![]() ![]() ![]() The road to a Europe whole, free and at peace, in other words, goes through Moscow. For none of the existential problems Europe faces will dissipate until the menace to its East is subdued. If a prosperous and democratic Europe is a core national security interest of the United States, as it has been for the past 80 years, then the Russian regime is one to be resisted, contained and ultimately dethroned. Fomenting European disintegration from within, Russia also threatens Europe from without through its massive military buildup, frequent intimidation of NATO members and efforts to overturn the continent’s security architecture by weakening the transatlantic link with America. But all are exploited by Moscow and exacerbated by its malign influence. Indigenous factors-whether long-extant nationalism, design flaws in the Eurozone lack of a common foreign policy, or incapability at assimilating immigrants – certainly lie at the root of these crises. As Europe’s political stability, social cohesion, economic prosperity and security are more threatened today than at any point since the Cold War, Russia is destabilizing the Continent on every front. They are also all supported-either materially or through other, less tangible instruments-by Russia. While these parties, and the intellectual currents to which they give voice, may not align on everything, they are invariably anti-establishment, opposed to the European Union, and hostile to America. Ideologically indeterminate, it manifests across the Continent in the form of France’s right-wing National Front, the post-communist German Left party and the Italian Five Star Movement, which defies any traditional political label. It’s no exaggeration to say that this meeting between Trump and Merkel could set the tone for the very future of the Western Alliance.įor a specter is haunting Europe-the specter of populist nationalism. She’ll be bringing all the hopes and anxieties of an anxious continent-one whose fears have been stoked by the fervor sweeping from Amsterdam to Rome, Paris to Berlin. Well-connected Russians worked aggressively to recruit or influence people inside the Trump campaign.When Angela Merkel meets with Donald Trump on Friday, she won’t just be representing Germany. Putin, public and private instruments of Russian power moved with daring and skill to harness the currents of American politics. President Trump’s Twitter outbursts that it is all a “hoax” and a “witch hunt,” in the face of a mountain of evidence to the contrary, have taken a toll on public comprehension.But to travel back to 2016 and trace the major plotlines of the Russian attack is to underscore what we now know with certainty: The Russians carried out a landmark intervention that will be examined for decades to come. Mueller III, the special counsel in charge of the investigation, may know or may yet discover is still uncertain. The New York Times has published a long-form dive into what we know and do not know about Russian efforts to subvert the 2016 election, including by using social media.įor many Americans, the Trump-Russia story as it has been voluminously reported over the past two years is a confusing tangle of unfamiliar names and cyberjargon, further obscured by the shout-fest of partisan politics. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |