When I used to read about the 1930s - the Italian invasion of Abyssinia; the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain and Germany; the appeasement in France and Britain; the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union; and the racist Japanese murdering in China - I never could quite figure out why, during those bleak years, western Europeans and those in the United States did not speak out and condemn the growing madness, if only to defend the millennia-long promise of Western liberalism…

When I used to read about the 1930s — the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the appeasement in France and Britain, the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union, and the racist Japanese murdering in China — I never could quite figure out why, during those bleak years, Western Europeans and those in the United States did not speak out and condemn the growing madness, if only to defend the millennia-long promise of Western liberalism…

During the Brezhnev years, U.S. scholars often relied on Soviet official information without thinking or wanting to think about its true value…

There is as much relief from realists as there is disappointment from neo-Wilsonians over a perceived change in U.S. foreign policy — what Time magazine clumsily dubbed “The End of Cowboy Diplomacy…