Lights Out For Nord Stream 2?
The EU May Have Just Put an End to Russia’s Pipeline Project

Russia’s capacity to play pipeline games may have just been effectively curtailed.

Peter Paul Rubens, “Prometheus Bound” (Public Domain)
The Modern Project
The Crisis of Modern Science

As the modern scientific project increasingly allows us to manipulate our own natures, it is awakening challenges and paradoxes to which there are no simple answers.

The Character Question
Blackface, Call Out Culture, and the Evolution of Norms

Blackface in the 1980s might reflect the cavalier, ill-considered racism that was pretty much in the water at the time; today it would undoubtedly reflect a belligerent assertion of white supremacy. The same behavior does not always correspond to the same motives or presuppositions.

The Hidden Leader
Sebastian Kurz and the Fate of Europe

The weakness of both Macron and Merkel has opened the door to another player on the European chessboard: Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

Wikimedia Commons
Clash of Rivals
The China Dream: Their Goals and Ours

Though the personalities of individual leaders have certainly intensified Sino-American competition, the expectation that China would become a “responsible stakeholder” in a U.S.-led global order was never realistic.

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/735314
Kleptocracy in America
Why the Robert Mueller Fandom Misses the Point

Liberal hero worship misses that it is not just bad people, but a bad system that is breeding collusion between American elites and the world’s kleptocrats.

Greed, Pieter Brugel the Elder (Public domain, via WikiArt)
A Conversation with Louise Shelley
Shining a Light on “Dark Commerce”

A leading expert on transnational crime and corruption discusses how illicit trade, money laundering, and the dark web are undermining our democracy.

Against Chicken Little
Is It Really RIP for the LIO?

Lamenting the “collapse” or “end” of the Liberal International Order has grown into a cottage industry of pundits and professors. But is the LIO really dying?

(Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)
Character Conundrum
In Israel, the Return of the Strong, Silent Type

Benny Gantz, who finds himself within striking distance of Benjamin Netanyahu, represents the return of something Israel has not seen in quite some time: the silent general.

No Reset
The Unquiet American

Michael McFaul’s memoir throws into sharp relief the failures of America’s Russia policy.

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