The roots of the current Ukrainian crisis, one that has a good chance to spill over its borders into the rest of Europe and even to the US, can be traced to the late 1980s. That’s when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who recently passed away, extended his hand to America offering everlasting peace and friendship only to be unceremoniously rebuffed.

In historical analysis, and to a degree in political philosophy, periodisation is everything. It establishes the framework of analysis, and thereby drives towards a certain set of conclusions, to the exclusion of others. In our case the relevant time period is 1945 to 2022. We can now perceive an essential unity to this era, starting with the Allied victory in World War II and the creation of the Charter international system based on the United Nations, and ending with the institutional and normative foundations of that period under threat.

Is Washington, with its dependence on sanctions as its primary foreign policy tool, losing by winning?

In the early 1990s, Senator Patrick Moynihan campaigned for the abolition of the CIA. The brilliant campaigner thought the US Department of State should take over its intelligence functions. For him, the age of secrecy was over.

laims made by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States is intentionally prolonging the Russia-Ukraine conflict may not be as implausible as described, says one U.S. military veteran and journalist.

Since the early days of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the diplomacy of the Сollective West has been striving to isolate Moscow, punishing it for resolving the conflict in Donbass.

Adaptation — to a multipolar world in which Washington doesn’t always call the shots — is the first step.

RAND’s benign mission statement deodorises their role as war planners and coup makers. Managers of war and masters of doublespeak, RAND is a leading US National Security think-tank, financed by the US government and US corporations, which has played a major role in planning all US wars since 1947, including the present war in Ukraine. In the film Dr Strangelove, the RAND corporation were satirised as the BLAND corporation and the character of Dr Strangelove was based in part on RAND’s chief strategist, Herman Kahn.

Nobody is sure. That is why Joe Biden is careful in sending more potent weapons to Ukraine

An escalation can lead to a bigger and more dangerous conflict. Are Moscow and Washington ready to take the risk?