The Crisis in Europe
A Cosmopolitan Globalist Anthology
The Cosmopolitan Globalists were puzzled this morning when we scrutinized our site statistics. Traffic is brisk, with most of our visitors interested in the obvious: Russia, NATO, Ukraine, and the crisis in Europe.
But little of that traffic comes from this newsletter. We were puzzled to discover this, and we have no theory of the case: Wouldn’t you think our subscribers would make up the majority of our readers?
We suspect we didn’t properly call your attention to the essays we’ve recently published about the crisis. We’re proud of this body of work, and you should be, too; you made it possible. While of course you’re free to read these essays or not, as you please, we can’t quite imagine why you wouldn’t want to read them. Isn’t that why you subscribed?
We truly believe that anyone who reads these essays will be better-informed about this standoff—its origins, its significance, and its risks—than readers of other publications.
So we’re sending you an anthology, below. We hope you’ll discover what we’ve written and conclude that your subscription to the Cosmopolitan Globalist is more valuable than you’d thought.
DEFEND UKRAINE
JOSHUA TREVIÑO, AUSTIN A Russian invasion of Ukraine—especially but not only if followed by the promised Western-backed Ukrainian insurgency—is a direct challenge to the American victories in both 1945 and 1989-1991. We owe it to our fathers and grandfathers to safeguard what they won.
PUTIN’S HALL OF MIRRORS
VIVEK Y. KELKAR, MUMBAI Russian troops and tanks are unnerving the US and Europe on the borders of Ukraine while China looms over the South China Sea and Pacific. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping appear to have their interests aligned and their alliance secure. But who really holds the cards in that relationship?
WHAT DOES VLADIMIR PUTIN WANT?
NICOLAS TENZER, PARIS The West has failed to grasp the deeply ideological nature of contemporary Putinism. We must understand its nature, scope, and goals. We cannot confront a threat we don’t understand.
THE END OF THE PEACE
JOSHUA TREVIÑO, AUSTIN We did not compel any sort of reckoning with the Communist past in Russia. The party which plunged the world into a century of tyranny and bloodshed should have been eradicated as thoroughly as the National Socialists were from Germany, but no one thought to do it.
RUSSIA’S IMPERATIVE IN KAZAKHSTAN
VIVEK Y. KELKAR, MUMBAI Russia sent troops to Kazakhstan to crush an uprising. What does this mean for China? If you’re keen to know the future of Moscow’s relationship with Beijing, Central Asia is the critical region to watch.
BIDEN’S HOLODOMOR
ROBERT ZUBRIN, BOULDER The Biden Administration is weighing an immoral policy of entrapping Russia in a Ukrainian bloodbath.
ON MOSCOW’S OBJECTIVES
VLADISLAV DAVIDZON, PARIS Last week, Ukrainian leaders visited Washington, D.C. The CIA and the Department of Defense gave them private briefings. They emerged deeply shaken.
PUTIN’S WAR OF SMOKE AND MIRRORS
NICOLAS TENZER, PARIS Once again, Western leaders have fallen for Putin’s trick: using the fog of war as a smokescreen to deceive us and reveal our weakness and inconsistency.
WHAT THE HELL IS PUTIN DOING?
MONIQUE CAMARRA, SIENA Don’t be fooled: The migrants at the Belarusian border are pawns in a wicked and heartless ruse. The border crisis can’t be viewed in isolation. Russian troop movements near Ukraine are deeply ominous. What is Putin trying to do?
WHAT A RUSSIAN ELECTION MEANS
MONIQUE CAMARRA, SIENA. Russia calls imprisoned dissident Alexei Navalny a “foreign agent” who runs “an extremist group.” This is part of the Kremlin’s baroque machinations to ensure there will never be a free and fair election in Russia.
THE WEST MUST PUNISH LUKASHENKO
JOHN OXLEY, LONDON The costs Western powers have imposed on the Belarusian dictator haven’t deterred him. There is now a rogue state in the center of Europe. Ignoring it will not make it go away.
NAVALNY’S AMAZING CAPER
CLAIRE BERLINSKI, PARIS Pretending to be an aide to the Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Russian dissident Alexei Navalny prank-called the spook who tried to assassinate him with Novichok. The result was Edgar Allan Poe, Saki, and James Bond all at once.
IT’S WAR. OR IT MIGHT BE.
JOHN OXLEY, LONDON Ukraine and Russia are heading to the point where the brakes come off and no one is in control.
For context
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
DAVID BERLINSKI, PARIS The historical literature about the First World War is vast and profoundly unsatisfying. Historians understand very well how the war came about, but they cannot fully fathom why. There is a moral, however, pertinent to contemporary events. Things can go badly very quickly, and when they do, they can go very badly.
NUCLEAR ROULETTE
CLAIRE BERLINSKI, PARIS We have come close to nuclear annihilation many times. We have fixed nothing: There is no reason to think the risk is eradicated.
THE COSMORUSSYACAST
feat. Vladislav Davidzon, Scott Abel, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Jon Nighswander and the editors, hosted by Monique Camarra. It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a thoroughgoing nuisance.
THE ANGELS AND DEMONS OF ODESSA
feat. Vladislav Davidzon and David Patrikarakos.