American Committee for US-Russia Accord

Last month, the Russia-Fearmongering-Industrial Complex grew ever greater when reports surfaced that Russian actors had purchased more than $100,000 worth of political ads to display on Facebook.

ACEWA Founding Board Member and Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. Cohen points out that in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on Paris, on November 13, French President Hollande announced a coalition with Russia against the Islamic State, ratified, it seemed, by the European Union when it evoked its mutual defense provision on behalf of France. All of the news reported by Batchelor at the top of the broadcast, Cohen argues, suggests that powerful forces and ramifying events are working against such a coalition.

Gathering clear data on the scope of these activities is both phenomenally important and phenomenally difficult.

What a difference a year – an eternity in geopolitics – makes. No one could see this coming; the ideological matrix of all strands of Salafi-jihadi terror – which Russia fights no holds barred, from ISIS to the Caucasus Emirate beating a path to the Kremlin and about to embrace Russia as a strategic ally.

It is perverse to find good in the tragic events that took place in Paris 10 days ago, but they did force Washington and the European powers finally to take seriously Moscow’s proposal for a united front against the Islamic State. It is an almost unspeakable pity it took so devastating an act, given the thought that such an alliance might have been enough to prevent Paris altogether. In effect, we watch now as the West acknowledges that there is something, some irreducibly humane value, that supersedes the incessant search for advantage in a strategic rivalry that need not beset us in the first place.

For several years, Cohen has argued that the new Cold War is more dangerous than its 45-year predecessor, which, it is often said, “we barely survived.” Here he updates and aggregates evidence for that argument. Meanwhile, many American participants and commentators continue to deny—for personal and political reasons—that there is a new Cold War.

This incident should (but of course will not) make American policy makers alive to the fact that alliances can be dangerous things. Far from ensuring stability and security, alliances that overextend themselves, like NATO, put the stronger members (like the United States) at the mercy of weaker member states that indulge in reckless behavior they otherwise would never have even contemplated. Such is the case with Turkey’s actions this morning, and such may very well be the case with the Baltic states and Poland vis-à-vis Russia in the not-too-distant future.

…we’re being told that any Internet ads bought by Russians or maybe even by Americans living in Russia are part of some nefarious Kremlin plot even if the content is an anti-Trump documentary or some ads for or against President Obama, but nothing attacking Hillary Clinton.

According to Ranj Alaaldin, “Turkey has no interest in the peaceful settlement to the conflict in Syria that world powers are negotiating. As it gets desperate, Turkey will attempt to bring focus back on the Assad regime and reverse the losses it has made both in Syria and geopolitically. The decision to bring down the Russian jet is, therefore, likely to have had other political factors behind it – particularly since the jet, as far as we know, posed no immediate threat to Turkey’s national security.”

Is Russia engaged in a concerted effort to undermine American democracy, or are we living through a twenty-first century version of red baiting (in the absence of actual Reds)?

Wars have a funny way of taking on a life of their own. The protagonists tend to lose control over the plot lines, the narrative threads. Syria is that kind of war, an overlap of wars and agendas that has made it almost impossible for anyone—especially our media scolds—to make black and white, good guys/bad guys sense of.

When Russia entered the Syrian civil war in September 2015 the then US secretary of defense, Ash Carter, predicted catastrophe for the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin was ‘pouring gasoline on the fire’ of the conflict, he said, and his strategy of fighting Isis while backing the Assad regime was ‘doomed to failure’.

“Defensive weapons for Ukraine is an idea whose time has come.” There is no reason to believe that, the idea remains as bankrupt as it has always been…

The most effective coalition against the Islamic State — indeed, the only coalition that can defeat it and establish an effective government — is a one that includes not only the United States, its allies, and Iraq but also Russia and Iran.

The Washington Post published an op-ed yesterday by Terrell Jermaine Starr which drew parallels between Soviet nationalities policy and alleged attempts by modern-day Russia to stir up racial tensions in America. The message was pretty clear: the Soviets were not just racists, but specifically Russian racists. So you shouldn’t be surprised that modern day Russians are too. Let’s look at this in detail.