World War Ii | RCP Story Stream

Déjà Vu All Over Again? Appeasement Then And Now June 21, 2024

“Munich” again? Hold the angst. Historical analogies are treacherous because “like” is not “same.” Still, the disastrous appeasement of the Thirties does yield insights into our era. Hitler et al. are safely buried. But today, a new cast of character...

history

Rise and Fall of American Naval Mastery June 10, 2024

Nearly fifty years ago, historian Paul Kennedy wrote a book about the evolution of British naval power titled The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery (1976), which reached back to the Elizabethan age through England’s wars with the Dutch, the stru...

Navy

On D-Day, the U.S. Conquered the British Empire June 06, 2024

For most Americans, D-Day remains the most famous battle of World War II. It was not the end of the war against Nazism....

d-day

D-Day at 80: The Invasion That Changed the Course of WWII June 06, 2024

The legendary amphibious landing of World War II was the result of multiple years of intense planning and argument by the American and British militaries. It changed the course of history forever. ...

d-day

A Lesson From World War II: Appeasement Never Works May 15, 2024

Will today’s Cold War confrontation end auspiciously, the way the first one did, or will it slide through strategic miscalculations on both sides into a third world war? ...

world war ii

The New World (Dis)Order: A Clash of Values May 15, 2024

Since World War II, we have been experiencing significant political, social, and economic changes across the globe. The Zoom in/Zoom out framework explains this phenomenon in 4 steps. ...

Global Power

The Risks of a World War is Increasing April 11, 2024

I’ve been worried about a major war between the U.S. and China since the late 2010s, when tensions started ratcheting up in the South China Sea. I wrote a post for Bloomberg in 2018 saying that the risk of war was being ignored. I felt like I was sho...

world war ii

Kasparov: “Dictators Tell the Truth About What They Plan for the Future” April 10, 2024

Garry Kasparov is famous both for his 20-year reign as the world’s best chess player and for Putin’s recent declaration that he’s a terrorist. However, Kasparov deserves even more recognition for a prediction he made over two decades ago in The Wall ...

The Truth About European Defense Spending March 27, 2024

Much hay has been made about Sweden’s entry into NATO. While it is a good thing that Sweden – which was officially neutral but was essentially acting as a free rider – is finally partaking in the defense of its continent, its arrival highlights a con...

It’s Looking a Lot Like World War II Out There March 27, 2024

Our world resembles the 1930s more than we might think. Now, as then, the balance of power is shifting ominously. Violent autocracies are seeking expansive empires. Ties between authoritarian states are growing stronger; regional conflicts are becomi...

world war ii

Spycraft and Statecraft March 11, 2024

For as long as countries have kept secrets from one another, they have tried to steal them from one another. Espionage has been and will remain an integral part of statecraft, even as its techniques continually evolve. America’s first spies spent the...

Statecraft

Western Analysts Got Wrong About Russia and Its Invasion March 05, 2024

Two years ago, on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he termed a “special military operation” (SVO) against Ukraine. This was the first full-scale invasion of a European country since World War II, though the invasion t...

Russia

Putin’s Warped Idea of Russian History March 01, 2024

February 24 marked two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the start of a bloody war that changed the borders of Europe for the first time since World War II. ...

Russia