Both Russia and the US election have generated reams of silly commentary in recent months, and it’s never been sillier than when the two issues have been combined.
Analysis
PODCAST: The Imperative of De-Demonizing Vladimir Putin (Stephen F. Cohen)
Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com.) Unlike most installments, which cover an array of news stories, this one focuses on a single but encompassing subject: the nearly decade-long demonization of Putin by the US political-media establishment.
Doctors’ Group: Neither Candidate Should Have Finger On Hair-Trigger Nukes (WBUR)
Control of this God-like power will soon be transferred to a new president. But do we really want to trust anyone with this situation? Not just with the power to order a nuclear strike — but the responsibility of deciding whether to do so in just minutes, on the basis of sketchy, preliminary information? There’s been scant comment this political season on why it’s still like this.
PODCAST: In Eastern Europe, saber rattling — or risky escalation? (KCRW, feat. Stephen F. Cohen)
KCRW hosts NYU and Princeton Prof. Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen, the German Marshall Fund’s Derek Chollet, the Atlantic Council’s Elizabeth Braw, and RAND’s David Shlapak to discuss the tensions on in the Baltic region between NATO and Russia.
‘A Dangerous Situation’ As U.S.-Russia Tensions Spill Over To Nuclear Pacts (NPR)
The U.S. and Russia are the world’s two mightiest nuclear powers, and yet over the years, they’ve made deals to reduce their respective arsenals.
The Abnormal Normal of Nuclear Terror (Consortium News)
Almost goofily, behind Official Washington’s latest warmongering “group think,” the U.S. has plunged into a New Cold War against Russia with no debate about the enormous costs and the extraordinary risks of nuclear annihilation, Gray Brechin observes.
What Can Russia’s Admiral Kuznetsov Aircraft Carrier Do in the Mediterranean? (Haaretz)
According to Haaretz, “If tested in a showdown, Putin’s sole old smoky carrier is unlikely to prove as capable – it’s inferior, inexperienced and carries a history of mishaps. For now though, the Kremlin has one clear advantage.”
Does the U.S. government really know who hacked Democrats’ emails? (PBS)
Beyond the government’s headline assertion that Russia is to blame, “it’s important to parse the public statement pretty closely,” said Susan Hennessey, a national security fellow at the Brookings Institution. “They’re being really careful in their word choice.”
The EU’s Amateur dialogue with Russia (Peter S. Rieth)
The European Union parliament often prides itself on being a model for international intergration on a global scale. Yet, the upcomong Boris Nemstov forum, billed as exemplifying EU-Russian dialogue, does not live up to the European parliament’s lofty reputation. Rather than EU-Russia dialogue, the forum is an example of Europeans talking to themselves and failing to engage in real politics. [Read more…] about The EU’s Amateur dialogue with Russia (Peter S. Rieth)
The U.S. Can Learn From Japan’s Efforts To Improve Russian Relations (Robert Shines)
U.S.-Russian hostilities have the potential to impact the U.S.’ re-balance to the region to counter China. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, Japan has renewed its own outreach efforts to Russia. These efforts have lessons for the U.S. with respect to overcoming unproductive rhetoric and soberly recognizing shared security interests in arguably the most important geopolitical region of the future.
Totalitarian tendencies in post-Maidan Ukraine (OpenDemocracy)
In post-Maidan Ukraine, temnyky, arrests and censorship have become commonplace. What’s more, repression against dissidents and even murder have become socially acceptable…To be fair, it should be noted that justifications of violence and murder of “enemies” have not been accepted by society as a whole – only by one segment of social media, the mass media and those who call themselves “Maidan activists”
On GPS: Understanding the new Cold War (feat. Stephen F. Cohen)
Fareed Zakaria digs into heightened tensions between U.S. and Russia with ACEWA Board Member and NYU professor emeritus Stephen Cohen and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius
Germany Warns of the Danger of War (George Friedman)
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Oct. 8 that the situation between the U.S. and Russia today is more dangerous than it was during the Cold War. As he put it, “It’s a fallacy to think that this is like the Cold War. The current times are different and more dangerous.”
Turning a Blind Eye towards Armageddon: US leaders reject the nuclear winter studies (Dr. Steven Starr)
Scientists warn of the existential danger of nuclear war. Ten years ago, the world’s leading climatologists chose to reinvestigate the long-term environmental impacts of nuclear war. The peer-reviewed studies they produced are considered to be the most authoritative type of scientific research, which is subjected to criticism by the international scientific community before its final publication in scholarly journals. No serious errors were found in their studies. [Read more…] about Turning a Blind Eye towards Armageddon: US leaders reject the nuclear winter studies (Dr. Steven Starr)
A normal week in the British press (Paul Robinson)
Probably the most influential weekly political magazines in the United Kingdom are The Economist, The Spectator, and The New Statesman. All have published their latest editions in the last couple of days. Here are the results.
VIDEO: The State of U.S.-Russia Relations (Council on Foreign Relations, feat. Stephen F. Cohen)
ACEWA Board Member and Princeton and NYU Professor Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen, The Brookings Institution’s Fiona Hill and Columbia University Professor Emeritus Robert Legvold discuss the current state of relations between the United States and Russia, including cooperation on strategic initiatives in Syria, tensions surrounding the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the post–Cold War expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and recent allegations of Russian-sponsored cyberattacks.
Washington’s New Lock-Step March of Folly (Robert Parry)
Confident in a Hillary Clinton victory, Washington’s foreign policy elite is readying plans for more warfare in Syria and more confrontations with nuclear-armed Russia, an across-the-spectrum “group think” that risks life on the planet, says Robert Parry.
Compare the coverage of Mosul and East Aleppo and it tells you a lot about the propaganda we consume (Patrick Cockburn)
Destruction in Aleppo by Russian air strikes is compared to the destruction of Grozny in Chechnya sixteen years ago, but, curiously, no analogy is made with Ramadi, a city of 350,000 on the Euphrates in Iraq, that was 80 per cent destroyed by US-led air strikes in 2015.
Russia and the West have ‘entered a new Cold War’ (The Telegraph)
The Telegraph understands the Kremlin has already made a decision to cut off diplomacy at least until after the Nov 8 US elections, in the hope of striking up a more “sincere” relationship with Barack Obama’s successor.
The Slide Toward War With Russia (The Nation)
The Nation has long argued that “no modern precedent exists for the shameful complicity of the American political-media elite” in the rush to a new Cold War. As German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier recently observed, “It is an illusion to believe this is the old Cold War. The new times are different; they are more dangerous.”