It’s never a good sign when real life resembles a Dostoevsky novel. Yet recent developments in our contemporary political scene have reminded many of us that love Dostoevsky of his most political novel, Demons. If Brothers Karamazov, with its closing banquet of reconciliation amidst grief and loss, is Dostoevsky’s novel we most need to read in our time of violence and division, Demons is his novel that most directly reflects our time.
Alan Tonelson: America First at Home and Abroad
Trump’s case for America First must refute internationalism’s root strategic assumptions and transform the nation’s definition of foreign-policy success.
Its Only Propaganda When They Do It (Paul Robinson)
So let me get this straight. Russkii Mir openly provides money to the University of Edinburgh for the study of Russian language and culture. That constitutes a ‘secret propaganda assault on Britain’. Ambassador McFaul proposes giving money to Russian universities through disguised channels and for decidedly political purposes, and that is ‘advancing democratic ideas’?
Steven Goff: What’s it really like in Russia? During World Cup, more vibrant than I expected.
Moscow is the vibrant heart of this soccer celebration…
Islamic State calls on members to carry out jihad in Russia (Reuters)
The Islamic State called on its group members to carry out jihad in Russia in a nine-minute YouTube video on Sunday. “Listen Putin, we will come to Russia and will kill you at your homes … Oh Brothers, carry out jihad and kill and fight them,” a masked man driving a car in the desert yelled while wagging his finger in the last couple of minutes of the video.
Yonhap News Agency: Moon, Putin to hold bilateral summit this week
South Korean President Moon Jae-in will make a state visit to Russia this week for a bilateral summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and meetings with other Russian leaders, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Monday.
The New McCarthys Attack Trump on Russia (Ted Galen Carpenter)
There are plenty of reasons to dislike Donald Trump…But we must not allow the new McCarthyism to chill debate about how to deal with Russia. Proponents of a hardline policy who smear Trump and other advocates of accommodation do their country a monumental disservice
Paul Robinson: Strategy or Improvisation?
If I had to recommend a single article for foreign policy decision makers to read, it would be Robert Jervis’s 1968 essay ‘Hypotheses on Misperception.’
Lurching Toward World War III (Consortium News)
Anti-Russian hysteria has reached extraordinary levels in Official Washington with heated allegations about Russia hacking Democratic Party emails, but this over-the-top “group think” threatens the world’s future, explains John Chuckman.
FAIR: Pundits Worry Threat of Nuclear War Is Being Reduced
On MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, the host was aghast (6/12/18) that the US says it will halt the annual war games…Maddow implied that Trump has taken this step out of fealty to Russia, and complained that pausing war games that threaten North Korea benefits Russia and China.
VIDEO: Scholar and ACEWA Board Member Stephen Cohen on CNN
On Saturday, Prof. Stephen F. Cohen appeared on CNN with Michael Smerconish to talk about Russia, Trump and the increasingly McCarthyite tactics of the Clinton campaign.
Aaron Mate Interviews Christine Ahn of Women Cross DMZ
AARON MATE: This liberal unease continued when President Trump announced a temporary freeze on U.S. war games in the Korean Peninsula. To MSNBC host Rachel Maddow this was an alarming development, and one that was likely the fault of Russia.
A Surprising Sort of Success: On the German Marshall Fund’s Latest Report On Ukraine (Paul Robinson)
A risible report on the ‘success’ of Western policy in Ukraine comes courtesy of The German Marshall Fund was reviewed by Paul Robinson of the University of Ottawa. Robinson concludes, “we shouldn’t kid ourselves that Ukraine is suddenly going to turn into Switzerland. Nor we should kid ourselves that Western policy in Ukraine has been anything other than a failure.”
Ted Galen Carpenter: Is NATO Pushing Russia Towards Retaliation?
The United States and its NATO allies continue to find ways to antagonize Russia.
Dangerous Propaganda: Network Close To NATO Military Leader Fueled Ukraine Conflict (Der Spiegel)
Newly leaked emails for former NATO chief Gen. Philip Breedlove reveal a clandestine network of Western agitators around the NATO military chief, whose presence fueled the conflict in Ukraine.
Fred Weir: As World Cup kicks off, Russia aims to prove a world-class host again
The world’s most popular single sporting event started Thursday, but it’s more than just a game for Russia. It’s an opportunity to bolster infrastructure, stir national pride, and spotlight Russian modernity.
A Second Cold War Is Now Official NATO Policy (Patrick Lawrence)
There have been 22 NATO summits since the first convened in Paris 59 years ago. If you study the chronology, they are more frequent during those times the alliance loses its declared purpose and has to find some new task – a new “threat” to justify the vast bureaucracy in Brussels, the comfortably seconded generals, the military exercises, the incessant production and reproduction of mass anxiety and, of course, the defense contracts that are NATO’s abiding raison d’être.
A Message From Sharon Tennison of the Center for Citizen Initiatives
Dear CCI Friends,
It is 4 am. I awakened this morning from jet lag in a gated community of private homes on the West Coast. Swirling around in my mind was, “The Making of the Enemy,” a phrase of past decades. It has never seemed more relevant to me than now. [Read more…] about A Message From Sharon Tennison of the Center for Citizen Initiatives
25 years of START (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
Twenty-five years ago this Sunday, the world gave a heavy sigh of relief. On July 31st, 1991, Presidents Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush signed the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or more commonly, START I. The treaty limited the nuclear arsenals on either side of the Iron Curtain to 6,000 warheads and 1,600 Strategic Nuclear Delivery Vehicles (SNDVs) by 1999.
Lyle J. Goldstein: On Putin’s Right Flank
A broadside is leveled against Russia’s president from the military sector.