Patrick Lawrence: That Big, Beautiful Summit in Alaska
No, the Trump–Putin summit at a joint-forces military base in Anchorage last Friday did not produce an agreement on a ceasefire in Ukraine. President Trump made no reference to “severe consequences” if Vladimir Putin did not consent to such an…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Washington Takes on the BRICS
Trump’s lashing out at the group of non-Western nations is so clumsy, so off the mark, so utterly unaware of where the hands are on history’s clock. Well, it took long enough for the White House and the policy cliques…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Trump Dead-Ends Putin
For a good long time what’s been happening in Ukraine is nothing more than postwar gore. If you have lost a war but cannot admit it, you are playing the old game of pretend. Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: For Whom the Drones Buzz
If military drones are “revolutionizing” instruments, then wherever we are, we are in a field of battle. Those drone attacks on five Russian airfields last week were nothing if not daring. No final report from Moscow yet, but three figures’ worth of Ukrainian…
Patrick Lawrence: War in Our Time
BERLIN—Friedrich Merz has been in office as Germany’s new chancellor a matter of weeks, and already he has the German capital aflutter with worry about the increasing danger of a third world war. More to the point, while Germans are…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Diplomatic Chess, Ukraine the Pawn
In Istanbul, a door was pried open after a soap opera’s worth of chicanery in London, Paris, Berlin and Kiev. Now the question is what Trump can do to address Russia’s concerns. As was universally expected, little came out of Istanbul…
Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 3: A Culture of Submission
This is the third of four reports on Germany in crisis. Part 1 of this series is here and Part 2 here. BERLIN— I return briefly to those singular moments when Olaf Scholz stood next to President Joe Biden at a press conference on…
Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 2: A Short History of Exploding Gas Pipelines
This is the second of four reports on Germany’s various crises, the history that produced them and how Germans, other than the neoliberal elites who now hold power, think about their way forward. Part 1 of this series is here. POTSDAM—A single,…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Chihuahuas, Not Dobermans
Trump’s determination to end the Ukraine war has forced the Europeans, at last, to go their own way. And they charge in precisely the wrong direction. I have never been much for schadenfreude: It is always best to occupy one’s mind with worthier…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: How to Read the Durham Appendix
The method of those who built Russiagate’s tower of lies and disinformation grows clearer and the list of their names longer. Not that we needed more evidence to dismantle the extravagant tower of lies and disinformation known as Russiagate: This was…