It was just over four years ago when President Barack Obama mocked Mitt Romney for insisting that Russia was America’s number one geopolitical foe. “The 1980’s called and want their foreign policy back,” Obama said at the time, but since then Russia has proven they are still a force to be reckoned with.
James Kirchick is an American reporter, columnist and foreign correspondent with extensive firsthand reporting from Europe, and he argues in his new book that he believes Russia’s recent rise spells big trouble for Europe. Kirchick’s book, The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age , chronicles how and why Europe is once again facing the demons it thought it had laid to rest. According to Kirchick:
“The old pathologies of anti-Semitism, populist nationalism, and territorial aggression are threatening to tear the European postwar consensus apart. In riveting dispatches from this unfolding tragedy, James Kirchick shows us the shallow disingenuousness of the leaders who pushed for “Brexit;” examines how a vast migrant wave is exacerbating tensions between Europeans and their Muslim minorities; explores the rising anti-Semitism that causes Jewish schools and synagogues in France and Germany to resemble armed bunkers; and describes how Russian imperial ambitions are destabilizing nations from Estonia to Ukraine. With President Trump now threatening to abandon America’s traditional role as upholder of the liberal world order and guarantor of the continent’s security, Europe may be alone in dealing with these unprecedented challenges.”
There were many factors that inspired Kirchick to write the warning, including the aforementioned anti-Semitism, populist nationalism, and territorial aggression, but it was the lackluster response from the west after the Ukraine incident in 2014 that set Kirchick over the edge.
Democrats now (somewhat hypocritically) push “wild conspiracy theories not based on facts” about Russia and their involvement in the 2016 election and the GOP tries to shrug off concerns, Kirchick argues Russia’s rise is definitely problematic. Why would Russia want Trump so badly? According to Kirchick, President Trump has arguably done more to frustrate Putin in 100 days than President Obama did in 8 years. He explains this and much more. Take a listen:
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