He was courageous and fearless in continuing to question the increasingly rigid orthodoxies about the Soviet Union and Russia. But in the last months, such criticism did take its toll on him. Along with others who sought to avert a new and more dangerous Cold War, Steve despaired that the public debate so desperately needed had become increasingly impossible in mainstream politics or media.
Ambassador Jack Matlock: Letter to the NY Times Regarding Bernie Sanders’ Trip to the USSR
To the Editor: “Papers Detail Soviet Hopes for Sanders” (front page, March 6) is a distortion of history. The truth is that Bernie Sanders, then the mayor of Burlington, Vt., opened a sister-city relationship with Yaroslavl in 1988 with the encouragement and strong support of the United States government. The visit was not used as propaganda by the Soviet Union. I know because I was U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R. at the time and gave strong official support to Mayor Sanders’s effort… [Read more…] about Ambassador Jack Matlock: Letter to the NY Times Regarding Bernie Sanders’ Trip to the USSR
Yanni Kotsonis on his NYU colleague Stephen Cohen
Over time US media attention on Russia declined. And while many of us went quiet, Steve persisted and sought that national audience just about anywhere he could find it. By the 2010s, the problem was not simply that media attention had declined; any new attention was vapid and simplistic…It was hard to have a conversation about Russia without centering it on Putin; from 2016, Russia was only about election interference.
Andrew Cockburn On Hypersonic Weaponry
Hypersonic weapons are depicted as products of a similar competitive impulse. But when you look at the history of the Cold War, you see that a very different process is at work, in which the arms lobby on each side has self-interestedly sought capital and bureaucratic advantage while enlisting its counterpart on the other side as a justification for its own ambition.
Jasmine Owens: The merchants of nuclear war are striving and thriving through the pandemic
There is no doubt that the Trump administration, with help from the military-industrial complex, is dismantling the U.S. arms control regime, and more recently, seemingly using the pandemic as a distraction.
Dimitri Alexander Simes: Can Russia and Turkey Step Back from the Brink in Syria?
Moscow has sometimes miscalculated Ankara’s reaction to the conflict next door. That oversight has created friction between the two countries in the past. But those grievances are likely to be set aside when Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan meet on March 5.
VIDEO: Stephen F. Cohen at the AJC 2017 Forum about Russia and Terrorism
In 2017 the AJC Global Forum featured Stephen F. Cohen; journalist Julia Ioffe; and Andrew Weiss, Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Daniel Larison: Trump’s Arms Control Charade
The Trump administration has proven once again that it doesn’t take arms control seriously.
Max Blumenthal: RIP Stephen F. Cohen
RIP Stephen F. Cohen, a friend and guide who spent the last four years of his life standing against a tidal wave of hysterical Cold War hostility with elegance and erudition. His intellectual courage was anchored in experience and scholarship his antagonists could never match. Please watch the attached clip from CNN.
Patrick Lawrence: Moscow’s Difficult Decision on Idlib
It will do the entire world much good if the egregious Erdogan sustains the bloodiest nose of his six years as Turkey’s dictatorial president in consequence of this drive into Syria.
Sharon Tennison: On Stephen F. Cohen
A note from ACEWA Board Member and President of the Center for Citizen Initiatives Sharon Tennison on the passing of Professor Stephen F. Cohen… [Read more…] about Sharon Tennison: On Stephen F. Cohen
Mark Episkopos: The Marvelous Misadventures of the U.S.-Ukraine Relationship
Ukrainian support for Euro-Atlantic integration on the one hand, and preference for the cultivation of Russian ties on the other, has remained remarkably consistent along regional lines.
Stephen F. Cohen, Influential Historian of Russia, Dies at 81
It is with great sorrow and a heavy heart that we pass on the news that Professor Stephen F. Cohen, The American Committee for East-West Accord’s founder, a good, loyal friend and mentor to so many, died yesterday. Steve was the best. We will miss him dearly. — ACEWA
Sarah Lazare: When It Comes to U.S. Militarism, Elizabeth Warren Is No Progressive
The fire and passion with which she goes to bat for economic justice issues simply does not apply to the war machine.
Daniel L Davis: America’s Alliance with NATO Needs to Change
The first step in this process should be for the United States to transition from being the frontline defense of NATO countries to a supporting role.
Washington Post Oped: Critics of Bernie Sanders’s trip to the Soviet Union are distorting it
Sanders’s critics complain that the senator’s compliments of certain aspects of the Soviet Union ignore and minimize that country’s horrible crimes. However, the story is more complicated than they acknowledge.
Melvin Goodman: The Twilight of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created seven decades ago as a political and military alliance to “keep the United States in Europe; the Soviet Union out of Europe; and Germany down in Europe.”
James S. Robbins: Maybe our social media obsession is a bigger problem than Russian election interference
Clearly, the Russia scaremongering is in full swing.
National Interest: The Number One Priority in Setting a New Course with Putin’s Russia
Jeffrey Burt, James Hitch, Peter Pettibone and Thomas Shillinglaw outline what a new and improved Russia policy might look like.
Ivan Eland: Trump Should Get Out Of NATO Now, But Nicely
Long after the Soviet Union collapsed, NATO, instead of going away, has expanded its territory and mission.