ARTICLES
“Sino–Russian amity, Ch. 2.”
Washington as matchmaker. There is abundant evidence deriving from White House tapes and an apparently endless series of biographies, histories, and documentaries that for most of their time at the pinnacle of power, President Nixon and Henry Kissinger, his chief foreign policy adviser…
“The divine right of nations.”
Reflections on the Fourth. On cue Saturday afternoon, the martial music began on the classical station that has provided this household’s sound track for many years. It can’t be helped. There is no getting away from this sort of thing…
“Crimean fantasies: A webcast.”
Nobody’s reasoning why, per usual. “Foolish,” “provocative,” “reckless,” “hubristic”: Most of these terms are James Carden’s as we discussed, in this weekend exchange, the H.M.S. Defender’s purposeful intrusion into Russian waters off Crimea last week. And those terms not James’s are mine. …
“Something happened in Geneva.”
Second thoughts on the summit. That grand encounter of Presidents Biden and Putin in Geneva way, way back last week proves by many measures a nonevent. Correspondents assigned to cover the summit had to chicken-scratch for something to write as…
“France’s ‘Generals Problem.’”
And ours. This spring the French political establishment was rocked by two open letters from current and former members of the French military, both warning that France was on the brink of civil war. The sensitive question of civilian control…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The US-Russia Summit
Two recent moves on Moscow’s side suggest that the encounter in Geneva will mark the start of a long and welcome process. Curious it was to read that the Russian judiciary ruled last Wednesday that Alexei Navalny’s political network is an extremist movement….
“Jobs and prices.”
Maybe there is a labor shortage. In 1964, Potter Stewart, then mid-career as a Supreme Court Justice, famously described how he recognized obscenity. “I know it when I see it,” he said. This somewhat vague, subjective, reply hits at the…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Aimless Empire
Under Biden, the world’s most powerful, most heavily armed, most determinedly righteous nation shows little sign of having any foreign policy at all. Bitter and frightening realities face us four months into Joe Biden’s presidency. On the domestic side it…
“The Rrrrussians come again.”
Pre-summit nonsense. Joe Biden has just announced that he will convene with Vladimir Putin for the two leaders’ first summit, to be held 16 June in Geneva. It is not too difficult to put forward a forecast as to how…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Arc of Decline
U.S. leaders would rather accept ever-more extreme isolation as the price of power than surrender any of it. It is remarkable how quickly the Biden administration is acquiring its stamp — the watermark it will leave on our parchment when…