What makes Ukrainians so special?
Nothing, writes Christine Quirk, who watched Ukrainians do the hard work of figuring out how to be a democracy. We can do it, too.
“If you’ve just tuned in,” writes Christine Quirk in the magazine today,
Ukrainians are superheroes who repel Russian invaders using tractors, Molotov cocktails, and javelin missiles. Led by a former comedian who has buoyed citizens’ spirits through live videos, consolidated NATO, and shamed the shameless in Europe, Ukrainians defend their nation with style and humor, despite overwhelming odds.
Ukrainians, for good reason, have inspired the world. But what makes them so special?
Nothing.
She knows. I met Christine when I lived in Istanbul. She’s a public opinion research consultant who specializes in emerging and declining democracies, and she knows emerging and declining democracies backward and forward. She’s been working in Ukraine since 2006. I asked her to write this because I thought she’d have very good insight into the country, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Read the whole article here. It’s fascinating.
But wait, there’s more.
PARIAH MISSILES
Also today in the magazine, we have a story from Bertil Lintner in Chiang Mai. Myanmar and North Korea, he reports, have quietly restored their military ties. They’re working together, in Myanmar, to produce guided, ballistic, and submarine-launched missiles. This is first-rate reporting.
Vivek and I met in the 1990s when we both worked for the original Asia Times, and Bertil’s one of their best correspondents. He was the first journalist to reveal the strategic cooperation between Myanmar and North Korea, so if he’s reporting this now, it’s extremely credible—and obviously, it’s not good news.
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