Europe these days reminds me of the early weeks of the pandemic: We are living with a sense that the end of the world is just around the corner. But this time, anxiety over Russia’s nuclear weapons has replaced talk of the virus. European media is plastered with grim headlines about energy…

In the final weeks of World War I, a German general sent a telegram to his Austrian allies summarizing the situation. It was, he wrote, “serious, but not catastrophic.” The reply came back: “Here the situation is catastrophic, but not serious.” It’s a joke, of course. But it captures, in a…

I recently found myself in a conversation with a libertarian journalist who was visiting Vienna. “Should we be surprised that Austria decided to lock down the unvaccinated and that the government is pushing for mandatory vaccination?” he bellowed at me. “Was it not the Austrians and the Germans who…