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Author

Ira Straus

Chair, Center for War/Peace Studies in New York

Ira Straus was a Fulbright professor of political science at Moscow State University and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations from 2001 to 2002.

Mr. Straus is also the founder and U.S. coordinator of the Committee on Eastern Europe and Russia in NATO (CEERN), an independent NGO. Its members include Atlanticists in the United States and Europe, as well as Russian westernizers.

Since its creation in 1992, CEERN has been working to promote the inclusion of Russia and all new democracies from the post-Soviet space in NATO.

From 1985 to 1991, he served as executive director of the Association to Unite the Democracies, an organization formed in 1939 to promote a political union of the Atlantic countries with a door open to others to join as they democratize and modernize.

Mr. Straus got his B.A. in Russian history at Princeton in 1976 and wrote his dissertation in 1981 at the University of Virginia on Euro-Atlantic institutions and their relevance to the East.

Articles by Ira Straus

Is Russia Fascist?

No previous fascism made it past its youth. This one is a late-stage fascism. It necessarily takes some styles and structures from late-stage Soviet Communism.

July 5, 2022

Donald Trump: King of Global Trade?

With Canada and Mexico in the bag, Europe and the Pacific are the next places for Trump to take his trade show.

October 9, 2018

Remembering the Start of Globalization

The train of globalization left the station when Columbus reached the Americas. It will never go back.

October 8, 2018

Trump and the Minimum Wage: How to Trade with Mexico

The Trump trade deal with Mexico is, in a smaller way for now, another of those rare Nixon in China moments. It has the potential to alter the arc of contemporary history.

September 13, 2018

Is Erdogan a Leninist?

The devious art of categorizing all political enemies as “terrorists”

August 29, 2016

Turkey’s Totalitarian Democracy

Reflections on the emerging totalitarian form of Islamic democracy.

August 28, 2016

Why the United States and the West Can’t Win With Turkey

Examining the perfectly closed loops of circular Islamist thinking.

August 18, 2016

The Optical Illusion of Western Decline (Part II)

Why is the false narrative of Western decline so persistent?

November 8, 2011

Toward a Pacific-Oriented America? (Part I)

Is the United States really shifting from an Atlantic to an Asia-Pacific orientation?

November 7, 2011

Default and the Sectarian Temptation: America’s Achilles’ Heel

How has sectarianism caused the United States to run suicidal risks — repeatedly and unnecessarily?

August 4, 2011

The Sarkozy Moment: The United States and France

Has the G-8 summit given the Bush Administration a unique opportunity to repair its relations with France?

June 8, 2007

Nixon to China, Bush to Kyoto?

Why should George W. Bush ratify the Kyoto Protocol in the wake of hurricane Katrina?

October 21, 2005

U.S. Conservatism and UN Bashing

Why should U.S. conservatives be fighting to strengthen the UN, not bring it down?

August 12, 2005

Ukraine: Russia's Day After

Can the West help Russia adapt to new realities?

January 3, 2005

Putin and the Rising Tide of Paranoia

How can the West help ease Russian fears over Ukraine?

December 17, 2004