The New New Cold War

Posted by on Apr 8, 2018 in Articles, Featured, Russia and Eastern Europe, Security | 0 comments When an epoch ends, as the Cold War did between 1989 and 1991, it takes some time to come up with a name for the new order. For some years, the world lived in a “post-Cold War” era. That phrase was supposed to capture the optimism of a new beginning as well as the uncertainty that accompanies any great transition. “Post-Cold War” didn’t last long. The horrors of Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and...
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Trump’s Majoritarian Dream

Posted by on Apr 8, 2018 in Articles, Asia, Featured, Human Rights, Russia and Eastern Europe | 0 comments Washington and New Dehli are having a mutual lovefest these days. Donald Trump is popular in India — where only 17 percent of the population considers the president “intolerant,” compared to a global average of 65 percent — and he has warmly welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House. Both leaders are eager to bump up bilateral security cooperation to the next...
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Russiagate or Deep State?

Posted by on Apr 7, 2018 in Articles, Featured, Russia and Eastern Europe | 0 comments When it comes to the Russiagate scandal, progressives usually take one of two positions. They either dismiss the scandal as a lot of hooey, a “nothingburger,” just a way for warmongers and the “Deep State” to revive a cold war between Washington and Moscow. Or they treat the scandal as just a means to an end, a way to cast doubt on the 2016 presidential election, implicate the...
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Russiaburger: The Trump-Russia Scandal Unwrapped

Posted by on Apr 7, 2018 in Articles, Featured, Russia and Eastern Europe | 0 comments The discussion of the Russia file these days sounds like the review of a fast-food restaurant. Echoing that infamous catchphrase of Wendy’s that became a political meme in the 1984 presidential elections — Where’s the Beef? — the charges of cooperation between the Kremlin and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign have either been dismissed as a “nothingburger” or embraced as a...
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The Anti-Corruption Revolution

Posted by on Sep 4, 2017 in Articles, Blog, Eastern Europe, Featured, Russia and Eastern Europe | 0 comments During rush week, aspiring frat boys endure all manner of indignities. They all want to join the exclusive club, and they’re willing to pay the steep initiation fee of risk and embarrassment. One day, they too will be­ seniors who can haze the newbies all they like. Such are the perks of following orders, rising through the ranks, and waiting one’s turn in the hierarchy of power. In...
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Trump: The Anti-Gorbachev

Posted by on Sep 2, 2017 in Articles, Eastern Europe, Europe, Featured, Russia and Eastern Europe | 0 comments Back in the late 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev had a magic touch internationally. Traveling outside the Soviet Union, he often received the adulation that was so frequently lacking at home. When Gorbachev visited other Communist countries, crowds would turn out to welcome him as a savior. He had that effect in Beijing when he visited on May 16, 1989. The protests in Tiananmen Square had started the...
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