Two years since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine – and fully 10 years since the war actually began – the US political-media establishment seems as far away from learning any lessons from the failure of its post-Soviet Russia policy as it has ever been. [Read more…] about ACURA’s James W. Carden: Post-Soviet Failures, Present-Day Realities
Analysis
ACURA’s Anatol Lieven and George Beebe: The Diplomatic Path to a Secure Ukraine
Conventional wisdom holds that a negotiated end to the Ukraine war is neither possible nor desirable. This belief is false.
VIDEO: ACURA’s Jack F. Matlock on the Neutrality Studies Podcast: On American Hegemony
The US has “inherited” the Brezhnev-Doctrine, says Ronald Reagan’s Ambassador to Soviet Union, Jack Matlock. As one of the men who negotiated the Cold War to an end, Ambassador Matlock talks in a candid interview with Pascal Lottaz about how the US has been using regime-change operations systematically and without remorse ever since the USSR has officially stopped doing so.
Ambassador Matlock was born in 1929, educated at Duke and Columbia Universities, he entered the Foreign Service in 1956 and went all the way to become US Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987–91 with his duties in Moscow ending only months before the dissolution of the country itself. He was famously working with President Reagan and Bush Senior to end the Cold War which he keeps emphasizing happened due to mutual agreement and good diplomacy, not because of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Robert Skidelsky: The Lost Peace?
ACURA’s Stephen F. Cohen: Four Years of Ukraine and the Myths of Maidan (Jan. 3, 2018)
Cohen argued that the Ukrainian crisis, which unfolded in late 2013 and early 2014 and which led to Crimea’s annexation by (or “reunification with”) Russia and to the still ongoing US-Russian proxy war in eastern Ukraine, was a seminal event of the 21st century
Flashback: Taking Aim At Maidan Myths: Stephen F. Cohen Challenges Fictional Narratives
ACURA Founder and Princeton University Professor Stephen F. Cohen wrote that , “The events of 2014 also led to NATO’s ongoing buildup on Russia’s western border, in the Baltic region, yet another new Cold War front fraught with the possibility of hot war. Making things only worse, in late 2017, the Trump administration announced it would supply the Kiev government with more, and more sophisticated, weapons, a step even the Obama administration, which played a large detrimental role in the 2014 crisis, declined to take.”
Flashback: Branko Marcetic: A US-Backed, Far Right–Led Revolution in Ukraine Helped Bring Us to the Brink of War (Feb. 2022)
ACURA’s James W. Carden: The Ukraine War Runs on Prevarication
We citizens have been serially lied to by the Biden administration and the media about the war’s causes, its stakes, and its progress. The question that should, but of course will not, be addressed in the aftermath of this latest American misadventure abroad is: Will we ever learn?
VIDEO: Col. Douglas Macgregor: Does the US Have a Coherent Foreign Policy?
Judge Napolitano talks with Colonel Macgregor on the latest developments in Ukraine.
Stephen F. Cohen: Russiagate or Intelgate? (February 8, 2018)
In light of last week’s reporting by Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag on the CIA’s alleged role in fomenting the Russiagate scandal, we are reposting Professor Cohen’s prescient article from 6 years ago on the likely origins of Russiagate.
Quincy Institute and Harris Poll: Nearly 70% of Americans want talks to end war in Ukraine
The new data suggests that U.S. government policy toward the Ukraine war is increasingly out of step with public opinion on the eve of the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
John Mearsheimer: The Ukraine War Today
An interview with the Munk Debates Podcast on the present situation in Ukraine.
Ed Lozansky: Indispensable Nation or One Obsessed with Hegemony?
Let us sober up and admit that although the United States is exceptional, this is true for any other country on this planet with all its good or bad features.
Jeffrey Sachs: The Biden-Schumer Plan to Kill More Ukrainians
Andrew Cockburn: Admiral Fabuloso Thumps His Tub
From Ukraine to Syria, “Stav” is in the front lines, figuratively speaking, urging escalation against Russia. The Ukrainians should have “lethal aid” from the U.S., he announced in 2015, and when asked if that might not lead the Russians to escalate in turn, he conceded blithely, “when you release ordnance, everything changes.”
MK Bhadrakumar: Putin signals interest in Ukraine talks
Without doubt, the war in Ukraine was the leitmotif of the interview. When asked about the prospect for peace, Putin suggested, “If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons.” Putin further responded, “It will be over within a few weeks. That’s it.”
The tantalisingly easy solution is anchored on Putin’s belief, which he held consistently since the conflict began in February 2022, that this is at the core a civil war and a fratricidal strife that divided families, relatives and friends, which might not have happened without the maleficent, intrusive behaviour by Western powers.
Recent Remarks by Senior US Officials on the War in Ukraine
Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in Kiev, Jan. 31 2024:
“I leave Kyiv tonight more encouraged about the unity and the result, about 2024 and its absolute strategic importance for Ukraine,” Nuland said.
“I also leave more confident that, as Ukraine strengthens its defenses, Mr. Putin is going to get some nice surprises on the battlefield and that Ukraine will make some very strong success,” she added.
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien, Jan. 25, 2024:
“We’re about a month away from acknowledging the second year of Russia’s further invasion, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And here are sort of basic starting points. Ukrainians continue to choose democracy, equal justice and a European future, just as they have twice on the Maidan and as they do every day now on the frontlines fighting against Russia’s aggression. Russia will want to continue its war until it, frankly, sees the results of our election in November. So, we’re looking at a long 2024. And we’re talking now in the depths of winter. And winter is always dark and hard without any Game of Thrones illusion. We believe Ukraine will be stronger by the end of 2024 and in a better position to determine its – its future. And that future, as President Biden said, is that we’re going to help Ukraine win. So that’s the goal of the strategy.”
“So Russia has now made a decision to pivot away from part of the wealthy world into something else. We’re going to have to think about how we want to deal with that Russia however the next year or two goes. This revanchist Russia is something that that the U.S. would need to develop a policy for.”
VIDEO: ACURA’s Nicolai N. Petro and Pascal Lottaz on the Coming Ukrainian Awakening
Nicolai N. Petro, author of “The Tragedy of Ukraine” explains how the latest development on the battle field combined with the history of Ukrainian nationalism will lead to a process in which even the “Banderites” will want to strike a peace deal with Russia to preserve what is left of motherland—even against the will of the western neocons who have been wreaking havoc on Ukraine for the sole purpose of fighting a proxy-war with Russia.
The great Ukrainian awakening is only a matter of time, and Russia knows it. The only question is how many more Ukrainian soldiers the nationalists are still willing to throw into their early graves before doing what should have been done in April 2022: A neutrality agreement and a true process of reconciliation. This tragedy must end and will end because at the end of the day, the neocons are willing to “fight to the last Ukrainian” but they have made it utterly clear that sacrificing their own is not on the menu.
ACURA ViewPoint: James W. Carden: The “Disinformation” Complex and US Foreign Policy
During Mr. Obama’s second term in office (2013-2017), it had become clear that the terms of the public policy debate were undergoing a radical and worrying transformation. In the space of a very short time, certain ideas and policy proposals were being ruled as out of bounds not on the grounds that they were unwise, impractical, or inefficient, but on the grounds that they were products of “disinformation” campaigns on the part of foreign intelligence agencies.
To take one example: Those few who publicly expressed reservations with regard to Mr. Obama’s policy toward Russia and Ukraine found themselves branded not as merely unwise or wrongheaded but as nefarious tools of a foreign disinformation campaign. [Read more…] about ACURA ViewPoint: James W. Carden: The “Disinformation” Complex and US Foreign Policy
ACURA ZoomCast: Putin, Tucker and the Clash of Civilizations with Paul Grenier and Matthew Dal Santo
Today we are joined by the co-founders of the Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy, Paul Grenier and Matthew Dal Santo, both longtime observers and experts on Russia, to discuss the Carlson/Putin interview as well as their new Substack project, Landmarks: A Journal of International Dialogue.