then it was too late for Britain’s heroicrn”bastards” to fight against European unificationrnin any but the fimited way theyrnhad chosen.rnIt always pays, therefore, to look at thernlarger picture. I would argue that therngeopolifical history of the last century—rnin the course of which totalitarianismrnemerged, developed, and evolved to becomernthe ineluctable lot of mankind thatrnit is today—may be encapsulated in threernshort sentences. First Stalin createdrnHitler. Then Stalin sicked Hitler on thernWest. And then Stalin got the West tornbecome his ally in order to defeat Hitler.rnThe bitter ft’uit of Stalin’s strategy wasrnhalf of Europe falling into his lap—bitterrnbecause Stahn had meant for all of Europernto become his, as surely it wouldrnhave done had the object of his politicalrnmanipulahon not smelled a rat and leveledrnthe first blow. With fewer than onernquarter of Russia’s tanks, no winter clothingrnfor the troops, and barely enough fiielrnto keep the army advancing for 90 days,rnthis was the beginning of a mass suicidernon a nahonal scale.rnWhat made Stalin cringe, even as hisrnprematurely roused enemy drew near,rnwas not some phantom fear at the improbablernprospect of an eventual Germanrnvictory; it was, rather, his realizationrnthat the surprise attack had thwarted hisrnplan of absolute domination over Eurasiarnin his lifetime. As for the all-too-probablernprospect of a partial victory for Russia,rnthis was small consolation, for Stalin hadrnlong understood that partial victoriesrnwere no good for totalitarianism.rnTo finish what Stalin started —incapacitating,rnembracing, and absorbingrnfirst Central and then Western Europe,rnso that the “common European homernfrom the Atlantic to the Urals” is at lastrnoccupied by its historically inevitablernowner —and to achieve this objectivernwithout war is the challenge of the Andropovrngeneration to which all of Russia’srnpresent-day leaders belong. All of themrncome from the Lavrenty Beria school ofrnpolitical studies, including those somewhatrnless prominently titled, such asrnArkady Volsky or Evgeny Primakov, andrnthose squarely in the Western field of vision,rnsuch as Mikhail Gorbachev andrnVladimir Putin.rnTo drive a politically and economicallyrnunited Europe into Moscow’s inescapablernembrace, to unify Europernonce and for all, the West as a whole hadrnto be properly spooked —but not byrnMoscow, of course. On the contrary,rnMoscow was to pose as a fellow victimrnof the clear and present danger lurkingrnwithout. As in the tried and testedrn(though in the end only partly successfiil)rnHitler scenario, the danger in questionrnhad to be identified and incubated beforernit could be sprung on the sleeping Westrnlike a succubus.rnSuch danger as eventually offered itselfrnup for the role of succubus was Islamicrnfundamentalism, in particular, and thernMuslim world generally. Like Hitler’srnrise to power, the specter of 1.5 billionrnMussulmans brandishing “pie-perestroika”rnKalashnikovs from Kashmir to Moroccornwas a plausible enough threat to terrifyrnthe West; unlike Hitler, it was not sornnational, autarchic, or spontaneous as tornever him on the puppeteer. Admittedly, itrnwas the Russians who had invadedrnAfghanistan, not the other way round; butrnby the time the war in Ghechnya was percolating,rna few bombs in Moscow plantedrnby “post-perestroika” secret police (seernLorenzo Gremonesi’s interview with 7ndrernGlucksmann in Corriere delta Sera,rnAugust 11, 2000) would enable Putin tornclaim that Russia was on the receivingrnend of the terrorist nightmare.rnNow the threat of what would becomernknown euphemistically as “rogue regimes”rnAnnouncing the 2002rnPhillips Foundation Journalism Fellowshipsrn• WORKING JOURNALISTS ELIGIBLE FOR $50,000 •rnI f you are a working print journalist with less than five years of professional experience,rna unique opportunity awaits—the chance to apply for a grant to complete a one-yearrnproject of your choosing, focusing on journalism supportive of American culture and a freernsociety.rnAbounded in 1990, the Phillips Foundation is a non-profit organization whose purpose isrnto advance the cause of objective journalism. The Foundation’s fellowship program servesrnto provide support for journalists who share the Foundation’s mission: to advance constitutionalrnprinciples, a democratic society and a vibrant free enterprise system.rn1 he Phillips Foundation offers $50,000 full-time and $25,000 part-time journalism fellowships.rnApplications are now being accepted for 2002. Applications must be postmarkedrnby March 1, 2002. The winners will be announced at an awards dinner in Washington in thernSpring. The fellowships will begin on September 1, 2002. AppUcants must be U.S. citizens.rnFor applications and more information, visit our website or write:rnMr. John FarleyrnTHE PHILLIPS FOUNDATIONrn7811 Montrose Road, Potomac, Maryland 20854rnTelephone (301) 340-2100rnE-mail: jfarley@phillips.comrnhttp://www.thephiIlipsfoundation.orgrnDeadline: March 1, 2002rnDECEMBER 2001/51rnrnrn
January 1975April 21, 2022By The Archive
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