The Ukraine Lab: Shock Therapy and Its Discontents 

Noah Schwartz // Instead of promoting post-war economic measures that look to trim away the state, the United States should seek to harness the newly found sense of civic nationalism to promote a post-war Ukrainian state that takes an active role in promoting its own defense industrial policy, expropriating oligarchs, and managing its own economic affairs. 

Russia’s Invasion A Year Later: How Putin Could Have Secured His Strategic Aims at a Smaller Cost

Jacob Bosen // Russia missed an opportunity by not utilizing the same tactics that the Soviet Union frequently deployed during the Cold War known as active measures. Political warfare and protracted conflict should have been Russia’s choice of weapons against the United States and Ukraine, not direct military conflict.

Is Salt Driving Russia’s Conquest of Bakhmut?

Grant W. Turner // In an expansionist empire that operates on corrupt networks of patronage, where internal stability and military power rely increasingly on domestic resources, acquiring a supply of salt closer to Russia’s industrial heart is undeniably in the interests of Putin’s regime and those who keep him in power. 

Zelensky’s Visit, “Kossuth Mania,” and America’s Altered Foreign Policy Debate

Lajos Kossuth on Broadway. New York Public Library Digital Collection. Public domain. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to Congress Wednesday night saw the leader receive a standing ovation roughly once every ninety seconds. The enthusiasm brought to mind a similar episode 171 years ago: a visit by Hungarian revolutionary Lajos Kossuth. Kossuth had led Hungary … Continue reading Zelensky’s Visit, “Kossuth Mania,” and America’s Altered Foreign Policy Debate

The Russian Withdrawal of Kherson: Liberation or Trap?

Grant W. Turner // What explains the Russian evacuation from Kherson? One possibility: Russian soldiers are waiting in Kherson City and elsewhere in the pocket pretending to be the now largely evacuated civilians so that when the Ukrainians approach, there appears to be widespread civilian resistance in favor of Russian annexation.

The United States’ Counter-Productive Foreign Policy in Ukraine

By Johnny B. Davis // The United States needs a strategic reevaluation of its Russia policy. Russia is wrong to engage in war aggression against Ukraine. Still, the United States and Russia’s interests do not conflict. Ukraine is an issue between the European Union and Russia.