Essays
(Kremlin.ru)
Russian Pressure Points
Why Putin’s Threat to Belarus Can’t Be Ignored

As Russia seeks a deeper integration with Belarus, the masses in Minsk are protesting against a “soft annexation.” It’s time for the West to take notice.

Israel’s Political Decay
No Way to Run a Country

“We survived Pharaoh—we’ll survive this too,” is a common adage in Israel. But the country’s political dysfunction may get worse before it gets better.

Tony Hisgett
Northern Ireland
Peace, “Process,” and Liberal Politics

What the UK general election suggests about the future of Northern Ireland.

Flickr photo via European People’s Party (CC BY 2.0)
Memo to Germany
Merkel’s Split-the-Difference Strategy Isn’t Working

Transatlantic ties are fraying not just because of Trump, but because Berlin has not fully accepted its leadership role in Europe.

Maurycy Gottlieb, “Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur” (Wikimedia Commons)
American Jews and Israel
The Roots of the Rift

The controversy over President Trump’s executive order on anti-Semitism reflects a broader gap in how American and Israeli Jews understand themselves. A new book by Daniel Gordis explores the divide.

“The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton” by Thomas Eakins (Wikimedia Commons)
The Literary Life
The Quiet American Novel

A new book by Steve Almond offers a deeply personal take on John Williams’s classic novel Stoner: a minor-key masterpiece about ordinary life, the pursuit of passions, and the lost art of paying attention.

(Warner Bros.)
The New Normal
Joker and Our Leaderless Future

The controversial film captures the reality of our peer-to-peer age: From Hong Kong to Paris, mass movements are increasingly flaring up without formal leadership or organization.

(Wikimedia Commons)
Strategic Stalemate
Hong Kong’s Long View

The struggle over Hong Kong seems headed toward stalemate. But while the Hong Kongers can tolerate not winning in the short term, the CCP is worried that they are not losing.

Taylor Weidman / The Vanishing Cultures Project (via Wikimedia Commons)
Peripheral Vision
Why Mongolian Democracy Is Worth Defending

America’s allies in Asia will draw lessons from how nations like Mongolia fare in the new era of U.S.-China competition.

Robert Keffer, via Wikimedia Commons
Disinformation Age
Russia’s Fictional Narratives: A Double-Edged Sword

Republicans leaning on Moscow’s disinformation for political gain would be wise to remember the record of “useful idiocy” during the Cold War.

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