Vladimir Putin

Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb Was Smart, Not Reckless

Ukraine will do what any sovereign nation will do.

How Conservatives Learned to Love the Soviet Union

The right-wing embrace of Vladimir Putin as a dictator and enemy of the freedoms Americans hold dear is a stunning rebuke to decades of struggle against Soviet tyranny

Religious Liberty, Putin, and Lukashenko 

A recent crackdown on religious liberty in Belarus offers a reminder of why freedom of religion so often comes into conflict with authoritarianism

The United States Remains Deservedly Popular Abroad

Most of the world still looks to the United States for global leadership, particularly compared with China and Russia

Why Putin Will Never Give Up Kyiv, with or without a Trump-Brokered Deal

Putin invaded Ukraine not out of any material reason like economic interest or force projection, but of the spiritual conviction that Russia cannot be whole without Kyiv

The Just Statecraft of Trump’s Ukraine Diplomacy

Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible is in keeping with the just war criteria of only supporting wars that can be won, however clear the morality of the conflict

Putin’s Perpetual Political Theater and “The Wizard of the Kremlin”

A new novel (and movie) about Vladimir Putin’s chief spin-doctor explain how the true battle between Ukraine and Russia is not one of warring armies, but of competing narratives

America Must Not Legally Recognize Russia’s Annexation of Eastern Ukraine

The United States never legally recognized the Soviet occupation of the Baltics, and neither should America recognize Russia’s annexation of eastern Ukraine

Only Credible Deterrence Can Assure Lasting Peace

Ending conflicts is all well and good, but only if the peace is durable, reasonable, and within the national interest