‘New Cold Wars’: David Sanger Examines U.S. Conflicts With China and Russia

PBS News Hour: "In 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, and with it the Cold War. At the same time, China was amid its rapid expansion. Now, Russia is again a principal adversary and China is a much stronger competitor. Nick Schifrin discussed the challenge presented by both nations with David Sanger, author of …

Sweden Joins NATO, Prepares for War With Russia

Formerly neutral Finland joined NATO in 2023, and formerly neutral Sweden joined in March 2024. “Anything can happen. New NATO member Sweden prepares for war with Russia.” — France 24 English. By preparing for war, once passivist Sweden preserves the peace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JUGnCWVVaA I offer more context to this in my Substack e-newsletter. Click.

NATO’s 75th Anniversary: It Has Helped Stabilize Europe. Clifton Truman Daniel Recalls His Grandfather’s Momentous Act

If NATO existed in 1914 and 1939, European nations, Britain, and the U.S. abided by a collective security treaty -- that an attack on one of them would be treated as an attack on them all -- World War I and World War II would have been prevented, President Harry Truman contended. Indeed, since NATO …

Henry Luce’s American Century Has Ended. Or Has It?

Henry Luce (1898-1967) was an American media and magazine magnate who in 1941 formulated a vision of an American Century of world dominance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u49E06KGv2g He founded Time, a weekly news magazine in 1923; founded Fortune, a global business magazine in 1929; acquired and transformed Life into a picture magazine in 1936, and launched Sports Illustrated …

Applying the Philosophy of Roman Historian Boethius to Contemporary Times

Reflecting on the beliefs of the Roman historian Boethius in a wheel of fate and fortune and applying it to 20th and 21st-century history, my friend Bruce Johnson wrote in an email: Britain in the 1950s and 1960s felt angst over the loss of its once dominant World Power position. France felt a similar pain over …

Roman Historian Boethius Explained the Fate of Nations and Empires

The Roman senator, consul, and historian Boethius (c. 480–524 AD) explained the fate of nations, empires, and societies more than a millennium and a half ago in his immortal treatise On the Consolidation of Philosophy. My friend Bruce Johnson explained in an email: The ups and downs of secular cultures are controlled by "the wheel of …

75 Years After the UN Declaration on Human Rights, The World Is Disappointed

Inspiring statement of ideals and principles or a miserable failure? On December 10, 1948, led by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the United Nations General Assembly passed an International Declaration of Human Rights, designed to protect every human on the planet from genocides and the kinds of egregious violations that occurred during WWII, which was …

A Giant of Statecraft and Diplomacy: Assessing the Career of Henry Kissinger

It is impossible to understand American foreign policy in the latter half of the 20th century and early 21st century without examining the life of Henry Kissinger. He is called a grand strategist, a realist, a pragmatist, who dealt with the world as it is, not as he wished it to be. He focused on …

Henry Kissinger, Consumate Diplomatic Powerhouse, Has Died

Born in May, 1923 in Furth, Bavaria, Germany, Henry Kissinger was a Jewish refugee to the U.S. in 1938. He excelled academically and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1950, went on to immediately earn a masters and doctorate from Harvard, become a political scientist, geopolitical consultant, national security advisor and U.S. Secretary of …

Harrowing Story, Long Journey Home

As a follow-up to my story of an American acquaintance, Emad Shargi, who was freed from Iran after five-and-a-half years as a hostage, and the incredibly strong PR-media advocacy of his family to push the Biden Administration for his release -- on Substack, I posted a post-release profile of Shargi and his family from "60 …