Many people have asked me how a former secretary of defense could support the abolition of nuclear weapons. This paper is a partial answer to that question, in the form of a personal history of how my thinking on nuclear weapons has evolved from Hiroshima to the present time.
Gordon M. Hahn: Towards a Political Biography of Vladimir Putin: From Commissar to Accidental Revolutionary From Above
Western analyses and perceptions of Russian President Vladimir Putin if not caricatures are most often distortions that take the man outside the realm of the common mortal – with his/her nuances, changes over time, positives and, to be sure, negatives. He is portrayed as made in the KGB as nothing but a colorless, cynical, Soviet-style secret policeman and unwavering apparatchik so beginning from his entrance into the organs in 1975 inevitably ending so in the grave. In fact, Putin is a significantly complex person. One can question his moral and ethical qualities as a person and leader, but there is significant evidence that Putin is a decisive leader.
VIDEO: Simone Weil Center: Politics, Tragedy, Sovereignty: The Meaning of Today’s Russia
On December 2, the Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy hosted a panel discussion on “Politics, Tragedy, Sovereignty: The Meaning of Today’s Russia.” The discussion was moderated by Anatol Lieven, the distinguished journalist and scholar. The panel was comprised of George Washington University’s Marlene Laurelle, the philosopher and editor Boris Mezhuev, the University of Kent’s Richard Sakwa, the University of Ottawa’s Paul Robinson and the journalist James W. Carden.
Lucy Komisar: Swiss Attorney General’s office to close investigation brought by William Browder
This has been a long time coming. Nine years since Browder brought the charges and the Swiss froze some $20 million of a handful of targets who had deposits in Swiss banks.
Reuters: Russia to Germany gas pipeline targeted in U.S. defense bill
The annual U.S. defense policy bill unveiled by lawmakers late on Thursday contains sanctions that backers say will halt one of Russia’s biggest projects in Europe: the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
VIDEO: Aaron Mate Joins Michael Tracey to Discuss RussiaGate
Mate and Tracey delve into the parallels between the Left’s RussiaGate conspiracy and the Right’s own conspiracies regarding election fraud.
Paul Robinson: Farewell Chubais
Between Russian liberalism and the Russian people there appears to be what one might call an ‘empathy gap’. The career of Anatoly Chubais, a man widely despised in his own country but once crowned ‘European Finance Minister of the Year’, is perhaps as clear an example as one could find.
Dan DePetris: A more humble foreign policy: can this Biden team deliver?
President-elect spent the last week announcing his foreign policy team. Among other nominees, Antony Blinken has been tapped for Secretary of State; Jake Sullivan as national security adviser; and career foreign service officer Linda Thomas-Greenfield has been asked to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
VIDEO: VOA: What Will Happen to US-Russia Relations Under Biden?
VOA speaks to Russian experts on the prospects for US-Russia relations under a Biden administration.
Doug Bandow: The Blob Is Back And It’s Ready For War
On foreign policy, Joe Biden promises that ‘America is back.’ What that means in practice is likely to be bad for Americans, and the world.
Robert Wright: Grading Biden’s Foreign Policy Team: Tony Blinken
Overall grade: C-
Paul Robinson: The ‘civilizational turn’ that wasn’t
‘What’s this civilizational turn?’, you ask. It’s the idea that since 2012, the Russian state and its leaders have increasingly turned towards a civilizational discourse in their foreign policy rhetoric, describing Russia as a distinct civilization, separate from the West, with its own unique values and institutions.
Patrick Deneen’s conversation with Russian political philosopher Boris Mezhuev
Political philosopher Patrick Deneen’s conversation with Russian political philosopher Boris Mezhuev offers valuable insights into post-liberalism, its meaning and future prospects.
Aaron Maté: Why Even Under Biden Russiagate Will Never Die
Host of ‘Pushback with Aaron Maté’ on The Grayzone and Contributor at The Nation, Aaron Maté, discusses how the media moves forward with the Russiagate narrative in the Biden era.
Mark Episkopos: How Should Biden Respond to Russia’s Civil Society Crackdown?
The more pressure America tries to exert on Russia, the more draconian Moscow’s moves become internally toward anyone connected with the West.
Ted Galen Carpenter: Macron Is Right: Europe Needs Its Own Collective Defense
Ignore the Atlanticists in America: the French correctly sense that their continent can’t be dependent any longer.
POGO: Should Michèle Flournoy Be Secretary of Defense?
The nature of any Pentagon administration stems from the quality of the people selected to run it.
Bloomberg-Businessweek: Biden May Have 16 Days to Stave Off a Nuclear Arms Race
The New START Treaty is the last bilateral nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia. It’s scheduled to expire on Feb. 5.
Christopher Mott: Biden must reject the pull of the American hegemonic mindset
In this world of less ideological great power competition, alliances cannot be assumed to be permanent, and neither can enemies.
Professor Geoffrey Roberts: Letter to the FT
Philip Stephens (‘The case for a Biden-Putin thaw’, November 20) is wrong to state that President Barack Obama’s “reset” with Russia “went nowhere”. It was quite a successful policy turn that improved the atmosphere in American-Russian relations and resulted in a new treaty on nuclear arms reductions and the deal that ended Iran’s atomic bomb programme. Supported by his Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, the then Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, responded to the reset with enthusiasm and revived Moscow’s longstanding proposal for a pan-European collective security system including Russian membership of NATO. [Read more…] about Professor Geoffrey Roberts: Letter to the FT