Patrick Lawrence: The Strong, and the Merely Powerful
In the world order now emerging, it is genuinely strong nations that will prevail over those reliant on power alone, and force will have little to do with it. Vladimir Putin’s speech from the Kremlin last Friday, delivered to the nation…
“‘A C.I.A. theme park.'”
Ukraine as John Pilger saw it eight years ago. John Pilger, the noted Australian-British journalist and filmmaker, published the following piece in The Guardian on 13 May 2014, three months after the U.S.-cultivated coup in Kiev set Ukraine on the path to…
Patrick Lawrence: The West—Technocrats, Incompetents, Ideologues
When the Italian Senate names party leader Giogia Meloni premier at the end of October, as is widely expected, Italy will be the first founding member of the European Union to be governed by a vigorously nationalist coalition. We are…
Our Coverage of the Ukraine War
CN has been ahead of the news on Ukraine, from reporting the coup and warning of nuclear catastrophe as far back as 2015, to news of the current phase of the conflict. Help us to continue our coverage. On Feb. 23,…
Patrick Lawrence: In the Terrain of Word War III
The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) advanced decisively into Russian-held territory in northeastern Ukraine two weeks ago, exposing the weakness, incompetence, and cowardice of Russian soldiers and officers. The tide of this war has turned. The Russian army is on…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Appointment in Samarkand
Western coverage of last week’s summit in Uzbekistan brings us face-to-face with the extent to which Americans are not supposed to see the world turning. Only in America, Land of Opportunists, can you awaken on an early autumn Sunday to a…
Patrick Lawrence: Atrocity Porn
The Russian army shelled its own detention center in the east of Ukraine. The Russian army shelled a nuclear power plant it has guarded since taking control of it last March. The Russian army wantonly shelled a maternity ward, a…
Patrick Lawrence: “The Narrative Is Coming Apart”
“In total, more than a thousand square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine have been liberated since the beginning of September,” Volodymyr Zelensky advised the world in his nightly video recently. The Ukrainian president, in his usual grubby T–shirt as…
Patrick Lawrence: Unmaking History
Every young journalist knows, and probably most newspaper readers know, too, the old thought: Journalists write the first draft of history. I like to think a few or more journalists and a few or more readers also know that this…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Hearts Versus Minds
There is a time-honored and destructive tradition in the U.S. of citizens approaching their political causes with blind faith. I am seeing many fewer blue-and-yellow flags in evidence during wanderings in my corner of New England. Thank goodness that didn’t last long,…