Gilbert Doctorow

During the run-up to the continent-wide elections to the European Parliament that just took place, our European press and electronic media sounded the alarm over the threat of a populist, nationalist, Euroskeptic tide overwhelming the “peace project” that the European Union is said to be. The great fear was that the Center would not hold, … Continue reading “The 2019 European Parliamentary Election: Prospects for Peace”

I have not critiqued articles in Foreign Affairs magazine for at least two years because it seemed pointless to whip a dead horse. Dead intellectually I mean. I regretted the loss of a sparring partner given that FA was and remains broadly representative of the US foreign policy establishment. FA was for a long time … Continue reading “Foreign Affairs Magazine at a Turning Point on US Global Hegemony?”

As the 70th anniversary of the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization approaches on April 4th, Belgium’s Royal Higher Institute of Defense has published an article which will bring little cheer to staff at the luxurious NATO headquarters situated on the outskirts of Brussels, 15 kilometers away from my home office downtown. The birthday … Continue reading “At Its 70th Birthday, NATO Is Militarily America’s Fifth Wheel”

To the vast majority of Americans, including the foreign policy establishment, the question posed in the title may seem something of a joke. After all, absolute military superiority over Russia and other potential rivals for global influence has been the objective of US military policy for the last twenty-five years or more, at vast budgetary … Continue reading “The Kremlin’s Military Posture Reconsidered”

As he stated at the outset, Vladimir Putin’s annual state of the nation address today before a joint session of the nation’s bicameral legislature was devoted preponderantly to domestic policy. He was expanding on the practical implications for the Russian population of the policy priorities for his current six-year term that he set out in … Continue reading “Putin on National Defense: Threats or a Bid to Negotiate on Arms Control?”

As one of America’s most authoritative historians of Russia and the Soviet Union, Professor Stephen Cohen has authored seven books in a number of genres from traditionally academic to journalistic-scholarly. His latest work, War with Russia? represents a new direction that holds great value as well as accessibility both for a target audience of university … Continue reading “War With Russia?”

I have given this essay a “fake news” title for a good reason: to direct your attention to the fact that the incumbent President of Russia is too gentle for his and our good. He does not make threats the way his predecessor, the party boss of the Soviet Union did in 1956. He does … Continue reading “Vladimir Putin to the West: ‘We Will Bury You!’”

Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace is widely considered to be the best war novel ever written. Spatially, in its more than 1,800 pages it offers a vast panorama of Russia during the Napoleonic wars, both on the battlefield and on the home front. Temporally, Tolstoy shifts our attention back and forth between the big picture … Continue reading “‘War and Peace’: The Relevance of 1812 as Explained by Tolstoy to Current Global Affairs”

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the surprising pro-détente feelings of Belgium’s French-speaking social elite who openly criticize the anti-Russian policies being pursued by the government here, in line with the EU consensus. My comments were based on conversations I had with a good many participants in a Russia-themed gala dinner at the country’s most … Continue reading “Belgian Elites Supine Before Anti-Russian Political Forces”

Survival in the Age of Trump is today on many minds. For some, the issue is whether our whimsical, volatile president will undo 70 years of alliance (read: empire) building here and now. For others, it is whether he will finally realize his campaign promises to be the Great Disrupter and fulfill the wishes of … Continue reading “Thank Goodness for Trump, the Ugly American”