‘ … it is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.’ — George Kennan 1947 1950 – 1991: wars in Korean, Indochina, Central America, Afghanistan, across Africa, etc. as well as nuclear terror. ‘… government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.’ —Ronald Reagan 1981 2024 – present: DOGE, etc. ‘… the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilisations. The clash of civilisations will dominate global politics.’ —Samuel Huntington 1993 1998 – present: growing scope and number of tribal & related conflicts, genocides, ‘wars on terror’, etc. ‘I don’t understand why the response to various problematic and likely antisemitic episodes has been so limited.’ —Lawrence Summers 2025 2025: US government threatens to pull $9 billion in federal contracts from Harvard University. ‘Over 1,000 Americans are working today because we’ve stopped a surge in Chinese tyres. But we need to do more. It’s not right when another country lets our movies, music and software be pirated. It’s not fair when foreign manufacturers have a leg-up on ours only because they’re heavily subsidised.’ —Barack Obama 2012 2025: Liberation Day ' Talleyrand is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Talleyrand that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments. © 2025 Talleyrand |