Welcome, new readers
Here's what you get when you subscribe to the Cosmopolitan Globalist. And we're open to any reasonable suggestion for making it even better.
We’ve had a gratifying surge of new readers and subscribers in the past weeks. We think it’s because the war in Ukraine validates our founding proposition—namely, that there’s wasteland in the English-language media where serious, intelligent, in-depth coverage of foreign news ought to be.
Our old subscribers know, because we’ve told them so often, that the absence of foreign news in the legacy media isn’t a figment of their imagination. For a host of structural and technological reasons (mostly related to the rise of cable and the Internet, but also due to profound cultural changes), the legacy media no longer has the resources to cover foreign news. I’ve written about this quite a bit:
Something has gone very wrong in American coverage of news from abroad. It is shoddy, lazy, riddled with mistakes, and excessively simplistic.
Above all, it is absent.
Many things are to blame for this. In 2009, I wrote a piece for City Journal observing the disappearance of international news from the American press. It is a long-term trend. A number of studies suggest a roughly 80 percent drop in foreign coverage in print and television media since the end of the Cold War. it seems to me—based upon my casual perusal of the American media—that the trend is accelerating.
The percentage of the broadcast news hole devoted to events overseas has dropped from 40 percent at the height of the Cold War to less than four percent now. The phenomenon is particularly acute in the US media, but we see similar trends everywhere.
We founded CG because we couldn’t quite figure out how liberal democracies could survive the 21st century if their citizens lacked access to news and analysis from other countries.
The fate of journalism over the past several decades is paradoxical. The globe is now hyperconnected: electronically, by trade, through commercial air travel. But massive changes in the structure and economics of journalism have ensured that news consumers are now vastly less likely to read about the rest of the world than they would have been half a century ago. When they read about countries overseas in the legacy media, it’s almost always because there’s a crisis there, and that crisis often comes to them as a surprise, because the reporting on the brewing crisis was so thin. What’s more, much of this reporting is done by young journalists who parachute into a place without speaking the language or deeply understanding the culture. This can be done well, but there are limits to how well it can be done.
(Here’s a podcast in which we talk about this problem and the effect it has on democracy. We discuss everything that’s wrong with journalism, why it’s become so awful, and how the Cosmopolitan Globalist proposes to fix it. Do you wonder why you had to suffer through 260,000,000 stories—we counted—about Harry and Meghan, but didn’t see a single analysis of Britain’s new defense and foreign policy blueprint? We explain.)
That’s why we founded the Cosmopolitan Globalist. We figured we had to stop endlessly complaining about this and do something constructive, instead.
People who’ve been reading CG for the past year, for example, will understand the crisis in Europe very well, and they will not be surprised—however much they may be appalled—by Putin’s monstrous brutality. For new readers, let me point out a few essays you may not have seen. These have held up well:
PREDICTABLE GERMANY COULD SURPRISE. Will Germany’s unlikely coalition truly bring the Merkel era to a close? The government’s first weeks in power suggest it just might.
WHAT DOES VLADIMIR PUTIN WANT? 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.
PUTIN’S WAR OF SMOKE AND MIRRORS. 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? 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?
PUTIN’S HALL OF MIRRORS. 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?
THE WEST MUST PUNISH LUKASHENKO. 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.
IT’S WAR. OR IT MIGHT BE. Ukraine and Russia are heading to the point where the brakes come off and no one is in control.
The articles above treat the crisis in Europe at close range, but we’ve also published essays on broader themes that are very much worth revisiting now. Some now strike me as more prescient than I would ever have wished.
THE WORLD BEYOND WASHINGTON. I wrote this in 2019. Just last night, a reader wrote to remind me of it. I was surprised when I re-read it. Much of it proved, unfortunately, prophetic:
… Russia’s imperial reconquista is overdetermined. Why? Because it’s now or never. Russia has the worst demography in the world. Russia’s health and educational systems have fallen apart. In a few years, he holds, Russia will have no skilled labor. “If the Russians are going to use technology, money, or an army to change their neighborhood,” he observes, “they have to do it now.”
Thus Russia’s strategy: Seize Crimea, destroy Ukraine as a functional country, grab the Caucuses, absorb the rest of Ukraine after it fails. But timing is critical: If Russia moves too soon and too blatantly, Zeihan believes, a still-engaged United States will react, if only out of habit. If they’re a bit more patient—another four-odd years—the United States will be “checked out. Militarily, economically, maybe even financially.”
Zeihan’s view explains why Russia is expanding, and why the United States is now riven over the question, “Are we serious about keeping Russia out of Europe?” This is, of course, the subtext of the impeachment hearings. A significant part of the country agrees with Donald Trump that we don’t give a damn about Ukraine. (Read the whole article here.)
WHAT DOES US DECLINE MEAN FOR THE WORLD? PARTS I AND II. A Cosmopolitan Globalist symposium about the ramifications of American geopolitical decline.
THE BEST OF TIMES, BY DAVID BERLINSKI. The whiggish pop historian Steven Pinker insists the world is becoming more and more peaceful, less and less cruel. Humanity, he claims, is improving. But his argument is based upon shoddy scholarship and formidable errors in reasoning. Part Two. Part Three.
THE FIRST WORLD WAR, BY DAVID BERLINSKI. 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, BY CLAIRE BERLINSKI. We have come close to nuclear annihilation many times. We have fixed nothing: There is no reason to think the risk is eradicated.
THE NEW CAESARISM, BY CLAIRE BERLINSKI. What is the nature of authoritarianism in the 21st century? Related: The Alternative to Hegemony isn’t Peace and The Division of the West is Suicide.
Finally, read all about the INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATION SUPERHIGHWAY, then go check it out for yourself.
Which language would you like us to add next?
One of the things you get with your subscription is a hotline to the editors. We’re still small enough that we read your comments and emails eagerly. We take what you say to heart. If you’d like us to explore any topic within our remit, send up a signal and we’ll get cracking.
It’s useful to us to hear what you find especially valuable—or conversely, what you regularly skim or skip—and when you tell us, we act on it. For example, we send out our premium news survey, Global Eyes, because our subscribers told us that this was what they’d like. That surprised us, but we’re happy to oblige. So please let us know which of the following interests you:
Podcasts with our writers, and if so, which writers, and about which topics;
Discussion groups with readers, on Zoom, treating issues in our remit;
Our book club, which you’re now eligible to join, and if so, what books you’d like to read for it. (We’re having a discussion tomorrow about the future of the book club and how to make it more regular, interesting, and rigorous, so do send any thoughts about it now.)
Classes and seminars, and if so, which topics. For example, we’ve been thinking of offering a 12-week class on Catastrophic and Existential Risk in the coming century. Or we could teach a history class—we could, for example, offer a history of the French Revolution, using Paris as our backdrop. We’re exploring ways to offer these classes for college credit, too.
Debates among our writers: For example, have a look at our Great Energy Debate:
And check out our two-part Battle of the Energy Superfighters on the Cosmopolicast: Battle of the Superfighters, Part I, Battle of the Superfighters, Part II. Finally, have a look at the dedicated debate forums.
We think it’s time for another Great Debate, and wonder if there’s a topic our readers would like to see debated. It might be topical, perhaps to debate this proposition:
NATO should be more directly involved in the defense of Ukraine.
And let us know if there’s a feature or benefit for subscribers that we haven’t thought of, but which you’d like to see. We welcome all reasonable ideas.
NB: This newsletter is just the advertisement, basically, for the magazine. The magazine is where we keep the good stuff: the in-depth articles from reporters and analysts around the world, and the translation superhighway. According to our traffic stats, many of you don’t click through to the magazine. We’re baffled by this. Why wouldn’t you? That’s what you’re paying for, after all. If you have any suggestions for improving the design of the magazine, or making it more appealing, or easy to use, we’re all ears.
So welcome again, new subscribers. We’re absolutely delighted you’ve joined us. We’re small enough that every new subscription feels like an achievement. We celebrate the news whenever we see the email that says “Another one!”
For the Cosmopolitan Globalists in Europe, especially, this is a profoundly depressing and terrifying moment. It does our morale a world of good to know that our readers believe we’re making a valuable contribution to their understanding of these events. Your subscriptions are also allowing us to pay people who work for us, like our web developer, Amanpreet.1 I can’t speak for everyone else, but you’re giving me the dignity of earning a living, for which I’m grateful.
So if you haven’t subscribed yet—perhaps you’d consider it?
If you’re on the fence—what could we do better? Tell us, and if it’s a reasonable proposal, we’ll do it.
To those of you who wish you could subscribe but can’t afford it: We’ve all been there. (When we tell you that journalism is a dying industry, we speak from experience.) If you’re unable to afford a subscription right now but really want to read the paywalled content, send me an email. If you promise to subscribe when your circumstances improve, I’ll comp you until they do. We don’t want anyone to be unable to read what we have to say.
And please share CG with everyone you know who might find it interesting. We’ve been growing entirely through word of mouth. We’ve done no advertising, so clearly, when readers share articles they find valuable, it makes a big difference.
One more thing: Would you like to write for us? We’d like to hear from you, especially if you live in China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, North Asia, Central Asia, Central and South America, MENA, or anywhere in Africa. We’re less interested—we’re not interested—in American culture war articles.
We want to hear about parts of the world that are perennially underserved by the Anglophone media. Send us a writing sample and a pitch and introduce yourself. Don’t bother with your CV. All we care about is whether you write well.
Now stay tuned for today’s GLOBAL EYES—Claire.
A wonderful 'Who-What and WHY' we are: piece...I'm encouraging a ton of people to join/subscribe. I may have missed it but while it's implied, you might add you are intolerant of the 'Cancel' and 'me-too' knee jerk atmosphere/culture of the MSM and pop culture....i.e. you suffer at times but don't suffer fools gladly.