Foreign Policy Category Archive

These buttons register your public Agreement, Disagreement, Thanks, LOL, or Troll with the selected comment. They are ONLY available to recent, frequent commenters who have saved their Name+Email using the 'Remember My Information' checkbox, and may also ONLY be used three times during any eight hour period.

Email Comment Ignore Commenter Follow Commenter

How Impeachment Is Escalating the New US-Russian Cold War

Stephen F. Cohen • December 27, 2019

• 1,300 Words • 137 Comments • Reply

Podcast of John Batchelor Show

Better Relations Between the US and Russia Are Not In the Cards

Paul Craig Roberts • October 23, 2019

• 1,100 Words

By now Russians must wonder if the better relations they desire with the US are ever to be. US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Democrat from Hawaii is the latest peacemaker to be declared “a Russian asset” by Hillary, the DNC, and the presstitutes. The way the Democrats, the presstitutes, and their Puppet Master—the military/security complex—have it... Read More

Will the Mueller Report Make the New Cold War Even Worse?

How the long-anticipated report addresses—or ignores—Russiagate allegations will be vital for US-Russian relations

Stephen F. Cohen • April 17, 2019

• 1,100 Words • Leave a Comment

Amajor theme of my recently published book War with Russia? is twofold: The United States is in a new Cold War with Russia, but one more dangerous, more fraught with possibilities of actual war, than was the 40-year Cold War the world survived. I began arguing the first proposition nearly 20 years ago, long before... Read More

The Cold War Ides of March

US Cold Warriors escalate toward actual war with Russia

Stephen F. Cohen • March 20, 2019

• 1,500 Words • Leave a Comment

Heedless of the consequences, or perhaps welcoming them, America’s Cold Warriors and their media platforms have recently escalated their rhetoric against Russia, especially in March. Anyone who has lived through or studied the preceding 40-year Cold War will recognize the ominous echoes of its most dangerous periods, when actual war was on the horizon or... Read More

New Cold War Dangers

The Russian-Ukrainian military conflict in the Kerch Strait illustrates again how this Cold War is more dangerous that...

Stephen F. Cohen • December 5, 2018

• 700 Words • Leave a Comment

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of politics and Russian studies at Princeton and NYU, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fifth year, are at TheNation.com.) A major theme of Cohen’s recently published book, War With Russia? From Putin and Ukraine To Trump... Read More

Russian Diplomacy Is Winning the New Cold War

Washington’s attempt to “isolate Putin’s Russia” has failed and had the opposite effect

Stephen F. Cohen • November 21, 2018

• 600 Words • Leave a Comment

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fifth year, are at TheNation.com.) On the fifth anniversary of the onset of the Ukrainian crisis, in November 2013, and of Washington... Read More

Inconvenient Thoughts on Cold War and Other News

Intelligence agencies, Nikki Haley, sanctions, and public opinion

Stephen F. Cohen • October 17, 2018

• 1,200 Words • Leave a Comment

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian Studies and politics at Princeton and NYU, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fifth year, are at TheNation.com). Cohen comments on the following subjects currently in the news: 1. National intelligence agencies have long played... Read More

More Cold War Extremism and Crises

Overshadowed by the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, US-Russian relations grow ever more perilous

Stephen F. Cohen • October 3, 2018

• 1,200 Words • Leave a Comment

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fifth year, are at TheNation.com.) Emphasizing growing Cold War extremism in Washington and war-like crises in US-Russian relations elsewhere, Cohen comments on... Read More

Trump as New Cold War Heretic

The president has broken with the nearly 20-year orthodoxy of blaming Russia alone for today’s post-Soviet confrontations

Stephen F. Cohen • July 18, 2018

• 1,400 Words • Leave a Comment

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (You can find previous installments, now in their fifth year, at TheNation.com.) As has every American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1943, President Trump held a... Read More

Russophobia in the New Cold War

Several factors make this US-Russian Cold War more dangerous than its predecessor—is “Russo-madness” one of them?

Stephen F. Cohen • April 4, 2018

• 900 Words • Leave a Comment

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian Studies and Politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, are at TheNation.com.) Cohen has previously explained why the new Cold War is potentially even more dangerous than was its... Read More

If America ‘Won the Cold War,’ Why Is There Now a ‘Second Cold War with Russia’?

The ongoing role of false narratives and historical fallacies

Stephen F. Cohen • February 14, 2018

• 1,300 Words • Leave a Comment

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian Studies and Politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, are at TheNation.com.) Cohen has been warning about the danger of an American–post–Soviet Cold War for nearly 20 years. During... Read More

Why Russians Think ‘America Is Waging War Against Russia’

Russiagaters allege, with no evidence, that “Russia attacked America” in 2016, but many Russians believe—with...

Stephen F. Cohen • December 20, 2017

• 2,000 Words • Leave a Comment

Professor Emeritus of Politics and Russian Studies (at Princeton and NYU) Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, are at TheNation.com.) Cohen’s subject is both contemporary and historical. The most central, ramifying, and dangerous allegation of Russiagate is... Read More

US Double Standards in the New Cold War

The mainstream American political-media narrative, which powerfully influences the possibility of war or peace with...

Stephen F. Cohen • October 25, 2017

• 1,100 Words • Leave a Comment

Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, are at TheNation.com.) Moscow and Washington have conflicting narratives, expressed in their respective mass media and periodic “diplomacy,” regarding the history, causes, and nature of the new Cold War.... Read More

The New Cold War Is Already More Dangerous Than Was Its Predecessor

Today’s American-Russian confrontation is developing in unprecedented ways—and the US political-media establishment...

Stephen F. Cohen • October 11, 2017

• 1,400 Words • Leave a Comment

Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, are at TheNation.com.) For several years, Cohen has argued that the new Cold War is more dangerous than its 45-year predecessor, which, it is often said, “we barely survived.”... Read More

The Silence of the Doves

Why is there no mainstream opposition to the new Cold War?

Stephen F. Cohen • September 20, 2017

• 1,100 Words • Leave a Comment

Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, are at TheNation.com.) Why, unlike during the preceding 45-year Cold War, is there no significant American mainstream opposition to the new (and more dangerous) one? Cohen poses this question... Read More

Between Cersei and Daenerys

Israel Shamir • August 7, 2017

• 2,600 Words • 61 Comments • Reply

-Will he sign, or won't he? – Moscow's John Bull pub customers tried to second-guess the US President. The pub on the Nikitsky Boulevard in the centre of Moscow is a good watering hole that is frequented by the Foreign Office minor officials and sundry intelligentsia. – He won't sign his own surrender, fervently said... Read More

World War II Memories in Moscow, Another Cold War Inquisition in Washington

On May 9, while Russia was commemorating the 27 million Soviet citizens who died fighting Nazi Germany, the US...

Stephen F. Cohen • May 10, 2017

• 1,000 Words • Leave a Comment

Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, are at TheNation.com.) Cohen emphasizes that while V-E (Victory in Europe) Day—a major American holiday, on May 8, when he was growing up in Kentucky—is no longer observed, Victory... Read More

Cold War 2.0: There Will be No Russophobia Reset

Pepe Escobar • April 27, 2017

• 1,300 Words • Leave a Comment

In the end, there was hardly a reset; rather a sort of tentative pause on Cold War 2.0. Interminable days of sound and fury were trudging along when President Trump finally decided NATO is “no longer obsolete”; still, he wants to “get along” with Russia. Just ahead of meeting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson... Read More

Why the New Cold War Is More Dangerous Than the Preceding One

Questionable but orthodox Cold War narratives make actual war with Russia more likely than during its 40-year predecessor.

Stephen F. Cohen • April 19, 2017

• 1,100 Words • Leave a Comment

Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and radio-show host John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US–Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, can be found here.) Cohen recalls that in 2014, when the Ukrainian crisis erupted, he warned that the new Cold War might be more dangerous than was... Read More

The Death of Russia’s Great Poet-Dissenter and the Lack of His Civic Courage in the US Establishment

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who died last week, challenged Soviet authorities for decades while Americans at far less risk...

Stephen F. Cohen • April 5, 2017

• 700 Words • Leave a Comment

Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and radio host John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US–Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fourth year, may be found here.) Cohen begins by reflecting on the public life of Yevtushenko, whom he knew well for many years—so well that the poet was the... Read More

Is a Trump-Putin Detente Dead?

Pat Buchanan • February 21, 2017

• 900 Words • 53 Comments • Reply

Among the reasons Donald Trump is president is that he read the nation and the world better than his rivals. He saw the surging power of American nationalism at home, and of ethnonationalism in Europe. And he embraced Brexit. While our bipartisan establishment worships diversity, Trump saw Middle America recoiling from the demographic change brought... Read More

Reheating the Cold War

Stephen F. Cohen speaks with David Barsamian about the increasingly dangerous tensions between the US and Russia.

Stephen F. Cohen • January 20, 2017

• 100 Words • Leave a Comment

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, there was a brief opportunity to usher in an era of peace and cooperation between the United States and Russia. Instead, tensions between the two countries have only gotten worse over the intervening years. Listen to Stephen F. Cohen speak with... Read More

Can Trump and Putin Avert Cold War II?

Pat Buchanan • January 3, 2017

• 900 Words • 124 Comments • Reply

In retaliation for the hacking of John Podesta and the DNC, Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats and ordered closure of their country houses on Long Island and Maryland's Eastern shore. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that 35 U.S. diplomats would be expelled. But Vladimir Putin stepped in, declined to retaliate at all, and invited... Read More

Neo-McCarthyism and the New Cold War

The preceding Cold War generated a prolonged slurring and suppression of dissenting American voices, and it may be...

Stephen F. Cohen • December 7, 2016

• 600 Words • Leave a Comment

Will President-Elect Trump End the New Cold War?

Whatever Americans think of the next president’s other policies, exceedingly dangerous US-Russian conflicts have...

Stephen F. Cohen • November 16, 2016

• 1,000 Words • Leave a Comment

Why Hillary Won't Unleash WWIII

Pepe Escobar • October 27, 2016

• 900 Words • Leave a Comment

The record shows Hillary “We Came, We Saw, He Died” Clinton is the ‘Queen of War’. She is fully supported by virtually the whole US establishment; a bipartisan, neocon/neoliberalcon, regime change/”humanitarian” imperialist axis. On the opposite side, for all his personal pathology problems and incoherent twitter-mouth ramblings, Donald Trump seemed to be on the money... Read More

BRICS Continues Its Advance, One Step at a Time

Pepe Escobar • October 18, 2016

• 1,100 Words • Leave a Comment

The narrative concerning BRICS in the Beltway/Wall Street axis predictably spans two vectors; the five-member emerging power group – over 22 percent of global GDP, over 40 percent of global population – is either 'in crisis' or dismissed as irrelevant. This is the Goa Declaration, summarizing the results of the annual BRICS meeting held this... Read More

Bring Back the Cold War

Paul Craig Roberts • September 30, 2016

• 2,800 Words • 47 Comments

Pundits have declared a “New Cold War.” If only! The Cold War was a time when leaders focused on reducing tensions between nuclear powers. What we have today is much more dangerous: Washington’s reckless and irresponsible aggression toward the other major nuclear powers, Russia and China. During my lifetime American presidents worked to defuse tensions... Read More

More Squandered Opportunities to Deal with the New Cold War

The enemies of détente with Russia sabotaged Obama’s proposed alliance with Russia in Syria while the American...

Stephen F. Cohen • September 28, 2016

• 600 Words • Leave a Comment

Will US Hawks Again Thwart Yet Another Chance to Diminish the New Cold War in Syria and Ukraine?

Pro-détente diplomacy is being fiercely opposed by detractors from Washington to Kiev.

Stephen F. Cohen • September 14, 2016

• 600 Words • Leave a Comment

More Lost Opportunities to Diminish the New Cold War

Obama rejects a partnership with Russia against ISIS in Syria and reneges on his own proposals to reduce nuclear dangers...

Stephen F. Cohen • September 7, 2016

• 700 Words • Leave a Comment

More Alarming News from the Fronts of the New Cold War

Finland may become yet another front, the war party may have defeated Obama on Syria policy, and dangerous desperation...

Stephen F. Cohen • August 24, 2016

• 500 Words • Leave a Comment

Trump Wants to Stop the New Cold War, But Most of the American Media Just Doesn’t Understand

We should listen to what Trump says about Russia policy instead of Putin-baiting him.

Stephen F. Cohen • August 2, 2016

• Leave a Comment

Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen tells CNN that Donald Trump is being wrongly linked to Putin and criticized because he’s trying to end the new Cold War.

Neo-McCarthyism and Olympic Politics as More Evidence of a New Cold War

McCarthyism was a characteristic feature of the preceding Cold War, but now it is coming from liberals, even from the...

Stephen F. Cohen • July 27, 2016

• 600 Words • Leave a Comment

US Refusal to Cooperate with Russia Against International Terrorism May be the Worst Casualty of the New Cold War

While NATO continues its provocative buildup on Russia’s borders, Washington continues to reject Moscow’s proposals...

Stephen F. Cohen • June 15, 2016

• 400 Words • Leave a Comment

Beyond Cold War to Mobilization for War Against Russia?

The large-scale US-NATO amassing of military force on Russia’s Western borders, NATO’s “Eastern Front,” is...

Stephen F. Cohen • May 25, 2016

• 500 Words • Leave a Comment

Another Fateful Turning Point in the New Cold War

A struggle is under way over the Syrian cease-fire agreement, while the political crisis in Ukraine deepens.

Stephen F. Cohen • February 24, 2016

• Leave a Comment

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.) Cohen reminds listeners that Ukraine remains the political epicenter of the new Cold War, but Syria is where it may now become a hot war. The Syrian cease-fire agreement—brokered by Secretary... Read More

So Why Is There a «New Cold War»?

Pepe Escobar • February 19, 2016

• 1,000 Words • Leave a Comment

«Sometimes I wonder if it’s 2016 or if we live in 1962». What Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told 60 foreign and defense ministers at the 52nd Munich Security Conference this past Saturday was hardly news. What some of us have been qualifying, for quite a while, as Cold War 2.0, was branded «New Cold... Read More

The New US-Russian Cold War Originated in the 1990s

Today it threatens to destroy Ukraine, undermine the European Union, and result in nuclear war.

Stephen F. Cohen • January 13, 2016

• 300 Words • Leave a Comment

Putin Blues

Israel Shamir • December 23, 2015

• 2,700 Words • 108 Comments • Reply

Heavy darkness befalls the North; the sun rarely emerges from between the clouds. This year, Russia has noticeably less street illumination, and the spirits are anything but festive. Only the whiteness of the snow and Christmas trees break the gloom and remind us of the forthcoming low point of the cosmic wheel, Yuletide, when days... Read More

The Second Cold War

Steffen A. Woll • December 9, 2015

• 4,600 Words • 23 Comments • Reply

In the light of the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, there has been much talk about the clouding of US-Russian relations. Some voices in the Internet’s alternative media sections have conjured the possibility that these conflicts might lead to a new major war, while social networks like Twitter saw the usage of the hashtags #WorldWarIII... Read More

US and NATO Double Down on the Cold War Versus Russia

In the aftermath of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, Washington and Brussels still reject a coalition with Moscow...

Stephen F. Cohen • December 9, 2015

• 200 Words • Leave a Comment

Coalition or Cold War with Russia?

American policy-makers and presidential candidates must now make a fateful decision—join Moscow in an alliance against...

Stephen F. Cohen and Katrina vanden Heuvel • November 30, 2015

• 1,200 Words

The 130 people murdered in Paris on November 13 and the 224 Russians aboard a jetliner on October 31 confront America’s current and would-be policy-makers, Democratic and Republicans alike, with a fateful decision: whether to join Moscow in a military, political, diplomatic, and economic coalition against the Islamic State and other terrorist movements, especially in... Read More

Washington Appears to Reject the Opportunity to End the New Cold War with Russia

The US is rejecting Putin’s proposal to cooperate against the terrorist Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, while...

Stephen F. Cohen • November 11, 2015

• 300 Words • Leave a Comment

Is the New Cold War Trending in Russia’s Favor from Syria to Europe?

And will it leave the United States increasingly isolated?

Stephen F. Cohen • November 4, 2015

• 200 Words • Leave a Comment

The New Cold War Is Now Being Waged on Three Fronts: Ukraine, Europe and Syria

It need not be on any of them.

Stephen F. Cohen • October 7, 2015

• 300 Words • Leave a Comment

Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. Cohen points out that since Presidents Obama and Putin staged a public debate at the UN on September 28, there have been significant developments on all three fronts. Due to the refugee crisis and festering Ukrainian... Read More

The US and Russia Are Fighting a Cold War on Two Fronts

In both Washington and Moscow, opposition to a US-Russian coalition to fight ISIS remains entrenched.

Stephen F. Cohen • October 2, 2015

• 100 Words • Leave a Comment

The United States and Russia are today engaged in a proxy war on two fronts: Ukraine and Syria. On October 1, Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen appeared on The Thom Hartman Program to discuss the obstacles preventing a potential coalition between the US and Russia to fight ISIS. He argues that despite the entrenched... Read More

Why the New US-Russian Cold War May be More Dangerous Than the Last

As the Minsk accord seems to collapse, new military dangers loom.

Stephen F. Cohen • July 2, 2015

• 200 Words • Leave a Comment

Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussion of the worst US/NATO–Russian confrontation in many decades, perhaps since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. In this installment, Cohen argues that since the current crisis began in November 2013, at each turning point Putin has been primarily reacting—wisely or unwisely—to perceived... Read More

The New Cold War Escalates Toward Hot War

The Obama administration decides to “position” heavy military equipment on Russia’s borders.

Stephen F. Cohen • June 25, 2015

• 200 Words • Leave a Comment

Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussion of the new US-Russian Cold War, which this week took a turn for the worse with the announcement that American and NATO offensive weapons will soon be placed in the three Baltic nations on Russia’s borders and in other NATO member countries... Read More

Eurasia As We (And the U.S.) Knew It Is Dead

Pepe Escobar • April 19, 2015

• 1,300 Words • Leave a Comment

Move over, Cold War 2.0. The real story, now and for the foreseeable future, in its myriad declinations, and of course, ruling out too many bumps in the road, is a new, integrated Eurasia forging ahead. China’s immensely ambitious New Silk Road project will keep intersecting with the Russia-led Eurasia Economic Union (EEC). And that... Read More

« Earlier Items

"New Cold War" Items Across Entire Archive

Category Classics

9/11 Was an Israeli Job

How America was neoconned into World War IV

Laurent Guyénot

• 381 Comments • Reply

John McCain and the POW Cover-Up

The “war hero” candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam.

Sydney Schanberg

• 148 Comments • Reply

America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars