Brands offers seven key lessons for his readers about what he terms a “twilight struggle,” a period of high-stakes competition between great powers that occurs between the darkness of war and daylight of peace.

With crimes against humanity now on NATO’s doorstep, Westerners are focusing on human rights with concern and alarm not seen since the Cold War. As we do, we must admit that the West’s post-Cold War precepts and priorities downplayed human dignity and human suffering.

Long-time neutrals Sweden and Finland appear poised to apply for NATO membership, perhaps as early as this month or during next month’s NATO summit. If these Nordic neighbors do join the alliance, this dramatic change in the European security landscape will be good for them—and for NATO.

Over the centuries, the neutrality of some countries has provided many benefits, including for international law and global diplomacy.

Either we deter Russian aggression, which means that we convince Putin that we will not tolerate his first-strike nuclear threats and be intimidated, or we passively acquiesce to nuclear blackmail and Russian butchery of a nation that was promised its integrity and sovereignty five years after the Cold War ended.

“Unless we accept the Russian view of the nature of man, we cannot work with the USSR to a common end for human society.”

As Vladimir Putin continues his war of war crimes against Ukraine, there are arguments swirling around—some more serious than others—that this war is, somehow, NATO’s fault. That’s certainly what Putin believes, but the blame-NATO crowd is wrong.

During an address to the US Congress on March 12, 1947, President Harry Truman called for military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece to counter communist threats. This began the Truman Doctrine, and Christian realists responded a month later.

What could be more foolish than to blow up half of Europe and the Far East and then give billions to repair the damage? What is more inconsistent than the killing of soldiers and civilians followed by superhuman efforts to save the lives of the survivors?