The autocrat sits at his hu-u-u-u-u-u-uge table. Vladimir imagines power and pomp. But the picture the world sees is Putin isolated and unable to hear. If the man wasn’t a war criminal brandishing nukes, the …
It seems obvious that sanctions—an increasingly important tool of Western foreign policy—should inflict significant pain on the target without exacting unsustainably high costs from the country imposing them. But the European Union’s sanctions on Russia—intended …
The 19th-century English historian J.R. Seeley famously said Britain acquired its empire in a ‘fit of absence of mind’. The same could be said of the post–Cold War European Union. In some ways, the EU’s …
A pundit’s privilege at year’s end is to pronounce on the progress of presidents and princes and point the paths of power. Wield a broad-brush broadsword to dub the winners and smite the losers. The …
President Vladimir Putin dared to invade Ukraine because he was confident that a large majority of Russians would back his attack. And removing the Russian autocrat would probably not bring the war to a swift …