The Revolution and Modern France
Post

The Revolution and Modern France

The myth of the French Revolution inherently perpetuates an emotional, moral, and intellectual schism within a great nation. It has been poisoning the bonds among members of the French polity for over two centuries.

Time to Allow a Cease-Fire in Ukraine
Post

Time to Allow a Cease-Fire in Ukraine

U.S. and UK officials have been sabotaging attempts to reach a cease-fire in Ukraine in an attempt to embroil Russia in a war of attrition. It’s time for a sober reassessment of a strategy that has backfired on Western leaders.

Cracks in the Narrative on Ukraine
Post

Cracks in the Narrative on Ukraine

Recent statements by Germany's foreign policy adviser, Jens Plotner, have exposed a general weakening of the narrative that asserts a perfectly monolithic Western world, rock-solid in its determination to punish Russia.

Ukraine, a Hundred Days Later
Post

Ukraine, a Hundred Days Later

Putin is unlikely to take the bold action necessary to salvage Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, a campaign that drags on, undermined by strategic errors and indecisive leadership.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Putin_Forever.jpg
Post

A Melancholy Parade

Russian President Vladimir Putin had nothing to offer that could be passed off as victory at this year's traditional military parade. His power may be weakening after a long list of failures—but the world may come to regret the consequences if he falls.

A Ukrainian Tragedy
Post

A Ukrainian Tragedy

Having designated a traditionalist, conservative, overwhelmingly Christian Orthodox Russia as the enemy, the rulers of an Orwellian "Great Reset" West will be free to cancel conservatives of all stripes even more radically than before.

The Ghost of Hitler in the 21st Century
Post

The Ghost of Hitler in the 21st Century

Today marks the 133rd anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler, and this year also coincides with the English-language publication of Hitler’s National Socialism, by Rainer Zitelmann, a distinguished German historian and free market economist. Reprising material from his German scholarship of more than 30 years ago, Zitelmann presents his provocative, well-founded interpretation of the Nazi...

French Presidential Election Déjà Vu
Post

French Presidential Election Déjà Vu

The first round of France’s presidential election on April 10 ended with President Emmanuel Macron coming in first, with just under 28 percent of the vote. As in 2017, his opponent in the second round on April 24 will be Marine Le Pen (“MLP”), the Rassemblement National (“National Rally”) candidate, who won 23.1 percent of...

Madeleine Albright: America’s Ribbentrop
Post

Madeleine Albright: America’s Ribbentrop

In May of 1996, Lesley Stahl, of 60 Minutes, asked the future Secretary of State Madeleine Albright about the humanitarian disaster in Iraq, which was caused by U.S.-led sanctions. “We have heard that a half a million children have died,” Stahl said. “I mean that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And—you know, is the...

Putin’s Miscalculation
Post

Putin’s Miscalculation

“This is worse than a crime,” Talleyrand famously said of Napoleon’s execution of the Duke of Enghien: “it is a mistake.” The same can be said of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, almost four weeks after it was launched. However the battle turns out–even if the Russian army achieves its operational...

Middle Kingdom Rising
Post

Middle Kingdom Rising

In 1935 the Nazi regime was two years old, fully consolidated at home, and increasingly assertive abroad. It enacted the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws and announced that Germany would start a massive rearmament program, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Meanwhile, Britain and France were focused on condemning Mussolini’s intervention in Ethiopia and on punishing...

The Russian Invasion: Three Scenarios
Post

The Russian Invasion: Three Scenarios

The issue of what constitutes an invasion is no longer relevant as of 5 a.m. Moscow time on Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia attacked Ukraine across several fronts with troops, armor, and missile strikes. Indignant Western rhetoric aside, the Russian military’s strategic objective and President Vladimir Putin’s subsequent long-term political objective are what matters now. The...

Putin’s Risky Move
Post

Putin’s Risky Move

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree on Monday to recognize the two self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (the Donbass) in eastern Ukraine. His decision, announced in an hour-long live address, was immediately followed by an order to Russian units to move into the disputed territories in a “peacekeeping” mission. By Monday evening their...

Letter From Egypt: The Battle for the Nile (pt. II)
Post

Letter From Egypt: The Battle for the Nile (pt. II)

Water rights are at the heart of a growing geopolitical conflict between Egypt and its neighbors, as I discussed in my missive last week during my annual trip to the region. In the center of this conflict is the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) under construction in Ethiopia since 2011, and which Egypt is concerned...

Letter From Egypt: The Battle for the Nile (Pt. 1)
Post

Letter From Egypt: The Battle for the Nile (Pt. 1)

My annual Middle Eastern tour this winter is limited to Egypt, mainly due to the less rigid Corona-related restrictions there than elsewhere in the region. An additional motive is the fact that this country of over a hundred million souls faces an unprecedented geopolitical crisis that is not sufficiently known in the outside world yet...

The Madness of Russophobia
Post

The Madness of Russophobia

“Rule One, on page one of the book of war, is: ‘Do not march on Moscow,’” Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery told the House of Lords in 1962. “Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good.”   The victor of El Alamein made an understatement. Napoleon’s invasion in June 1812 took...

U.S-Russia Tensions May Abate After Geneva Meeting
Post

U.S-Russia Tensions May Abate After Geneva Meeting

Amid the ongoing Ukrainian crisis, multiple U.S. and defense officials have told the press that the Biden administration is in the final stages of selecting military units for deployment to Eastern Europe. The U.S. accuses Russia of planning to invade Ukraine, despite threats of heavy reprisals, while Moscow insists on guarantees that there would be...

Mussolini’s Unnatural Alliance
Post

Mussolini’s Unnatural Alliance

“Although I deal with the Italian attempt to build a fascist state,” Chronicles editor Paul Gottfried wrote in response to an obtuse critic of his latest book, Antifascism: Course of a Crusade, “I am also quite critical of Mussolini’s career, especially his involvement with Hitler’s Third Reich and the unfortunate anti-Semitic laws that Il Duce...

Winter of European Discontent
Post

Winter of European Discontent

When British foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey famously said on the eve of the Great War that “the lamps are going out all over Europe,” his metaphor struck a chord with generations of Europeans both then and in the ensuing decades. Grey’s words are worth recalling now, as the Old Continent enters the new year...

Germany’s Quest for a European Wokedom
Post

Germany’s Quest for a European Wokedom

The European version of wokedom is unfolding under the watchful eye of Germany’s new foreign minister Annalena Baerbock. As discussed in a previous article, Baerbock looks like she will be the most interventionist-minded, Russophobic, and Euro-federalist German foreign minister ever, one who promotes a nebulous concept of European strategic sovereignty. Europe’s leftists are positively elated...

Germany’s Quest for a European Wokedom
Post

Germany’s Quest for a European Wokedom

The European version of wokedom is unfolding under the watchful eye of Germany’s new foreign minister Annalena Baerbock. As discussed in a previous article, Baerbock looks like she will be the most interventionist-minded, Russophobic, and Euro-federalist German foreign minister ever, one who promotes a nebulous concept of European strategic sovereignty. Europe’s leftists are positively elated...

A ‘Woke’ Crusader at Germany’s Helm
Post

A ‘Woke’ Crusader at Germany’s Helm

Angela Merkel’s unprecedented 16 years in power came to an end on Dec. 8 when Olaf Scholz was sworn in as the new German chancellor, symbolically breaking with tradition by omitting “so help me God” from the oath. Scholz steered his Social Democratic Party (SPD) to the dominant position in last September’s general election by presenting...

A ‘Woke’ Crusader at Germany’s Helm
Post

A ‘Woke’ Crusader at Germany’s Helm

Angela Merkel’s unprecedented 16 years in power came to an end on Dec. 8 when Olaf Scholz was sworn in as the new German chancellor, symbolically breaking with tradition by omitting “so help me God” from the oath. Scholz steered his Social Democratic Party (SPD) to the dominant position in last September’s general election by presenting...

Unvetted Afghan Immigrants: The Enemy Inside the Gates
Post

Unvetted Afghan Immigrants: The Enemy Inside the Gates

The Biden administration has allowed tens of thousands of Afghan refugees to enter the United States without any meaningful vetting, blatantly disregarding its previous assurances and formally stated policy guidelines. Such reckless endangerment of national security is scandalous, but it has proceeded virtually unreported by the regime-friendly media machine. At the tail end of the Afghan...

Global Hot Spots in 2022
Post

Global Hot Spots in 2022

Today’s commentariat is prone to ignore history, or to simplify past events to make them fit their current ideological preferences. The discourse of regime-approved conservative intellectuals and their mass media cohorts—such as Victor Davis Hanson and the tedious George Will—remains liberally optimistic and upwardly linear. The notion that our civilization is on a downward course...

Hybrid Warfare in an Age of Wokeness
Post

Hybrid Warfare in an Age of Wokeness

I recently attended a two-day conference in Budapest on hybrid war entitled “The Role and Missions of Armed Forces in Below-Threshold Conflicts.” Hosted by the Hungarian Defense Forces (HDF) Transformation Command, a military think tank with the authority and responsibility to chart the modernization and innovation of the country’s military forces. Contemporary security challenges include...

Plucky Poland Defies the European Union on Judicial Sovereignty
Post

Plucky Poland Defies the European Union on Judicial Sovereignty

Arguably the most significant issue in Europe today is the ongoing dispute between Poland and the European Union (EU) over judicial preeminence. On Oct. 7 Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that EU law does not have primacy over national legislation. The case was brought before the Tribunal last March by Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, after the...

Sinking Deals, Shifting Alliances
Post

Sinking Deals, Shifting Alliances

The tectonic change in the Indo-Pacific region is the most important geopolitical event of 2021. The countries along its shores account for roughly two-thirds of the world’s population. They produce the largest share of global gross domestic product, possess the most powerful military forces, and depend on the world’s busiest shipping lanes. It is also...

Colin Powell: A Neocon Fellow Traveler
Post

Colin Powell: A Neocon Fellow Traveler

“My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources,” U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell declared on the afternoon of Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2003, at the Security Council of the United Nations. “These are not assertions. What we’re giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.”   Powell,...

Germany Stays ‘Woke’ After a Musical Chairs Election
Post

Germany Stays ‘Woke’ After a Musical Chairs Election

Federal elections rearranged Germany’s 709-seat Bundestag last week in what has been heralded by the mainstream press as the end of an era. In reality, the new governing coalition led by the country’s social democratic and green parities will change little in the country’s foreign and security policy. The new team will remain staunchly opposed to any...

In Afghanistan, America Failed to Know Its Enemy and Itself
Post

In Afghanistan, America Failed to Know Its Enemy and Itself

The latest episode in an ironic reversal of the roles of the foreign powers that have tried their luck in Afghanistan is unfolding before our eyes. Britain’s profitless involvement (1839-1919) is ancient history, but more recently the Soviet intervention (1979-1989) and America’s subsequent “longest war” (2001-2021) have both ended in strategic failures. Because the United...

Russia’s Latest Elections Leave Its Problems Unresolved
Post

Russia’s Latest Elections Leave Its Problems Unresolved

Legislative elections were held over three days in Russia last weekend to elect 450 deputies of the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly. President Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party won just under 50 percent of the vote and 324 seats in an election accompanied by the customary accusations of vote rigging from the...

Jihad Undefeated
Post

Jihad Undefeated

Events are the building blocks of history. Narrative historians, starting with Thucydides, have focused on what they regarded as significant occurrences in order to present and evaluate the past.   The import of some events can be recognized by astute observers almost as soon as they occur. Edmund Burke’s 1790 Reflections on the Revolution in...

Understanding Jihad’s Resurgence
Post

Understanding Jihad’s Resurgence

Jihad is both an ideology and a global process. It has triumphed in Afghanistan in both forms, and its adherents everywhere will feel emboldened by what they see as a sure sign of Allah’s sanction. If a poorly armed jihadist force could endure for two decades, struggling against the mightiest infidel force the world has...

The ABCs of Afghanistan
Post

The ABCs of Afghanistan

A is for Afghanistan. A faraway, hardcore Muslim country that remains utterly mysterious to our political, intelligence, and military elites even after two decades of intervention. Between October 2001 and August 2021 America squandered more than $2 trillion and more than 2,000 lives for no clear objective or tangible benefit. B is for the Washington Beltway. The home of...

The Looming Afghan Collapse
Post

The Looming Afghan Collapse

As of Thursday morning, August 12 the Taliban were in control of eleven provincial capitals in Afghanistan, including the important northeastern city of Kunduz, following a sweep across the north of the country in recent days. The insurgents encountered minimal resistance from the Afghan National Army. The insurgents now have their sights on Mazar-i-Sharif, the largest city in the mostly...

Europe, A Nation of Old Men Up for Grabs
Post

Europe, A Nation of Old Men Up for Grabs

I have just completed a three-week tour of Europe starting from a home base in Switzerland to southern Germany, thence to the south of France, and finally to northern Italy. Each of these places is unique. Each is delightful in its own way, rich in culture and history, a pleasure to be in. The food...

The Key to America’s Pathologies
Post

The Key to America’s Pathologies

Behemoth and Leviathan, the biblical chaos-monsters, are how Carl Schmitt described terra firma and the oceans in his 1942 masterpiece Land and Sea: A World-Historical Meditation. World history, he noted, is composed of land and sea powers warring against each other. Schmitt was not the first to note this phenomenon. It has been well-documented since...

The American Stasi
Post

The American Stasi

The following are excerpts translated from my latest interview with Sputnik News, which was broadcast live on July 19. Q:… What is happening to the freedom of speech in America? Are the current powers-that-be using secret services against journalists deemed troublesome, such as Tucker Carlson? … ST: Tucker Carlson’s evening show is the only mainstream media program...

Italian Soccer Champs Are a Triumph of Manly Nationhood
Post

Italian Soccer Champs Are a Triumph of Manly Nationhood

There are at least three reasons why I rejoiced, together with some sixty million Italians spread all over the world, at their soccer team’s victory over England in the 2020 European Championship finals. First and foremost, the winning Italian team was almost entirely composed of those who are Italian by blood and heritage: here they are,...

A Tale of Two Europes
Post

A Tale of Two Europes

April 18 marked the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which established the European Coal and Steel Community. The leaders of France, West Germany, Italy, and the three Benelux countries thus laid the foundation for European integration. It was primarily meant to facilitate economic recovery, but also to help overcome old...