It’s almost odd now that in the years leading up to February 2022 a lot of people became convinced that modernity was a post-heroic age. Heroes — and less often heroines — belonged to Greek or Norse mythology, or to warrior societies long gone, it was said. But then Russian President Vladimir Putin…

Russians are facing a psychological conundrum all human beings confront every day, but at a far more consequential level. Itis this: How much will they choose to know, or deliberately not know? Their answer may decide the course of history. If the war of aggression by Russian President Vladimir…

Nobody knows how Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine will end, but most scenarios range from bad to worse. To grasp them, start by considering what is indubitably the world’s most notorious rat. That’s the one Russian President Vladimir Putin claims he once — as a boy in what was then…

If you had any sense of history and found yourself near the German Bundestag in Berlin on Sunday, you could have heard the sound of an explosion. It wasn’t a physical one, like the blasts of the bombs Russian President Vladimir Putin is lobbing at the brave people of Ukraine. It was instead the…

Just on Day One of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the European Commission, about 120,000 people fled their homes — becoming “internally displaced,” in the bureaucratic jargon. Roads and highways out of Kyiv and other cities were clogged. Again, that was just the first day. How many…

Russian President Vladimir Putin can escalate his offensive against Ukraine whenever he wants. Even then, however, he’ll almost certainly prefer a pretext for the move. Is he already writing that script? The other day a car blew up in Donetsk, one of the separatist regions in eastern Ukraine…

“There’s no value in digging shallow wells in a hundred places. Decide on one place and dig deep.” This advice comes from the ancient Yoga Sutras as interpreted by Swami Satchidananda, an Indian guru who died in 2002. The trouble is, the insight is only half-true, and therefore in need of an…

The visuals on the split screen this week made a striking contrast. On one side, the leaders of Germany and the US sat in front of the fireplace of the Oval Office, their body language cordial and relaxed, their messages coordinated. Facing the press later, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor,…

Perhaps German policy toward Russia must first descend into farce before it can re-ascend to reason. Let’s start with the farce. Gerhard Schroeder leaps to mind. He’s a former German chancellor and the most recent Social Democrat in that role before the incumbent, Olaf Scholz. In a podcast over…

“In the beginning was the Word.” John was exaggerating in his Gospel — there had been rather a lot going on even before words. But he was on to something. Whenever humanity took a leap, words weren’t far. They first became the Next Big Thing during the Stone Age. Once we started enunciating and…