Former NSA and CIA head Michael Hayden’s new book The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies wants to be the manifesto behind an intelligence community coup. It ends up reading like outtakes from Dr. Strangelove.
VIDEO: U.S. PERILOUS REFUSAL TO COOPERATE WITH RUSSIA VS. INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM (Stephen F. Cohen)
Radio and Television host Thom Hartmann talks to Stephen F. Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies and Politics at NYU and Princeton, and contributing editor at The Nation Magazine, about US – Russia relations and why we should be forming an alliance with that nation to defeat ISIS.
Fred Weir: To pay for a ‘Russia first’ agenda, Putin takes ax to military spending
With the tensions between Russia and the West so high – often being described as “a new cold war” – one might understandably assume that there is a corresponding arms race going on. But in fact, Russia’s military spending is on the decline.
Hacked Emails Reveal NATO General Plotting Against Obama on Russia Policy (The Intercept)
Gen. Philip Breedlove, until recently the supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe, plotted in private to overcome President Barack Obama’s reluctance to escalate military tensions with Russia over the war in Ukraine in 2014.
Michael Arria and Sarah Lazare: How Russia-Obsessed Democrats Set the Stage for Trump’s Disastrous Violation of the Iran Deal
Leading Democrats have consistently pegged their anti-Trump “resistance” to a more confrontational stance toward Russia—and bundled this demand with a push for greater escalation against Iran.
PODCAST: Blaming Brexit on Putin and Voters (the People) (Stephen F. Cohen)
Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com.) For years, Cohen has pointed to the gradual collapse of what Washington calls “the post Cold War world order,” from which Russia was excluded by the expansion of NATO, including the (in effect) US led European Union.
Joe Cirincione and Guy T. Saperstein: Progressives Need a New Way to Talk About National Security
Voters say they support cuts in defense spending—Democrats should, too.
How Brexit could avert a new Cold War (Katrina vanden Heuvel)
Foreign policy commentary has sounded the dangers that Brexit might weaken NATO or strengthen Russia’s role in a divided Europe. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the people’s vote forced the E.U. to lighten its destructive austerity, gave impetus to a negotiated settlement in Syria and led NATO to reconsider its increasingly reckless posture toward Russia?
Pietro Shakarian: Armenia’s Future Hangs in the Balance
On May 8, 2018, one day before Armenians observed Victory Day, Yerevan once again erupted in jubilation.
Russia, United States blame each other for maritime incident (Reuters)
Russia and the United States gave contradictory accounts on Tuesday of an incident involving the two countries’ navies in the Mediterranean Sea on June 17, each blaming the other for what they said were unsafe maneuvers.
VIDEO: Stephen F. Cohen and Michael McFaul: The New U.S.-Russian Cold War – Who is to Blame?
Stephen F. Cohen (Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at New York University and Professor Emeritus of Politics at Princeton University) and Michael McFaul (Professor, Department of Political Science, Stanford University) debate: “The New U.S.-Russian Cold War: Who is to Blame?”
US, NATO Conducting Massive War Games in Ukraine (Fox)
Nearly 2,000 troops from the United States and allies launched a massive military exercise in Ukraine Monday, the latest in a series of war games that NATO officials say would simulate counterattacks against “Russian aggression.”
Paul Robinson: The Russia Hands
Essentially, the division in the US foreign policy community boils down to radical liberal interventionists on the one hand and ‘moderate’ liberal interventionists on the other. But at the end of the day, they’re all liberal interventionists.
MOSCOW SAYS TURKEY HAS APOLOGIZED FOR DOWNING OF RUSSIAN JET (AP)
Turkey’s president has apologized to Moscow for the downing of a Russian military jet at the Syrian border, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday. Putin has received a message from Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressing his “sympathy and deep condolences” to the family of the killed pilot and apologized, Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Michele Willens: A Daughter’s Memories in Moscow
When Mikhail Gorbachev came into power, my father offered his consulting services to fledging consumer enterprises in Russia, and several took him up on it.
The Meaning of Brexit (Jeffrey Sachs)
So what should be done?…First, stop the refugee surge by ending the Syrian war immediately….
Second, stop NATO’s expansion to Ukraine and Georgia. The new Cold War with Russia is another US-contrived blunder with plenty of European naiveté attached. Closing the door on NATO expansion would make it possible to ease tensions and normalize relations with Russia, stabilize Ukraine, and restore focus on the European economy and the European project.
James Carden: Accusations of Russian Disinformation Are Snowballing
It may be only a matter of time before the disinformation warriors themselves end up on the receiving end of a Russia-frenzy they did so much to unleash.
Not So Doomed, Russia in 2018 (Paul Robinson)
‘Russia is doomed’ is a common refrain of newspaper articles and think tank reports. It is quite refreshing, therefore, to read something which while not entirely optimistic about Russia’s immediate future is nonetheless a little more circumspect.
John Allen Gay: America Loses Big as Trump Jettisons the Nuclear Deal
Where will things go from here? Watch Brussels. Henry Kissinger in his Arab-Israeli diplomacy days used to say that there could be “no war without Egypt, and no peace without Syria.” In nuclear talks with Iran, there can be no decisive impact without Europe, and no settlement without America.
How Long Before U.S. and Russian Jets Clash Over Syria? (Michael Peck)
How long will it be before American and Russia jets dogfight in the skies over Syria? That possibility seems more likely after the latest in a string of confrontations between American and Russian aircraft.