World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

I have tried very hard to avoid any posts that refer to the controversy over Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, largely because it is viewed by many as a “domestic” political matter in the US.  Moreover, the issue is highly politicized and I have long ago despaired over rational dialogue over the matter.  But the indictments issued today by the US Justice Department have, for the first time, produced credible evidence of official Russian government interference in the US political system.  The indictments identify “twelve Russian military officers” as part of the conspiracy.  The specificity of the charges is radically different from the conclusion of the US intelligence community that the Russians interfered with the US election.

One should think about these charges outside of the abstract mental box we have created for high technology.  Instead, one should think about these twelve Russian military officers and the soldiers under their command entering US territory surreptitiously on the command of the central authority of the Russian government, breaking into several US and state office buildings, and stealing thousands of files from metal filing cabinets, including personal information about 500,000 US citizens sufficient to destroy the economic lives of those citizens with the explicit intent of undermining the political process guaranteed by the US Constitution.  By any traditional measure, such an assault upon the sovereignty of a state would constitute an act of war.  My impression of the reaction of the US government and the American people is that that interpretation is not shared by many in the US.

On Monday the head of state of the US, Donald Trump, will meet with the head of state of the attacker in a meeting with no clear or stated agenda and with no other US officials present to record the conversation or to verify the substance of that conversation.  In my many years of studying world politics, I have never come across anything remotely as incomprehensible as the current situation.  At least Neville Chamberlain gave away other countries, not his own.