David Ignatius's Blog, page 95

Trump firing the special counsel would be disastrous

The president should ignore his friends and leave Robert Mueller in place.

In James Comey’s testimony, there are no happy endings

It was a haunting conflict between a moralist and a dealmaker.

Putin’s campaign of personal revenge against the United States

He will always be, at core, an intelligence officer.

Are we ‘present at the destruction’?

Trump is a bulldozer, but he’s unintentionally reawakening the sense of interdependence that built the “liberal international order.”

Megyn Kelly saw an aggressive, sarcastic and peeved Vladimir Putin. That behavior could hurt him.

After today, Trump and Putin probably share a wariness of being questioned by Kelly.

What does Russia think about all this? ‘Washington has gone crazy.’

The Kremlin sees vulnerability in a new world order.

Zbigniew Brzezinski was an intrepid advocate of the ‘liberal international order’

And he was deeply troubled in his final months that this order had been undermined by the rise of the inexperienced President Trump.

‘Back channels’ are protocol for a president — but not for a president-elect

What's not okay is when an incoming administration seeks to undermine the policies of the incumbent.

How the world can prepare for the ‘day after’ the Islamic State

Policymakers should avoid a continuation of the sectarian catastrophe that has befallen Iraq and Syria.

The trust underlying the American-British spy partnership is fraying

Leaks about the Manchester bombing are only the latest in a string of American indiscretions that have infuriated British spymasters.