview With Renowned Russia Expert Stephen Cohen
Many in the United States believe Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential elections and that its president, Vladimir Putin, is a cold-blooded killer. Stephen Cohen – arguably the country’s greatest expert on Russia – is not convinced.
U.S. and NATO should End New Cold War with Russia (Doug Bandow)
The NATO-Russia Council recently met in Brussels for the first time in nearly two years. “We are not afraid of dialogue,” announced alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Alas, the talks didn’t get very far. Afterward he explained: “it was reconfirmed that we disagree on the facts, on the narrative and the responsibilities in and around Ukraine.” Indeed, he added, “there were profound disagreements.”
Patrick Cockburn: Survivors of the Syrian Wars
There will have to be a new balance of powers not just between local actors but between their foreign sponsors: the US, which has provided air support for the Kurds since 2014; Russia, which has done the same for Assad since 2015; and Turkey, which now has a powerful military force in northern Syria.
PODCAST: Sec. Chuck Hagel Speaks to the Carnegie Council
Drawing on decades of experience, ACEWA Board Member and former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gives a masterly and frank analysis of world events. He discusses current U.S. politics–he’s confident that the Constitution will see America through–the nuclear deal with Iran, the melting in the Arctic and resulting “Great Game of the North,” China’s power play in the South China Sea, and much more.
Katya Tikhonyuk: Limitations of an English-Speaking Reader: The Yarovaya Law, Meduza, and News Media Bias
Preoccupied with George Orwell’s “Big Brother” narrative, Western Media aims at portraying the new anti-terrorist legislation as an alarming and unequivocally backward movement on the part of the Russian government.
Ellie Mae O’Hagan: Once again, Boris Johnson is a liability to Britain.
Surely one of the most basic requirements of being foreign secretary is not lying on the international stage and deteriorating relations with other countries?
First they came for the Left: Poland’s Undemocratic Turn (Peter S Rieth)
Arguing in favor of the American constitution, our founder James Madison wrote: “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an element without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.” Americans understand this instinctively. [Read more…] about First they came for the Left: Poland’s Undemocratic Turn (Peter S Rieth)
Katrina vanden Heuvel: Why the New Cold War Is So Dangerous
Diplomacy, as history teaches us, is absolutely essential in the relations between rival superpowers bristling with thousands of thermonuclear weapons.