Douthat comments on Max Boot's call for the US to, if necessary, turn Georgia into the next Afghanistan (circa 1984).Now these arguments have a certain surface plausibility, but I would find them much more convincing if Boot were not simultaneously arguing that...
I ended my last post with the words:While I think it is far too soon for those of us reading media accounts to pass judgment, many of these accusations are extremely troubling. The Europeans and the...
Many reports indicate that Russian forces are headed toward Tblisi:A Russian military convoy thrust deep into Georgia on Wednesday and Georgian officials said Russian troops bombed and looted the...
Two good articles on the US role in Georgia. The first, by Helene Cooper and Thom Shanker of the New York Times: "After Mixed U.S. Messages, a War Erupted in Georgia."One month ago, Secretary of...
With the Confrontation in the Caucasus seemingly over, I wanted to try to think through some of the implications for US foreign policy. Although it was a short conflagration, these past 5 days have the feeling of an important turning point. I don’t think that the Confrontation itself has fundamentally altered the nature of International Politics, but rather it seems endemic of a slow shift that had been underway for some time. Though the past order may have eroded gradually, Russia’s stark exploitation of the situation reveals the full extent of the shift.First, US credibility and influence...