Robert Morrison

Robert Morrison first sailed to Canada’s Maritimes on the USCGC Unimak, then served as a Russian interpreter in the Bering Sea. He taught diplomatic history to Navy nuclear submariners. Morrison was a member of the Reagan administration. He writes from Annapolis.

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Diplomatic Icebreakers

Peace with Russia, as in Soviet times, has always been unpalatable but necessary.

America’s Eagle Bears Two Talons: John F. Kennedy

President Kennedy understood the need to counter America’s enemies without precipitating WWIII.

The Ghosts of Versailles

The results of the disastrous Versailles Treaty led to war in Europe for a century. Can we finally exorcise the ghosts of Versailles?

Resisting the “Triumph of the Will”?

“Triumph of the Will” serves to show us how attractive demagoguery can be.

A New Peace Conference at Torgau

In 1945 Americans and Russians met near Torgau, Germany in a rare moment of unity. Can this be repeated?

The Man Who Tore Down the Wall

Gorbachev was different from all his predecessors. He knew how cruel the Soviet system was.

Graebner the Great on America’s Power

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.

Stirred never Shaken: Our Sir John Wheeler-Bennett
Stirred never Shaken: Our Sir John Wheeler-Bennett

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.

How “Strategic Ambiguity” Led to the Great War
How “Strategic Ambiguity” Led to the Great War

What we can gain from the origins of the Great War is that strategic ambiguity played a role in bringing on that cataclysm.

A Mothers’ March on Moscow! - Bloody Sunday
A Mothers’ March on Moscow!

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.