Person

George Frost Kennan

U.S. Ambassador to Soviet Union, architect of Containment

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George Kennan sitting at his desk.

George Kennan, Loser

The American foreign policy sage was driven as much by pessimism about the US as antipathy to the Soviet Union.
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Kennan’s Warning on Ukraine

Ambition, insecurity, and the perils of independence.
George Kennan.

George Kennan’s False Moves

The great grand strategist of the Cold War believed he failed in his most important task.
Collage of George Kennan and the Pentagon.

The Ghosts of Kennan

Lessons from the start of the Cold War.

The Last American Aristocrat

George Kennan made hierarchy seem seductive.
Black and White photograph of George F. Kennan sitting at a microphone.

U.S. Foreign Policy in the Cold War was Designed by a Bigot

George Kennan's diaries reveal just how much he hated America.
Miles Davis, Howard McGhee, and unknown pianist. NYC, September 1947.

Michael Kramer on Menand’s "The Free World" and Dinerstein’s "The Origins of Cool in Postwar America"

Two differing explorations of post-WWII culture, politics, and ideals.
President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at the Group of 20 summit.
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Diplomacy Defused Cold War Crises. It Can Help Again Today.

The type of quiet, personal, informed diplomacy advocated by George Kennan can reduce tensions with China and Russia.
Vladimir Putin sitting with three Russian military officials.

Ignored Warnings: How NATO Expansion Led to the Current Ukraine Tragedy

NATO expansion - the trigger for Russia's attack on Ukraine?
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America’s Generation Gap on Ukraine

A decade or two ago, opposing NATO expansion to Ukraine was a position espoused by pillars of the American establishment. What happened?
President Harry Truman at a podium, giving a speech at NATO's inception in 1949.

Containment Can Work Against China, Too

There are important differences between Xi Jinping’s China and the Soviet Union, but the Cold War still offers clear strategic guidance for the U.S.

Banking on the Cold War

The Cold War says more about how U.S. elites imagined their “freedom” than it does about enabling other people to be free.

Geopolitics for the Left

Getting out from under the "liberal international order."
Francis Fukuyama

Francis Fukuyama Postpones the End of History

The political scientist argues that the desire of identity groups for recognition is a key threat to liberalism.

Happy Captive Nations Week!

We're supposed to celebrate one of the weirdest artifacts of the Cold War.
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George Kennan Speaks Out About Iraq

George Kennan discusses the steps that are being taken in regards to the conflict with Iraq and questions President Bush's strategy.
Screenshot of soldiers and an explosion.

Noam Chomsky on How America Sanitizes the Horror of Its Wars

On the origins of America's hegemonic foreign policy.

A People’s Obituary of Henry Kissinger

For decades, Kissinger kept the great wheel of American militarism spinning ever forward.
Illustration of Freud emerging from Woodrow Wilson's head.

Should We Psychoanalyze Our Presidents?

Sigmund Freud once applied his Oedipal theory to the leader of the free world.
American politicians with supporters and German citizens in the background

1989-2001: America’s Long Lost Weekend

From the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11, we had relative peace and prosperity. We squandered it completely.