Remembering historic times of magic — in two magical cities.
The 21st Century Cold War
Talk of a new Cold War is becoming ever more pervasive. In its 21st century rendition, it is China, not Russia, that is in the U.S.’s crosshairs.
Putin’s 2020 Russia and Vladimir Voynovich’s “Moscow 2042”
Has Putin’s Russia of 2020 been foreshadowed by Russian novels, in a mixture of wicked satire and genuine tragedy?
Central Europe: Democracy Intact, But Under Pressure

Polarized and despondent, the Czech Republic is not a happy place. Despite rising living standards, Czechs are stuck in a national malaise.
Poland’s Catholic Neo-Communists
PiS aims to create a repressive, homogeneous society not much different from the late unlamented Polish People’s Republic — albeit in the name of Jesus Christ, not Karl Marx.
Thirty Years After the Wall Fell: Part 3 — The Balkans

How the market economy changed lives: East Europeans assess 30 years of freedom.
Freedom Reborn: Witnessing German Reunification

The fall of the Berlin Wall signaled a rebirth of freedom, liberating millions who had been trapped for two generations on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain.
Thirty Years After the Wall Fell: Part 2 — Central Europe

How the market economy changed lives: East Europeans assess 30 years of freedom.
Thirty Years After the Wall Fell: Part 1 — The Baltics and Kaliningrad

How the market economy changed lives: East Europeans assess 30 years of freedom.
Trump’s Stalinist Roots
Making personal loyalty the measure of all government, as Donald Trump does, was tried in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin.