In the 1960s and 70s America relied on Saudi Arabia and Iran as its allies in the Middle East. Today, we just rely on Israel and Saudi

Diplomacy with Russia may come from an unexpected source: polar bears.

Moscow and Beijing’s argument of “Western encroachment” has an aura of authenticity in other capitals around the world, where there is a sense that the West’s business enterprises, Hollywood culture, and radical sexual ideologies are bludgeoning their cultures.

With Vladimir Putin’s planned two-day war to topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government now in its third month and Russian casualties piling into the tens of thousands, concerns abound that Putin might take increasingly drastic steps to alter the disastrous situation he faces on the battlefield. To prevent those grim prospects—or at least contain their effects—President Joe Biden should turn to the playbook his predecessors drafted.

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.

In the case of Taiwan, however, disproportionate focus on the Cold War can obscure other historical cases, such as Britain’s commitment to Belgium, that provide useful lessons for preventing geopolitical catastrophe.

Soviet Russia demonstrated enormously greater fighting ability than has Red China, and yet even that temporarily invincible totalitarian regime is no more.

“We have,” said an exuberant campaign orator in the recent campaign, “the moral leadership of the world. The whole world trusts in our devotion to freedom and expects us to save mankind from totalitarianism.” That is how we see ourselves, at least in our more complacent moods. The world does not see us as we see ourselves.

Keynoting a “Beat Dewey” rally at Madison Square Garden on September 12, 1946, Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace warned Americans against the Truman administration’s “get tough with Russia” policy. Reinhold Niebuhr responded.