ARTICLES
“‘The Blob,’ anatomized.”
An exchange with Kelley Vlahos. We were delighted to be joined last week by the editor and journalist Kelley Vlahos for a Scrum webcast. Vlahos, editorial director of the online magazine Responsible Statecraft and senior advisor at the Quincy Institute, is one the most astute diagnosticians…
“The Iran question.”
An exchange with Muhammad Sahimi. I first “met” Muhammad Sahimi over the internet after reading the pieces he was publishing a couple of years back on Lobe Log, Jim Lobe’s admirable project that gave shelter to all sorts of interesting voices….
‘The Russia Question’
Diplomacy must not die. Last week, the Biden administration announced plans to stop processing travel visas for most Russian citizens. In tandem, the embassy in Moscow plans to cut consular staff, State Department officers whose duties include visa processing, by…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: America the Innocent
The American press has been in the business of keeping readers ignorant since the Cold War—its most essential responsibility turned upside-down—and in our time it gets worse, not better. Vladimir Putin’s annual state-of-the-nation speech, delivered before the Federal Assembly in Moscow…
“Abolish corporate taxes?!?”
Read on. It hardly needs saying that President Biden has a lot on his plate right now: Addressing Covid–19 disruptions, rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, and the Green New Deal are among the many initiatives he now proposes to undertake. It…
“Isolationism revisited.”
Let us not miss its merits. Isolationism’s close association with interwar figures such as Charles Lindbergh and Joseph P. Kennedy has long given it a bad name—and not without reason. Yet, 80 years on from the founding of the America…
“‘A test for Biden.'”
Adam Weinstein on Afghanistan: A webcast. It was a pleasure the other day to welcome Adam Weinstein to The Scrum’s pages by way of a webcast. Weinstein is a research fellow at the Quincy Institute, the most intellectually innovative think tank…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Biden’s Banner Headlines on Afghanistan Obscure US Motives
Exceptionalism and universalism are the third rails in the U.S.: Any public figure who questions either will suffer a kind of political electrocution. “’It is time to end the forever war.’” That is The New York Times quoting Joe Biden in a banner…
“Washington’s bias toward war.”
A conversation with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. Once again, war clouds gather over eastern Ukraine. In recent weeks we have witnessed a surge in fighting in the Donbas region of Ukraine, accompanied by what is said to be a massing of Russian troops on Russia’s…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: 1948 — No Longer Shrouded in the Mists
What we see now is a purposeful program of terror and it is merely the latest, in form and intent, of what Palestinians have endured since the Nakba. The shattering events of the past few weeks in Israel, the West…