Robert Morrison is a former senior policy analyst in Washington think-tanks who worked in the Reagan administration. He also served as a Coast Guard Russian interpreter in the Bering Sea and taught diplomatic history to nuclear submariners.
“Triumph of the Will” serves to show us how attractive demagoguery can be.
Robert MorrisonMarch 2, 2023
In 1945 Americans and Russians met near Torgau, Germany in a rare moment of unity. Can this be repeated?
Robert MorrisonFebruary 16, 2023
Gorbachev was different from all his predecessors. He knew how cruel the Soviet system was.
Robert MorrisonSeptember 1, 2022
When in 1967 the University of Virginia recruited Professor Norman A. Graebner from the University of Illinois to teach diplomatic history, a huge row ensued.
Robert MorrisonJune 23, 2022
We were stirred, never shaken, by our real-life James Bond figure. Sir John Wheeler-Bennett was the picture of an English aristocrat, without a hint of stuffiness. So genial, so approachable, we young University of Virginia students were thrilled by each of his lectures on diplomatic history—especially about anything on England and Germany in the interwar period.
Robert MorrisonJune 13, 2022
What we can gain from the origins of the Great War is that strategic ambiguity played a role in bringing on that cataclysm.
Robert MorrisonJune 6, 2022
We should call for a “Mothers’ March on Moscow.” We should urge no violence, nothing radical, nothing revolutionary. But the idea just might take root among women in the vast Russian heartland.
Robert MorrisonJune 1, 2022
We should seek a summit meeting with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Torgau in Germany. We need a negotiated end to the current war in Ukraine.
Robert MorrisonMay 23, 2022
With those words—“Her Majesty’s Government will…”—the speech from the throne was not read by the monarch. For the first time since the beginning of the present reign, this important address to Parliament was read for her by her 74-year-old son, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
Robert MorrisonMay 13, 2022
John F. Kennedy never flinched, but he showed his mettle during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was his finest hour. Will this one be ours?
Robert MorrisonApril 8, 2022